Gesture, Speech, and Graphic Organizers as Semiotic Resources for Summarizing: A Two-Case Analysis of the Genesis of Meaning

By emphasizing the most noticeable part of gestures, the gesture stroke, this study investigated the spontaneous development of sign-systems created by two adult, non-native speakers of English while they summarized academic text for an audience. The focus of the study is on how participants integrated the sign systems of gesture, speech, and graphic organizers to make meaning across very short spans of time. This study illustrated how gesture can be used by classroom teachers and researchers to investigate the mutually affective relationship of oral speech, written language, and graphic displays of language during summarization activity. Moreover, the theoretical approach and methodology can be used to emphasize crucial points in the discourse where one part of the system is emphasized, at times, compensating for another part of the system during the meaning-making process. Findings have implications for a variety of language and literacy learning contexts, particularly for providing an interdisciplinary, practical, and accessible approach for classroom teachers, students, and researchers of language and literacy to investigate functional sign systems that language learners and speakers create to communicate in multilingual settings.