TEACHER’S SPEECH AND GESTURE AS A COMMUNICATIVE AND STRATEGIC TOOL

Abstract

Abstract Educational researchers and the mathematics education community have recently begun to focus on the importance of students engaging in disciplinary conversations. Additionally, researchers’ interest in designing more effective learning opportunities for students whose first national language is not English, have begun to investigate the important differences between conversational English and academic English. However, research has shown that academic English is difficult to master and even native English speakers struggle in conveying mathematical reasoning using the proper registers. A challenge that English Language Learners (ELLs) encounter is learning academic content and language simultaneously. Given the importance of academic English to learning and assessment, we need to better understand how teachers can influence students’ discourse practices in ways that lead students to bridge their existing and often informal mathematical ideas to the formal registers of mathematics. This paper will assert that gesture (combined with speech) was a tool that a bilingual teacher used effectively to convey and discuss algebraic concepts with Hispanic ELL high school students. We argue that gesture is an important visual resource that can play a valuable role for ELLs in creating effective discourse practices and environments.