Teachers and Books That Support Use of Gesture for Vocabulary Learning

• In Event: Examining Vocabulary Learning Through Multimodal, Multilingual, Morphological, and Contextual Approaches

Abstract

Teacher gesturing is an effective strategy for promoting vocabulary learning during book reading in early childhood settings. While studies find significant variation in teachers’ use of gesture, research has not yet explored within and between teacher differences in gesturing, given that most gesture studies capture one teacher observation or use different books across teachers. To address this gap, this study investigated the gestures of nine teachers across 108 observations of the same 12 books to understand factors that explain teachers’ frequency of gesturing. Using multilevel modeling, we found both teacher and book characteristics explained teachers’ frequency of engaging in specific gesturing. These findings have implications for vocabulary professional development and the intentional use of texts to support equitable educational outcomes

Authors

• Sabina R. Neugebauer, Temple University

• Lia E. Sandilos, Lehigh University

• Maria Aguilar Walls, Temple University

• Emmaline Ellis, West Chester University of Pennsylvania