Arabic speakers gesture more than English speakers in a storytelling task

Some studies have shown cross-cultural differences in the frequency of representational gesture production. There have been anecdotal reports of Arabic speakers gesturing frequently in order to depict their message. The primary purpose of the present study was to test whether Arabic speakers use more representational gestures than English speakers when telling a story. Secondarily, we tested whether that difference was mediated by story quality. We asked adults who spoke either Egyptian Arabic as a first language and English monolinguals to watch a cartoon and tell the story back. The Arabic speakers gestured significantly more than the English speakers. While story quality approached significance as an independent predictor of gesture production, we found no evidence that it mediated the cross-cultural difference. One interpretation of these results is that there are cultural norms for gesture frequency.