gestures May 14, 2004
Posted by Andy Roberts in : movie clips, learning , trackbackFor some people, it is impossible to explain anything without a lot of arm-waving, air slicing and other body gestures. 
Sometimes the gestures are vaguely representative in origin, but mostly they are abstract in meaning and merely emphatic in purpose. People who do this naturally, perhaps through being brought up in a culure where it is normal, may find that other cultures don’t always react in the same way. Occasionally the point will be entirely lost while the audience indulges in cruel mimicry. This can make young storytellers self conscious enough to curtail the use of gestures entirely, which is a shame, because I’m convinced they do add quite a lot to the sucess of communication one way or another.
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Funny how some kids become so inhibited about using gestures. They are a vital part of our Telling into Writing project but by yr5 some children can hardly bring themselves to join in learning the gestures. For others it is only by learning them that they can remember the plot and details of the story.Teachers are sometimes too shy as well and most children are taught the gestures by TAs (who in the main have no such inhibitions!)
Famous trick: ask someone to describe a spiral staircase. They’ll invariably use finger gestures - and most likely find the verbal description to be a lot more difficult.
I wonder if children really are ‘taught’ to use gestures (of the unconscious sort) or they just pick them up. I think they’re found across all languages, but I’m not sure.
The video is fun, but you can tell that it’s staged (unless it’s been set up). Which shows that gestures are a natural part of speech and difficult to mimic overtly.
You still look the same, but now, you wave your arms around…
Indeed, one can see that you’re not saying anything although the gestures are “plausible” ones.
Could you do another video in which you would actually tell a story using gestures, for the sake of comparison?
You’re quite right that it isn’t a genuine storytelling. One of the kids at the cyber centre wanted to point the camera at me and I knew that there would have to be some movement to make it interesting, so the performance is spontaneous, but quite meaningless. The thinking about gestures came from a discussion later.
NIce waving-I have a friend who hails from the Basque Country and he waves his arms around like that all the time-even during dinner with a piece of bread in his hand-I like it!
I wish i was in the Basque country today. I really need to schedule a visit to finish off some music business I started last time. And damn, I missed the Basque cider festival again. Perhaps now I have started a Personal Development Plan i’ll be able to prioritise life a bit better and make time for the things which are important.
Gestures are surprisingly common, though I don’t always want to know the story other drivers are telling me. You can delete this if its too silly, Andy.