Teacher Gesture and Lexical Focus on Form in a Foreign Language Classroom

This article explores the use of gesture by a French language teacher during lexical focus on form (FortF). The analysis compares pre-emptive FonF (before a problem in communication has occurred), and reactive ForF (after a problem has occurred) and looks at the differences between teacher-initiated and learner-initiated FonF in the use and type of gesture. Ten hours of classroom interaction in an intermediate, French as a foreign language course were video-recorded. Overall, 110 form-focused episodes (FEEs) were identified, half of them verbs and collocations, in particular accompanied by gestures. Results revealed that the initiator and the type of FonF (reactive vs. pre-emptive) may have influenced the number of gestures and the duration of the FEEs. Indeed, 91.6% of the learner-initiated versus 49% of the teacher-initiated FFEs were accompanied by gestures (iconics were the most used), and pre-emptive learner-initiated FFEs led, on average, to longer and more complex gestural explanations from the teacher.