Joint Online Seminar - What do iconic gestures communicate to children?
-
Date
25 Sep 2020
-
Organiser
Department of English
-
Time
17:00 - 18:00
-
Venue
Live webinar
Remarks
The talk will be conducted in English.
Summary
About the Speaker
Professor Sotaro Kita is a Professor of Psychology of Language at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on gestures that are spontaneously produced during speaking and thinking and the development of communicative abilities in children. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Chicago, he worked at the Max Planck Institute where he found and lead the Gesture Project (1993-2003). He has served as the President for the International Society for Gesture Studies (2012-2014) and is currently the main editor for the journal GESTURE (2017-). His previous academic posts include the University of Bristol and the University of Birmingham.
Abstract
When we speak, we often spontaneously produce gestures that depict actions, motion and shape with hand movements. Such depicting gestures are called iconic gestures. In this presentation, I will explore how such gestures work together with speech and covey information to three-to-five year old children. The ability to integrate information from speech and gesture improves in this age range. Iconic gestures facilitate word learning and event memory for children, by directing children’s attention to the important part of a scene. Furthermore, in a verb-learning situation, iconic gestures can not only highlight the action about what a novel verb refers to, but also help children gain the general knowledge that verbs tend to refer to actions. Thus, iconic gestures bring a broad range of beneficial effects to children in communicative and learning situations.
Professor Sotaro Kita is a Professor of Psychology of Language at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on gestures that are spontaneously produced during speaking and thinking and the development of communicative abilities in children. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Chicago, he worked at the Max Planck Institute where he found and lead the Gesture Project (1993-2003). He has served as the President for the International Society for Gesture Studies (2012-2014) and is currently the main editor for the journal GESTURE (2017-). His previous academic posts include the University of Bristol and the University of Birmingham.
Abstract
When we speak, we often spontaneously produce gestures that depict actions, motion and shape with hand movements. Such depicting gestures are called iconic gestures. In this presentation, I will explore how such gestures work together with speech and covey information to three-to-five year old children. The ability to integrate information from speech and gesture improves in this age range. Iconic gestures facilitate word learning and event memory for children, by directing children’s attention to the important part of a scene. Furthermore, in a verb-learning situation, iconic gestures can not only highlight the action about what a novel verb refers to, but also help children gain the general knowledge that verbs tend to refer to actions. Thus, iconic gestures bring a broad range of beneficial effects to children in communicative and learning situations.
