Participation in the EFL Classrooms: Relationships between the Functions of Teacher’s Embodied Actions and Learners' Embodied Reactions

Vygotsky (1978) uses the example of a child's gesture, arguing that finger-pointing presents an interpersonal relationship, and an intrapersonal relationship occur only after an internalization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the discourse and corresponding gestures at a foreign language university general English course using Socio-cultural theory as a theoretical framework. This study used a qualitative research methodology. The instruments used in the current research included: a questionnaire, two video-recordings, student surveys, and a follow-up semi-structured teacher interview. Particularly, the observations were of the teacher in interaction with students concerning the subject matter. The teacher and students teaching was video-recorded for the first five weeks of a sixteen-week course, meeting twice per week for one hour and thirty seconds. The teacher’s gestures were analyzed according to the transcription conventions developed by McNeill (1992). The findings are discussed in relation to the teacher’s embodied practices. The data revealed that the teacher gestured and mimetically illustrated in order to concretize the language. The gestures observed were organized into different linguistic categories of grammar and lexis on the basis of the lessons of the course- book. So, not only the gesture types, but also the functions, are discussed. This organization reinforces the notion that the instructor was trying to concretize the language and codify it.