ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of sociocultural theory-driven investigations of gesture as a mediational tool in the L2 classroom. It first presents the main gesture-related theoretical tenets adopted by SCT studies of gesture and provides a historical overview of gesture studies in education, language learning, and the L2 classroom specifically. The chapter next discusses the core issues that current SCT-driven studies of gesture in the L2 classroom focus on: mediational functions of teacher and student gesture, student imitation and appropriation of teacher gesture, and teacher imitation of student gesture. The chapter also discusses the main research methods employed in SCT studies of gesture in L2 learning, with the focus on qualitative methods, such as microdiscourse analysis. It provides useful advice on specific ways of achieving balance between sufficient detail in gesture descriptions and readability of the transcript. The chapter concludes with future directions in SCT-driven gesture studies in the L2 classroom, including longitudinal investigations and pedagogical applications of gesture as a mediational tool.
