ABSTRACT
The focus of this research is whether gesture production is related to language status (i.e., monolingual/bilingual) among children. Since bilinguals have greater difficulty accessing words, we predicted that they would use more gestures than monolinguals, particularly gestures that emphasize spoken information. English monolingual, Mandarin-English bilingual, and French-English bilingual children told a story about a cartoon. We found no supporting evidence for the predictions: Bilinguals gestured as frequently as monolinguals and used as many complementary gestures. Instead, we found that the higher the children's verbal working memory, the more complementary gestures they produced.
