Psychology-Linguistics 520 Language Processing in Bilinguals, Fall 2011

1. Psychology-Linguistics 520Language Processing in Bilinguals, Fall 2011 Handling Discourse: Gestures, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies in Early L2 Marianne Gullberg Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Language Learning 56:1, March 2006, pp. 155-196 presented by Elizabeth First

2. Subject of Research Study • Investigates how L2 learners resolve the on-line challenge of anaphoric linking or reference tracking of NP referents in discourse by examining speech and simultaneous gesture. Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

3. Background Information Gesture • What is it? • Co-expressive: Gesture + Speech • Views Language as Bi-modal Reference Tracking • Managing information about people/objects, time, space, and actions from one utterance to the next Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

4. Reference Tracking • Speech: Over-explicit use of lexical NP (NP lex) in lieu of pronouns (NP pron) or zero anaphora (NP φ) when keeping track of a referent • Gesture: Anaphoric gesture locates referents in space and maintains respective loci • Common for early L1 and L2 learners • Bi-modal: Co-occur and consistent in L1 & L2 Ref: Gullberg (2003) Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

5. L1 v. L2 Reference Tracking “Speech”: New = NP lex, Maintained = NPpron or NPφ [Gesture]: New referent only, not maintained “Speech”: New = NP lex Maintained = NP lex [Gesture]: New & Maintained referent L1 L2 ‘‘[the other two]i are both very angry and Øi run to the third dwarfj and hejsees suddenly a sort of triangle thing’’(p.171) ‘‘[the two dwarfs]i make to the [third dwarf]j [the third dwarf]j looks at [the two]i’’ (p.172) Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

6. Principal Aim of Research Study “whether L2 speakers’ bimodally over-explicit expressions for maintained reference … are part of an interactionally intended communication strategy”(p. 182-3) (i.e. anaphoric gestures performed in conjunction with over-explicit nominal reference in speech) Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

7. Participants & Tasks • 16 Participants: L1 Dutch, L2 French as FL (max. 4 yrs, never lived in Fr-speaking country) • Task: Retell story from 2 cartoons, each told 4x in L1 & L2, +Vis, -Vis to L1 interlocutor (video and audio-taped – gesture unknown empahsis) • Coded: transcribed verbatim, then coded referent as intro./maint./reintro. & referential expression (NPlex, NP pro, NPφ) Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

8. -Visibility (Screen) Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

9. Quantitative Results L2 + Vis v. L2 - Vis • Repeated measures ANOVA for maintained reference with encoding category (NP lex, NP pron, NP φ) and visibility (+ Vis, – Vis) on the mean scores: No change over-explicit NP lex • Paired samples t-test on mean proportion of maintained reference of gestures: No change in anaphoric gesture • ANOVA mean proportion of (NP lex, NP pron) co-occuring with gestures: Insignificant change in co-occurance Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

10. Qualitative Results +Visability Gesture Space -Visability Gesture Space + Vis more differentiated: Use larger gesture space and loci are well defined Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

11. Quantitative Conclusions • Q: Is bi-modal reference tracking an intentional interactional compensatory strategy (CS)? • Visibility did not quantitatively affect speech or gesture suggests: → not interactional →internal processing mechanism ? related to speech planning & cognitive load; where gesture may compensates for linguistic constraints (i.e. shift load to other cognitive systems or external representation) Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

12. Qualitative Conclusions • Q: Is bi-modal reference tracking an intentional interactional compensatory strategy (CS)? • Gesture qualitatively sensitive to visibility: → interactional: speaker is aware of ambiguous speech →interlocutor receives clarification through gesture which allows discourse to continue Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies

13. SLA Implications • Link between grammar development and gestural behavior • Gesture as a functional component of processing speech (v. paralinguistic) • Gesture + Speech = Thought → gesture analysis: window into cognitive process & Interlanguage • Potentially informative from interactional, cognitive, and psycholinguistic perspectives Gesture, Reference Tracking, and Communication Strategies