Speech-gesture relationship across languages and in second language learners: Implications for spatial thinking and speaking.

Abstract

Speakers frequently use hand gestures accompanying their speech while they speak. For example, a speaker can raise her hand in a climbing manner as she says that cat climbed up the tree in her speech. Some of these gestures are called iconic gestures, that is, they resemble the events they represent. This paper investigates the relationship between these iconic gestures and the content of the information speakers express in their speech. The nature of this relationship reveals the relations between speakers' spatial thinking and speaking during the speech production process.