Mastering a new language can be a challenging task, especially if your goal is to speak without an accent. New research has demonstrated that gesturing while communicating can provide significant assistance. This will allow you to speak as native speakers do.
Agree, memorizing words by heart and repeatedly rewriting the same grammar exercises is quite exhausting! Undoubtedly, such efforts bear fruit, but to enhance the effectiveness of learning, physical activity can be added.
Research has shown that expressive hand gestures can help emphasize the correct parts of words, which in turn makes you sound more like a native speaker.
Gesture and Sound
In some languages, such as English, Italian, and Russian, there is lexical stress, meaning that certain syllables in words are pronounced with noticeably greater force than others.
As part of a new study, researchers from New York University in Shanghai, China, recruited 124 native Chinese speakers aged 18 to 28. The volunteers watched video recordings of people performing “up-down” hand movements synchronized with audio recordings of English words.
All words consisted of three syllables, but their lexical stress varied and fell either on the first, last, or middle syllable.
Participants were divided into four groups, one of which watched videos without gestures. The other groups observed videos where gestures were repeated over each syllable of each word, but only one of these groups saw a clearly defined gesture over the correct stressed syllable.
Before and after watching the videos, participants were asked to press a button when they believed the lexical stress was placed on different words.
Analysis showed that using clear gestures over the correct part of the word helped participants identify the lexical stress 10-15% more accurately compared to those who did not observe specific gestures.
The authors of the study conclude: “Participants learned lexical stress in foreign languages by observing the up-and-down hand movements synchronized with audio recordings of spoken words. Our results highlight the functional role of gestures in enhancing speech acquisition, suggesting practical implications for language teaching.”
