Listening with Your Eyes: The Importance of Speech‐Related Gestures in the Language Classroom

This article presents the argument that nonverbal communication (NVC) forms an important part of everyday speech transmission and therefore should occupy a more central position in second and foreign language (L2) teaching than it currently does. The role played by NVC in a three‐turn conversational exchange is examined and the literature supporting the notion that speech‐related gestures (i.e., illustrators) have a definite message‐carrying junction is reviewed. Two illustrative gestures from a television script excerpt are analyzed; it is demonstrated that such gestures may assist in the decoding of speech at the “while‐listening” stage of L2 listening comprehension.