ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the multimodal expression of motion events in Grades 4 and 6 isiXhosa-speaking children learning English. We video-taped learners narrating two episodes of the cartoon, Canary Row, in English and isiXhosa to investigate their thinking for speaking (TFS) linguistically and gesturally about Path in their L1 isiXhosa and L2 English. Learners’ TFS patterns are affected by language and age. Both age groups produced more path gestures with verbs in isiXhosa as expected with a verb-framed language. Grade 6 children produced more path gestures with satellites in English than Grade 4 children learning English. IsiXhosa speakers express Path in gesture and speech similarly to speakers of other verb-framed languages and exhibit comparable transitional learning patterns as they acquire English.
