초록 열기/닫기 버튼
For several decades, L2 researchers have paid little attention to gesture and nonverbal aspects because they have focused primarily on verbal aspects and linguistic competence. Recently, only a few scholars found that there is a close relationship between gestures and L2 proficiency, and hence. it is not clear yet how gestures reveal L2 speakers' mental processes in different proficiency levels. Therefore, in this study, we examined how gestures serve as a window on developmental stages of intermediate and advanced L2 speakers. Thirty-two native speakers of Korean studying in the United States participated in this study, constituting two separate groups:Intermediate speakers of English, who arrived here in their early 20s, and advanced speakers, who arrived as teenagers. The oral English proficiency of individuals was tested and the difference of mean test scores between the two groups was statistically significant. Participants watched the same cartoon movie and later told the story in English to a Korean interlocutor. Participants were videotaped and gestures were coded. We found that intermediate speakers rely more on non-linguistic channels (i.e., gestures) due to lack of L2 linguistic knowledge. Their higher rates of speech-gesture grammatical, temporal, and semantic asynchronicity are similar to early L1 developmental stages of children at which asynchronicity appears.
