Abstract

This action research project explored the use of gestures for teaching and learning French vocabulary in an upper-beginner adult classroom with 21 students from various language backgrounds. Over the course of four weeks, the teacher developed and used four sets of themed activities using both teacher- and student-generated gestures to introduce new vocabulary to the students, encouraging students to take an active role with respect to creating gestures. Detailed classroom observations and the teacher’s field notes showed that students became comfortable using gestures after the first class and that the gesture activities had positive effects on student participation and the classroom interaction. Weekly quizzes and a final vocabulary test revealed benefits of gesture-based activities for word learning. Students’ comments suggested that they enjoyed the gesture activities and that the gestures helped them remember words better, particularly when the word naturally evoked a gesture or when the gesture contained clues for word length or pronunciation. Several pedagogical considerations guiding the design and implementation of gesture-based vocabulary activities in a second language classroom are discussed.