Susan Goldin-Meadow – författare

Imagine a child who has never seen or heard any language at all. Would such a child be able to invent a language on her own? Despite what one might guess, the children described in this book make it clear that the answer to this question is ''yes''. The children are congenitally deaf and cannot learn the spoken language that surrounds them. In addition, they have not yet been exposed to sign language, either by their hearing parents or their oral schools. Nevertheless, the children use their hands to communicate - they gesture - and those gestures take on many of the forms and functions of language. The properties of language that we find in the deaf children''s gestures are just those properties that do not need to be handed down from generation to generation, but can be reinvented by a child de novo - the resilient properties of language. This book suggests that all children, deaf or hearing, come to language-learning ready to develop precisely these language properties. In this way, studies of gesture creation in deaf children can show us the way that children themselves have a large hand in shaping how language is learned.

Imagine a child who has never seen or heard any language at all. Would such a child be able to invent a language on her own? Despite what one might guess, the children described in this book make it clear that the answer to this question is ''yes''. The children are congenitally deaf and cannot learn the spoken language that surrounds them. In addition, they have not yet been exposed to sign language, either by their hearing parents or their oral schools. Nevertheless, the children use their hands to communicate - they gesture - and those gestures take on many of the forms and functions of language. The properties of language that we find in the deaf children''s gestures are just those properties that do not need to be handed down from generation to generation, but can be reinvented by a child de novo - the resilient properties of language. This book suggests that all children, deaf or hearing, come to language-learning ready to develop precisely these language properties. In this way, studies of gesture creation in deaf children can show us the way that children themselves have a large hand in shaping how language is learned.

Through constant exposure to adult input in interaction, children’s language gradually develops into rich linguistic constructions containing multiple cross-modal elements subtly used together for communicative functions. Sensorimotor schemas provide the "grounding" of language in experience and lead to children’s access to the symbolic function. With the emergence of vocal or signed productions, gestures do not disappear but remain functional and diversify in form and function as children become skilled adult multimodal conversationalists.

This volume examines the role of gesture over the human lifespan in its complex interaction with speech and sign. Gesture is explored in the different stages before, during, and after language has fully developed and a special focus is placed on the role of gesture in language learning and cognitive development. Specific chapters are devoted to the use of gesture in atypical populations.

CONTENTS

Contributors

Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-Meadow1 Introduction to Gesture in Language

Part I: An Emblematic Gesture: Pointing

Kensy Cooperrider and Kate Mesh2 Pointing in Gesture and Sign

Aliyah Morgenstern3 Early Pointing Gestures

Part II: Gesture Before Speech

Meredith L. Rowe, Ran Wei, and Virginia C. Salo4 Early Gesture Predicts Later Language Development

Olga Capirci, Maria Cristina Caselli, and Virginia Volterra5 Interaction Among Modalities and Within Development

Part III: Gesture With Speech During Language Learning

Eve V. Clark and Barbara F. Kelly6 Constructing a System of Communication With Gestures and Words

Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel7 Embodying Language Complexity: Co-Speech Gestures Between Age 3 and 4

Casey Hall, Elizabeth Wakefield, and Susan Goldin-Meadow8 Gesture Can Facilitate Children’s Learning and Generalization of Verbs

Part IV: Gesture After Speech Is Mastered

Jean-Marc Colletta9 On the Codevelopment of Gesture and Monologic Discourse in Children

Susan Wagner Cook10 Understanding How Gestures Are Produced and Perceived

Tilbe Göksun, Demet Özer, and Seda AkbIyık11 Gesture in the Aging Brain

Part V: Gesture With More Than One Language

Elena Nicoladis and Lisa Smithson12 Gesture in Bilingual Language Acquisition

Marianne Gullberg13 Bimodal Convergence: How Languages Interact in Multicompetent Language Users’ Speech and Gestures

Gale Stam and Marion Tellier14 Gesture Helps Second and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-MeadowAfterword: Gesture as Part of Language or Partner to Language Across the Lifespan

IndexAbout the Editors

Through constant exposure to adult input in interaction, children’s language gradually develops into rich linguistic constructions containing multiple cross-modal elements subtly used together for communicative functions. Sensorimotor schemas provide the "grounding" of language in experience and lead to children’s access to the symbolic function. With the emergence of vocal or signed productions, gestures do not disappear but remain functional and diversify in form and function as children become skilled adult multimodal conversationalists.

This volume examines the role of gesture over the human lifespan in its complex interaction with speech and sign. Gesture is explored in the different stages before, during, and after language has fully developed and a special focus is placed on the role of gesture in language learning and cognitive development. Specific chapters are devoted to the use of gesture in atypical populations.

CONTENTS

Contributors

Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-Meadow1 Introduction to Gesture in Language

Part I: An Emblematic Gesture: Pointing

Kensy Cooperrider and Kate Mesh2 Pointing in Gesture and Sign

Aliyah Morgenstern3 Early Pointing Gestures

Part II: Gesture Before Speech

Meredith L. Rowe, Ran Wei, and Virginia C. Salo4 Early Gesture Predicts Later Language Development

Olga Capirci, Maria Cristina Caselli, and Virginia Volterra5 Interaction Among Modalities and Within Development

Part III: Gesture With Speech During Language Learning

Eve V. Clark and Barbara F. Kelly6 Constructing a System of Communication With Gestures and Words

Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel7 Embodying Language Complexity: Co-Speech Gestures Between Age 3 and 4

Casey Hall, Elizabeth Wakefield, and Susan Goldin-Meadow8 Gesture Can Facilitate Children’s Learning and Generalization of Verbs

Part IV: Gesture After Speech Is Mastered

Jean-Marc Colletta9 On the Codevelopment of Gesture and Monologic Discourse in Children

Susan Wagner Cook10 Understanding How Gestures Are Produced and Perceived

Tilbe Göksun, Demet Özer, and Seda AkbIyık11 Gesture in the Aging Brain

Part V: Gesture With More Than One Language

Elena Nicoladis and Lisa Smithson12 Gesture in Bilingual Language Acquisition

Marianne Gullberg13 Bimodal Convergence: How Languages Interact in Multicompetent Language Users’ Speech and Gestures

Gale Stam and Marion Tellier14 Gesture Helps Second and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-MeadowAfterword: Gesture as Part of Language or Partner to Language Across the Lifespan

IndexAbout the Editors