title: Effects of hand gestures on auditory learning of second-language vowel length contrasts.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Research has shown that hand gestures affect comprehension and production of speech at semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels for both native language and second language (L2). This study investigated a relatively less explored question: Do hand gestures influence auditory learning of an L2 at the segmental phonology level?
  
  
  METHODS
  To examine auditory learning of phonemic vowel length contrasts in Japanese, 88 native English-speaking participants took an auditory test before and after one of the following 4 types of training in which they (a) observed an instructor in a video speaking Japanese words while she made syllabic-rhythm hand gesture, (b) produced this gesture with the instructor, (c) observed the instructor speaking those words and her moraic-rhythm hand gesture, or (d) produced the moraic-rhythm gesture with the instructor.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All of the training types yielded similar auditory improvement in identifying vowel length contrast. However, observing the syllabic-rhythm hand gesture yielded the most balanced improvement between word-initial and word-final vowels and between slow and fast speaking rates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The overall effect of hand gesture on learning of segmental phonology is limited. Implications for theories of hand gesture are discussed in terms of the role it plays at different linguistic levels.
authors.forename: Yukari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Spencer D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manansala
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult