“Because of Her Gesture, It’s Very Easy to Understand”— Learners’ Perceptions of Teachers’ Gestures in the Foreign Language Class

Since Hatch suggested the possibility that learners contribute actively to the construction of classroom discourse, there have been calls in EFL research to re-conceptualize communication practices as co-constructed (Breen 1996), mediated (Donato and McCormick 1994; Lantolf 2001), and situated in their social context (Breen 1985, 2001). However, EFL researchers have been overwhelmingly preoccupied with the verbal aspects of language learning, and little attention has been given to gesture or any other form of nonverbal communication.