Learner and native speaker perspectives on a culturally-specific Japanese refusal gesture
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Nicholas O Jungheim
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate how learners of Japanese as a second language (n=16) and Japanese native speakers (n=17) interpret a Japanese refusal gesture, the so-called Hand Fan, to observe how these interpretations are accompanied by similar manual gestures, and to see how participants perceive its comprehensibility. Results indicate that learners are significantly poorer than native speakers at interpreting this uniquely Japanese refusal gesture, although there was no significant difference between the two groups in their judgments of the difficulty to interpret the Hand Fan gesture. This suggests that the acquisition of allegedly simple conventional gestures may not be so easy for language learners either for reception or production.
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Some reasons for studying gesture and second language acquisition (Hommage à Adam Kendon)
- Learner and native speaker perspectives on a culturally-specific Japanese refusal gesture
- Thinking for speaking about motion: L1 and L2 speech and gesture
- Gestural introduction of Ground reference in L2 narrative discourse
- Gesture and the materialization of second language prosody
- What do learners make of teachers' gestures in the language classroom?
Articles in the same Issue
- Some reasons for studying gesture and second language acquisition (Hommage à Adam Kendon)
- Learner and native speaker perspectives on a culturally-specific Japanese refusal gesture
- Thinking for speaking about motion: L1 and L2 speech and gesture
- Gestural introduction of Ground reference in L2 narrative discourse
- Gesture and the materialization of second language prosody
- What do learners make of teachers' gestures in the language classroom?
