Coordinating Gesture, Word, and Diagram: Explanations for Experts and Novices

abstract: Successful explanations are a symphony of gesture, language, and props. Here, we show how they are orchestrated in an experiment in which students explained complex systems to imagined novices and experts. Visual-spatial communication—diagram and gesture—was key; it represents thought more directly than language. The real or virtual diagrams created from gestures served as the stage for explanations, enriched by language and enlivened by deictic gestures to convey structure and iconic gestures to enact the behavior and functionality of the systems. Explanations to novices packed in more information than explanations to experts, emphasizing the information about action that is difficult for novices, and expressing information in multiple ways, using both virtual models created by gestures and visible ones.This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published as Kang, Seokmin, Tversky, Barbara, & Black, John B. (2015). Coordinating Gesture, Word, and Diagram: Explanations for Experts and Novices. SPATIAL COGNITION AND COMPUTATION, 15(1), 1-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13875868.2014.958837. Copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/doi/abs/10.1080/13875868.2014.958837#.VRM1-PnF-K

How Do Gestures Influence Thinking and Speaking? The Gesture-for-Conceptualization Hypothesis.

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Using the technology enhanced interaction framework for interaction scenarios involving disabled people

This paper focuses on the development of a general interaction framework to help design technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects, particularly in complex situations when disabled people are involved. The main and sub-components of the framework are described. A tool was developed to provide advice on design and development factors for technological support. Work is now in progress to validate the framework and the tool with expert designers and accessibility experts before evaluating it with technology designers

Traces on the Walls and Traces in the Air: Inscriptions and Gestures in Educational Design Team Meetings

Designers from various domains have relied extensively on the use of drawing and sketching to communicate their design ideas. Domains such as architecture and engineering design have well-established and refined visual languages. In these areas significant research is dedicated to the study of drawing and sketching. One design area that is lagging behind others is educational design. Very little is known in this field about how participants in teams use drawing and sketching to support their communication in design meetings. This study draws on an applied ethnomethodological perspective to investigate how participants in educational design meetings interact with each other, and with objects in their environment, while creating and attending to drawings. Two case studies involving four separate groups of designers were analysed. The first case involved the design of an educational blog and the second the design of an educational game. The meetings were conducted in the Design Studio, a purpose-built room for conducting research on educational design at the University of Sydney. The studio features two writable walls, which were widely used by the majority of participants in the study. The participants in this study created various types of inscriptions. Inscriptions are defined here as all types of drawings, sketches, and visual marks created in support of design activity. Inscriptions entail a shift from mental representations to social activity. A face-to-face design session often involves multimodal resources thus requiring the analysis of other modes such as gestures. In this study gestures were often used as an additional communicative channel. They functioned as complementary representational means through which the participants made sense of the inscriptions. Understanding the nuances involved in the way designers interact with inscriptions is a necessary step for building better tools, which may support more effective communication between experienced designers, and help novices as they learn to negotiate the design process. This thesis contributes to our understanding of multi-modal communication in educational design team meetings and has implications for the functioning of next-generation design tools and design environments, as well as for the training of educational designers

A Conversation Analysis of EFL Teachers’ Gesture in Language Elicitation Stage

Using a Conversation Analytic (CA) method, this study explores English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ nonverbal gestures during the elicitation stage: when they elicit new words and language structures from students. In total, three hours of interactions between six EFL teachers and students during the elicitation stage in six classes are recorded and then analyzed. The teachers’ gestures are categorized according to their functions, while the classroom speech exchange, in which the EFL teachers’ gestures are identified, is examined. An analysis reveals that 1) EFL teachers’ gestures serve many pedagogical and interactional functions: managing student behavior, regulating interaction, involving students, explaining language features, evaluating students’ responses, and showing EFL teachers’ expectations for students’ language production; 2) functions of EFL teachers’ gestures sequentially correspond to the students’ responses placed on the immediate preceding turns; and 3) students not only listen to what the EFL teacher says but also interpret and later react, both verbally and nonverbally, to the teachers’ gestures.Utilizando un método de conversación analítica (CA), este estudio explora los gestos no verbales de maestros de inglés como lengua extranjera (ILE) durante la etapa de incentivación de la producción oral, cuando se incentiva el uso de nuevas palabras y estructuras lingüísticas por parte de los estudiantes. En total, se registran y después se analizan tres horas de interacción entre seis profesores y estudiantes de ILE durante su producción oral en seis clases. Los gestos de los docentes se clasifican de acuerdo con sus funciones, mientras que se examina el intercambio de discurso del aula, en el que se identifican los gestos de los profesores. El análisis revela que 1) los gestos de los docentes sirven muchas funciones pedagógicas para la interacción como: manejar el comportamiento de los estudiantes, regular la interacción, involucrar a los estudiantes, explicar las características de la lengua, evaluar las respuestas de los estudiantes, y mostrar las expectativas de los docentes para la producción de la lengua de los estudiantes; 2) las funciones de los gestos de docentes corresponden secuencialmente a las respuestas de los estudiantes colocadas en las intervenciones inmediatamente precedentes; y 3) los estudiantes no sólo escuchan lo que dice el profesor, sino que también interpretan y luego reaccionan, de forma tanto verbal como no verbal, a los gestos de los maestros

Conversation therapy for agrammatism: exploring the therapeutic process of engagement and learning by a person with aphasia.

A recent systematic review of conversation training for communication partners of people with aphasia has shown that it is effective, and improves participation in conversation for people with chronic aphasia. Other research suggests that people with aphasia are better able to learn communication strategies in an environment which closely mirrors that of expected use, and that cognitive flexibility may be a better predictor of response to therapy than severity of language impairment. This study reports results for a single case, one of a case series evaluation of a programme of conversation training for agrammatism that directly involves a person with aphasia (PWA) as well as their communication partner. It explores how a PWA is able to engage with and learn from the therapy, and whether this leads to qualitative change in post-therapy conversation behaviours

‘Has anyone here seen Amos?’ – re-establishing ‘prophetic imagination’ at the centre of religious education and formation

In 1989 Australian author and illustrator Bob Graham published a children’s book entitled Has anyone here seen William? This article seeks to construct a parallel narrative in relation to the category of the prophet, with a particular focus on the need to engage in prophetic imagination within the twin contexts of religious education (hereafter R.E.) and formation. In doing so it also makes reference to one of the archetypical biblical prophets - Amos. The article’s primary interlocutor is scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann (1982, 2002a, 2002b) who has written on topics as diverse as scripture exegesis and the theology of pain and homecoming. He has also written prominently on prophetic imagination, understood as the capacity to stand outside the dominant discourse or power structure of one’s day and critique it. As we will demonstrate throughout the article, Brueggemann’s scholarship in this area is complemented and refined through contact with the African-American philosopher Cornel West’s (1999) approach to prophetic critique, along with other commentators. Held together, both thinkers impel us to consider why teaching ‘about prophets’ needs to be complemented by an explicit cultivation of prophetic imagination, and how this might be seeded in crucial contexts such as religious education and formation. Following a brief introduction (part one) the second part explores the nature of the prophetic challenge. Part three focuses on recovery of the prophetic imagination, while part four examines ways to cultivate the prophetic imagination today. The final section considers conclusions and future directions in relation to topics raised throughout the paper