Predicting individual differences in L2 speakers’ gestures

While it is well known that there is a lot of variability in L2, researchers rarely measure the variability in L1 to predict the variability in L2. In this study we tested two explanations of the rate of gestures used in telling a story in L2: (1) a story-telling style underlying both L1 and L2 and (2) proficiency/fluency in L2. Hindi—English bilingual adults performed a story-telling task in their two languages. There was some support for the second predictor: the participants used more gestures in L2 than L1, consistent with gesturing to aid in accessing language. However, the results were strongly supportive of a story-telling style underlying both languages: the individual differences in gesture rate (along with the story length and the vocabulary variability) were highly correlated across languages but not correlated with L2 proficiency/fluency. These results illustrate the importance of studying L1 variability as an important predictor of L2 gesture use.