| Despite the fact that current research suggests that bodily comportment can play a major role in communication, the sizeable body of mainstream SLA research continues to pay scarce heed to the nonvocal aspects of language use or acquisition as it tends to use language and speech interchangeably. The general trend, as epitomized by studies conducted within the framework of the communication strategies approach to second language acquisition, has been to investigate how the use of gestures is a sign of linguistic incompetence. This study, not only fills this gap in SLA scholarship, but also argues for the importance of viewing the use of body language as a positive and influential component of communication for all language users. My analysis is based on video recordings of six ESL tutoring sessions involving eight subjects, four American tutors and four Korean tutees.; This dissertation is composed of three core analytical chapters. The first analytical chapter examines the functional uses of gaze and body orientation in the micro-interactional organization of tutorial encounters. The second analytical chapter documents the co-construction of meaning in ESL tutorial interactions by providing a detailed analysis of an extended sequence involving the activity of searching for a word. The final analytical chapter focuses on the functional uses of gestures in the tutors' and learners' talk, while they are engaged in the activity of defining terms. I demonstrate in detail how gestures constitute a legitimate and enduring component of ESL tutorials in general and the activity of spoken definitions in particular, by exploring their functional uses, such as amplifying the meaning of verbal utterances, disambiguating the meaning of lexical items, and displaying alignment through matching gestures.; This study thus contributes to the emergent research area focusing on the dynamic relationship between interactants' vocal and non-vocal actions in ESL instructional settings by showing how these actions work in concert; it contends that participants, tutors and students, combine their bodily comportment and speech artfully and resourcefully to ensure that the business of tutoring is smoothly constructed in a collaborative fashion. |
