ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Multimodality of Communication
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1620465
This article is part of the Research TopicCognition at the Heart of Multimodal Interaction: Insights from Cognitivist and Interactionist ApproachesView all 4 articles
Differential Effects of Hand and Mouth Gesture Training on L2 English Pronunciation: Targeting Suprasegmental and Segmental Features
Provisionally accepted
- Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
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Human communication inherently integrates speech and gesture. Acquiring second language (L2) pronunciation, encompassing both segmental (e.g., vowels) and suprasegmental features (e.g., rhythm, fluency), remains a major challenge. This study investigated how different types of gesture training—manual (hand gesture training) versus articulatory (mouth gesture training)—influence these features in Japanese EFL learners. Forty university students participated in a four-week counterbalanced design, receiving hand gesture training (rhythmic circular motions) and mouth gesture training (bio-visual feedback for /æ/ vs. /ʌ/ distinction). Speech rate (as a suprasegmental proxy) and second formant (F2) values of target vowels (as a segmental proxy) were measured at pre, mid-, and post-training. Results revealed distinct effects: hand gesture training significantly improved speech rate across both groups, enhancing suprasegmental fluency, while mouth gesture training significantly improved F2 distinction for /æ/. These findings suggest that hand and mouth gestures target complementary aspects of L2 pronunciation. Taken together, the results support an embodied, multimodal approach to pronunciation instruction, highlighting the pedagogical value of integrating suprasegmental fluency practice with segmental refinement.
Keywords: oral reading fluency1, vowel contrast2, hand gesture3, mouth gesture4, Multimodal Training5
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yamane, Shinya, Tan and Chiya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Noriko Yamane, yamanen@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Masahiro Shinya, mshinya@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
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