Training non-native aspirated plosives with hand gestures: learners’ gesture performance matters
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of embodied training of pronunciation with visuospatial hand gestures cueing Mandarin aspirated plosives. Sixty-seven Catalan participants learned to pronounce and memorised novel Mandarin words containing non-native aspirated plosives with or without performing hand gestures. They were tested on perception, production, and word-meaning recognition in a pretest, an immediate, and a delayed posttest. Results show that participants who appropriately performed hand gestures gained enhanced voice onset time (VOT) values of the aspirated plosives and yielded a continuous improvement in the overall pronunciation of the target words. Furthermore, gestural training helped maintain word recognition accuracy after three days, while non-gestural training did not. These results suggest that appropriate gesture performance during training is crucial in maintaining the effects of L2 pronunciation training. Overall, the results highlight the relevance of embodied training for L2 pronunciation and the need to assess the learners’ gesture performance during the training.
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There is much research providing empirical support for the role of gestures in L2 learning for aspects such as speech comprehension, word memorization and pronunciation.
“There is much research providing empirical support for the role of gestures in L2 learning for aspects such as speech comprehension [9,10], word memorization [11,12] and pronunciation [13–17].”
From Can grammatical morphemes be taught? Evidence of gestures influencing second language procedural learning in middle childhood (2023) · cites this paper as [14]
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Risko, E. F., & Gilbert, S. J. (2016) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002 · Cited by 1,502 · cited 1× · see citing works
“As people usually shift information to the body or the environment to reduce cognitive load (Risko & Gilbert, 2016), body movements, such as hand gestures, can lighten the cognitive load and save cognitive resources for learners to improve their learning performance.”
BackgroundGesture paves the way for language development
Iverson, J. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01542.x · Cited by 1,086 · see citing works
Paas, F., & Sweller, J. (2012) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10648-011-9179-2 · Cited by 502 · see citing works
Institutional Violence Against Users of the Family Law Courts and the Legal Harassment Scale
Clemente, M., Padilla-Racero, D., Espinosa, P., Reig-Botella, A., & Gandoy-Crego, M. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00001 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
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Janzen Ulbricht, N. (2023) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0280543 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Li, P., Xi, X., Baills, F., & Prieto, P.
- Affiliations
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Peng
- Venue
- Language, Cognition and Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-06-02
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1313-1328
- ISSN
- 2327-3798 (ISSN-L)
- 2327-3801
- OpenAlex
- W3169576103
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 3.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Language Cognition and Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación
- European Regional Development Fund (PGC2018-097007-B-l00)
- Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (2017 SGR_971)
- Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya
- European Social Fund (2020FI_B 00237)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Keywords
- embodied learning, hand gestures, voice onset time, gesture performance, word recognition
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