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Gesturing enhances speech comprehension
If you need to be understood, let your words and your hands do the talking. Gesturing while speaking helps people to understand your message quickly and clearly. In an international research collaboration, Spencer Kelly (Colgate University, Hamilton, USA), Asli Özyürek (MPI for Psycholinguistics and Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen) and Eric Maris (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour) showed that gesture and speech mutually and obligatorily interact to enhance language comprehension. Their study will appear in the next issue of Psychological Science.
Dec 18, 2009
People of all ages and all cultures use their hands when they speak. Nevertheless, gestures are not typically considered to be an important aspect of communication, and in some cultures and formal contexts (i.e., news broadcast) it might even be impolite (inappropriate) to gesture. However, the research by Kelly, Özyürek and Maris shows that gesturing actually helps speakers to be understood by their listeners more easily and ultimately enhances communication.
More than just speech
The study clearly demonstrated that listeners are faster and more accurate at identifying the meaning of a word when a speaker’s gesture matches the meaning of that word (e.g., word: 'chop' – gesture: 'chop') versus mismatches the meaning (e.g., word: 'chop' – gesture: 'stir'). In fact, the researchers found that gesturing while speaking also enhances comprehension compared to speaking without the hands. These results have implications for everyday communicative situations, such as in educational contexts (both teachers and students), persuasive messages (political speeches, advertisements), and situations of urgency (first aid, cockpit conversations). If speakers need to get their message across in the fastest and most accurate way possible, they need to coordinate what they say with their words with what they do with their hands. These findings support the view that language is more than just speech – language is speech and gesture, which are simply two sides of the same coin.
Gesturing actually helps communication
'People generally believe that gesturing distracts attention in communication, but our study shows exactly the opposite', says Asli Özyürek. 'However, it is important to note that the mismatching gesture still hurts. So if you need to be effectively understood, then you need to gesture, but you also need to coordinate the meaning of what you say and do. These findings not only have implications for language comprehension theories, but also for everyday situations in which we need very quick and efficient communication, like in an emergency room or cockpit where peoples' lives may be at stake.'
