Talking to the Beat: Six-Year-Olds' Use of Stroke-Defined Non-Referential Gestures

Autor/inn/en	Mathew, Mili; Yuen, Ivan; Demuth, Katherine
Titel	Talking to the Beat: Six-Year-Olds' Use of Stroke-Defined Non-Referential Gestures
Quelle	In: First Language, 38 (2018) 2, S.111-128 (18 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/0142723717734949
Schlagwörter	Elementary School Students; Nonverbal Communication; Intonation; Phonology; Native Language; Language Rhythm; Story Telling; Discourse Analysis; Oral Language; Language Acquisition; Coding; Video Technology; Foreign Countries; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Non-verbal communication; Nonverbale Kommunikation; Fonologie; Sprachrhythmus; Diskursanalyse; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Codierung; Programmierung; Ausland; Australien
Abstract	Children are known to use different types of referential gestures (e.g., deictic, iconic) from a very young age. In contrast, their use of non-referential gestures is not well established. This study investigated the use of "stroke-defined non-referential" 'beat' gestures in a story-retelling and an exposition task by twelve 6-year-olds, an age at which proficiency in discourse is beginning to develop. The goals of the study were to (1) establish if children this age use "stroke-defined beats," (2) determine whether the two discourse types influence the incidence of stroke-defined beats, and (3) examine the extent to which stroke-defined beats co-occur with lexical words or pitch accents. The results showed that nine of the children produced at least one beat gesture with a well-defined stroke phase, and that the frequency of the stroke-defined beat gesture use did not differ significantly between the two tasks. Stroke-defined beats occurred more often on lexical words than function words, but they did not co-occur more often with a pitch accent, suggesting its "potential" link with pitch accents for emphasis. This study therefore provides support for children's 'prosodic' use of gesture--a function which may become more common as discourse abilities develop. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01