Overview of Multimodality and Gesture in Second Language Acquisition

This chapter provides an overview of multimodality, gesture, and second language acquisition (SLA). We explain what gestures are, their structure, their multifunctional and multidimensional aspects, and the various theories on the relationship between speech and gesture and how these all affect one’s research focus and coding. We next describe research that has been conducted on multimodality and gesture in second language acquisition and teaching.