CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication or non-vocal
communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular
messages, either in place of, or in conjunction with, speech. Gestures include
movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from
physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific
messages, such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint
attention. Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and
thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often
together with body language in addition to words when they speak.
Gesture processing takes place in areas of the brain such as Broca's
and Wernicke's areas, which are used by speech and sign language. In fact,
language is thought to have evolved from manual gestures. The theory that
language evolved from manual gestures, termed Gestural Theory, dates back
to the work of 18th-century philosopher and priest Abb de Condillac, and
has been revived by contemporary anthropologist Gordon W. Hewes, in 1973,
as part of a discussion on the origin of language.
Although the study of gesture is still in its infancy, some broad
categories of gestures have been identified by researchers. The most familiar
are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures. These are conventional,
culture-specific gestures that can be used as replacement for words, such as
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the handwave used in the US for "hello" and "goodbye". A single emblematic
gesture can have a very different significance in different cultural contexts,
ranging from complimentary to highly offensive. The page list of gestures
discusses emblematic gestures made with one hand, two hands, hand and
other body parts, and body and facial gestures.
Another broad category of gestures comprises those gestures used
spontaneously when we speak. These gestures are closely coordinated with
speech. The so-called beat gestures are used in conjunction with speech and
keep time with the rhythm of speech to emphasize certain words or phrases.
These types of gestures are integrally connected to speech and thought
processes.
Other spontaneous gestures used during speech production known as
iconic gestures are more full of content, and may echo, or elaborate, the
meaning of the co-occurring speech. They depict aspects of spatial images,
actions, people, or objects. For example, a gesture that depicts the act of
throwing may be synchronous with the utterance, "He threw the ball right into
the window." Such gestures that are used along with speech tend to be
universal. For example, one describing that he/she is feeling cold due to a
lack of proper clothing and/or a cold weather can accompany his/her verbal
description with a visual one. This can be achieved through various gestures
such as by demonstrating a shiver and/or by rubbing the hands together. In
such cases, the language or verbal description of the person does not

necessarily need to be understood as someone could at least take a hint at

what's being communicated through the observation and interpretation of
body language which serves as a gesture equivalent in meaning to what's
being said through communicative speech.
Studies affirm a strong link between gesture typology and language
development. Young children under the age of two seem to rely on pointing
gestures to refer to objects that they do not know the names of. Once the
words are learned, they eschewed those referential (pointing) gestures. One
would think that the use of gesture would decrease as the child develops
spoken language, but results reveal that gesture frequency increased as
speaking frequency increased with age. There is however a change in gesture
typology at different ages, suggesting a connection between gestures and
language development. Children most often use pointing and adults rely more
on iconic and beat gestures. As children begin producing sentence-like
utterances, they also begin producing new kinds of gestures that adults use
when speaking (iconics and beats). Evidence of this systematic organization
of gesture is indicative of its association to language development.

B. Relationship between Gesture and Language

Gesture is a robust feature of communicative development, as all

children use gestural behavior. Speech and gestures are bound to each other in
time, testifying with their synchrony a close link between these two systems.
Systematic interest in communicative gestures performed by infants in
the first stages of language acquisition and development underwent a rapid
expansion in the mid 1970s. In this period gestures were explored primarily
as relevant features of a prelinguistic stage, that is, as behaviours that
preceded and prepared the emergence of language. At that time language was
identified more or less explicitly with speech.
Currently there is a new interest which provides the possibility to
better explore since the beginning the tight link between gestural motoric and
spoken linguistic representation in young children. A clear continuity between
prelinguistic and linguistic form emerged: between actions, gestures and
spoken words. But how children's gestures become organized into the adult
speech-gesture system?
At ISTC the Language and Communication Across Modalities
Laboratory (LaCAM) works to answer this question. These studies strongly
support the view that there is a remarkable continuity between prelinguistic
and linguistic development, and that symbolic skills that are most evident in
vocal linguistic productions are inestricably linked to, and co-evolve with
more general cognitive and representational abilities. Researches showed that
initially gestures have the function to help the child in the construction and

expression of meaning. This happens through the use of different functions:

pointing, conventional-interactive gestures (such as "yes", "no", "good",
"hello"), representational gestures that mimic specific objects, actions or
events. When words start to be emerging and integrate gestural production,
gesture use is specifically linked to language development.
When children start to produce longer strings of words, they also
begin to perform pragmatic gestures that are not a part of the referential
meaning: this signs the evolution of gesture language system in infancy
towards the adult system.
C. Language Acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the
capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use
words and sentences to communicate. Language acquisition is one of the
central topics in cognitive science. Every theory of cognition has tried to
explain it; probably no other topic has aroused such controversy. Possessing a
language is the quintessentially human trait: all normal humans speak, no
nonhuman animal does. Language is the main vehicle by which we know
about other people's thoughts, and the two must be intimately related. Every
time we speak we are revealing something about language, so the facts of
language structure are easy to come by; these data hint at a system of
extraordinary complexity. Nonetheless, learning a first language is something
every child does successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need
for formal lessons. With language so close to the core of what it means to be

human, it is not surprising that children's acquisition of language has received

so much attention. Anyone with strong views about the human mind would
like to show that children's first few steps are steps in the right direction.
There are two categories of language acquisition, namely firstlanguage acquisition and second-language acquisition. First-language
acquisition is a universal process regardless of home language. Babies listen
to the sounds around them, begin to imitate them, and eventually start
producing words. Second-language acquisition assumes knowledge in a first
language and encompasses the process an individual goes through as he or
she learns the elements of a new language, such as vocabulary, phonological
components, grammatical structures, and writing systems.
There are six stages of second language acquisition, suah as:
1. Pre-production
This is also called "the silent period," when the student takes in the new
language but does not speak it. This period often lasts six weeks or longer,
depending on the individual.
2. Early production
The individual begins to speak using short words and sentences, but the
emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will
be many errors in the early production stage.
3. Speech Emergent
Speech becomes more frequent, words and sentences are longer, but the
individual still relies heavily on context clues and familiar topics.
Vocabulary continues to increase and errors begin to decrease, especially
in common or repeated interactions.
4. Beginning Fluency
Speech is fairly fluent in social situations with minimal errors. New
contexts and academic language are challenging and the individual will

struggle to express themselves due to gaps in vocabulary and appropriate

phrases.
5. Intermediate Fluency
Communicating in the second language is fluent, especially in social
language situations. The individual is able to speak almost fluently in new
situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary
knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors,
and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in
the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.
6. Advanced Fluency
The individual communicates fluently in all contexts and can maneuver
successfully in new contexts and when exposed to new academic
information. At this stage, the individual may still have an accent and use
idiomatic expressions incorrectly at times, but the individual is essentially
fluent and comfortable communicating in the second language.
D. Impact of Gesture on Language Acquisition
The impact of gestures on language acquisition is significant, in that
they create a bridge from pre-verbal communication to speech. Gestures are
present early in development, and are used to communicate before a child has
the ability to vocalize. Once the child has the ability to speak, gestures are
used to express thoughts that are not expressed vocally; eventually, gestures
complement vocalized ideas. Being encouraged to use gestures early on
causes a rapid onset of vocal language and a larger vocabulary. Gestures not
only complement language development but also enhance the childs ability
to communicate. Communication usually consists of a blend of verbal and
non-verbal transmission of information. Language development has been

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used to refer exclusively to the development of verbal language. When telling

a story, along with streams of sounds, there is a variety of spontaneous hand
gestures. Gestures allow the speaker to convey a message or thought that is
not easily expressed through verbal language.
The use of gestures paves the way for learning speech. Before a child
can vocalize, they have the ability to understand language and communicate
through deictic and iconic gestures. Early on, children use deictic gestures,
which are seen around ten months old, and consist of pointing to or holding
things up. Iconic gestures are used by children at eleven to twelve months old,
and capture the features of their referents. Iconic gestures convey predicate
information, like punching the air to refer to fighting. According to
Ozcaliskan & Goldin-Meadow (2004), at fourteen months old, children use a
vast majority of gestures that are usually produced along with verbal
communication. At eighteen months, half of an average childs speech is
accompanied by gestures. The ways in which gestures are used are an
indication of the developmental or conceptual ability of children.
Symbolic gesturing yields positive rather than negative effects on
learning to talk. The incompatibility hypothesis, a belief that has been
dominant for decades, states that the different modalities of communication
(gestures, manual signs, speech, etc) are in competition of one another, and
therefore learning one modality will suppress the acquisition of the other
modality. Because of this hypothesis, in the past parents were advised not to
use manual signs, as it would be detrimental to the childs acquisition of
natural speech (Loncke, 2013). On the contrary to this incompatibility

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hypothesis, in the absence of language, encouraging the use of gestures will

not delay the verbal ability of children, rather, the experience of gesturing has
a facilitative effect on early syntactical development. Communication is
multimodal, meaning there is more than one channel used for communication
(gesture, speech, picture, etc), which strengthens the overall communicative
interaction. For example, speaking a word and pointing to a picture reinforce
the communicative meaning and intent of the speaker (Loncke, 2013).
Gesturing facilitates and enriches the relationship between parent and child.
Between nine and eighteen months, the child, lacking full vocal abilities, will
want to communicate with the parent, who must determine what message the
child is trying to convey. It is during this time that gesturing becomes
important. This is supported by the compatibility hypothesis, which condones
the use of multimodal forms of communication, and claims that learning
gestures will not hinder a childs acquisition of normal speech and language.
For example, a mother bathing her eighteen month old daughter might
be unaware that the water is too hot, but the child could indicate this through
a gesture, rather than try to formulate a time-consuming verbal explanation.
In fact, those children whose parents actively promoted the use of gesture
vocabulary developed a broader verbal vocabulary at the onset of verbal
communication than those parents that push their children to communicate
verbally. Gestures are also seen as setting the stage for joint attention, when a
child uses a gesture to refer to or point to something the parent usually gives
the child the name for the object and the conversation is focused on the object
of interest to the child, causing the child to retain the information. According

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to Vgot (2001), nonverbal communication generates a greater amount of

words and promotes fast learning. It is dependent on the parents ability to
understand the gestures and give a positive response to the use of gestures.
Not only do gestures play an important role in the natural
development of spoken language, but they also are a major factor in
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). AAC refers to the
methods, tools, and theories to use non-standard linguistic forms of
communication by and with individuals without or with limited functional
speech (Loncke, 2013) Means used to communicate in AAC can span from
high-tech computer based communication devices, to low-tech means such as
one-message switches, to non-tech means such as picture cards, manual signs,
and gestures (Loncke, 2013). It is only within the last two decades that the
importance of gestures in the cognitive and linguistic development processes
has been examined, and in particular the gestures functionality for
individuals with communication disorders, especially AAC users.
It is important to first realize the difference between manual signs and
gestures. Gestures are distinct from manual signs in that they do not belong to
a real language system (Loncke, 2013), however they are non-linguistic
movements that can assume communicative meaning by a group of people or
a culture. For example, the thumbs up is a widely used gesture that is
understood by Americans to mean good. On the other hand, manual signs
are conventionalizedthey are gestures that have become a lexical element
in a language. A good example of manual signing is American Sign Language
(ASL)--when individuals communicate via ASL, their gestures have

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meanings that are equivalent to lexical elements (e.g., two people

communicating using ASL both understand that tucking your thumb in
between your right finger and pinky finger carries the lexical meaning of the
letter M.).
In order to better understand the linguistic values that gestures hold,
Adam Kendon, a pioneer in gesture research has proposed to look at it as a
continuum from less linguistic to fully linguistic (Loncke, 2013). Using the
continuum, speech declines as the language-like properties of gestural
behaviors increase and idiosyncratic gestures are replaced by socially
regulated signs (Blackstone, 2000).
Gestures of different kinds fall within this continuum and include
spontaneous gesticulations, language-like gestures, pantomime, emblems, and
sign language. Spontaneous gesticulations are not evident without the
presence of speech, assisting in the process of vocalization, whereas
language-like gestures are iconic and metaphoric, but lack consistency and
are context-dependent (Blackstone, 2000). Language-like gesture implies
that the gesture is assuming something linguistic (Loncke, 2013). Pantomime
falls in the middle of the continuum and requires shared conventions. This
kind of gesture helps convey information or describe an event.
Following pantomime are emblems, which have specific meanings to
denote feelings, obscenities, and insults and are not required to be used in
conjunction with speech (Blackstone, 2000). The most linguistic gesture on
Kendons continuum is sign language, where single manual signs have
specific meanings and are combined with other manual signs according to
specific rules (Blackstone, 2000).

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Gestures are noticeably evident in typically developing individuals

prior to the development of speech as well as in conjunction with spoken
language once advanced. In those who are unable to effectively communicate
verbally and rely on AAC, gestural representations play a more important and
dominant role. According to Loncke, AAC just uses a natural phenomena in
an organized and systematic way (2013). Not only has research asserted that
gestures aid in retrieving spoken language, but they are a successful, low-tech
mode of communication without substantial costs. Moreover, they provide the
AAC user with an initial lexicon to communicate his/her basic needs,
thoughts, and emotions to other individuals. In all, gestures are utilized in
diverse manners with AAC users rather than what is often thought of with the
average individual. However, the activation of such gestures allows these
users to reach higher potentials and institute beneficial communication.