Using Gestures to Teach Verbs

Alexandra Shea06/02/15ENGL 382Quarles

Words in Action• Netherlands

• 49 students

• 18 male 31 female

• Not bilingual

• 24 Verbs

• 3 sets of 8 verbs• Abstract• Locomotion• Manipulation

Different Gestures

Results

• Children with good vocabulary skills had higher learning outcomes in enactment than verbal definition

• Children with poor vocabulary didn’t benefit as well as they thought.

• Children with poor vocabulary couldn’t gesture abstract verbs.

Sources

de Nooijer, J. A., Gog, T. v., Paas, F., & Zwaan, R. A. (2014). Words in action. Gesture, 14(1), 46-69.