Teachers’ gesture use in linguistically diverse classrooms: semantic match and cultural mismatch

Purpose Research supports gesture as a highly effective and widely recommended strategy for multilingual students’ vocabulary. However, not all gestures are equally accessible. This study aims to examine teacher gesture use in linguistically diverse classrooms to better understand how teachers with different linguistic backgrounds from their students use gesture in ways that may facilitate or create unintended barriers to comprehending language and content. Design/methodology/approach This mixed-method study design examined the gesture use of teachers (N = 22) in linguistically diverse classrooms to understand the amount of gesturing and ways in which teachers gestured in classrooms with high populations of multilingual learners of English (MLE). Findings Results show teachers’ frequency of gesture use was not strongly correlated with the number of MLEs. Furthermore, teachers used gestures grounded in students’ everyday experiences, to create spatial designations to support word contrasts and relatedness, and in ways that were rooted in culturally specific narratives that assumed specific knowledge. Originality/value Despite widespread recognition of the value of gesture for MLEs’ learning, the current findings suggest a more complex picture. Without more explicit guidance on how to use gestures in the classroom, its instructional potential will be limited, highlighting the importance of future work on designing and implementing gesture-focused strategies that are reflective and culturally inclusive.