ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how co-speech gesture and other modalities come together to support literacy and communication for second language (L2) learners. Diverging from many linear and transmission pedagogical models, which prescriptively recommended gesture as a simple step to use in “best practice” lists, we argue how multimodal ensembles can be used as contingent-based languaging acts. Using a Vygotskian theoretical lens, we propose that gesture and multimodal ensembles provide teachers and students new and additional (contingent) spaces that can contribute to meaning-making and early forms of development for L2 learners. Data come from an elementary classroom where second-grade English learners engage in read-aloud activities. Findings demonstrate that multimodal ensembles are crucial semiotic affordances for L2 learning when they are used mediationally in ways that support languaging and collaboration that extends dialogue and understanding.
