Sign iconicity helps learning new words for abstract concepts in a foreign language

Bibliographic Data

ID11655900
AuthorsSara Rodríguez‐Cuadrado (0000-0002-8226-6608, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, corresponding author), Fernando Ojedo (0000-0001-6980-5630, Universidad de Granada), Francisco Vicente-Conesa, Carlos Romero-Rivas (0000-0001-8413-189X, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Miguel Ángel Carlos Sampedro (Universidad Nebrija), Julio Santiago (0000-0002-0346-2740, Universidad de Granada)
Year2022
Volume39
Issue3
Pages873-898
Publication date2022-06-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSecond language Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0267-6583 • E-ISSN: 1477-0326
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/02676583221093841
OpenAlexW4281748802
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited63

Several studies have explored the use of iconic gestures to improve the learning of foreign vocabulary. In this quest, words for abstract concepts have been largely neglected, under the assumption that abstract concepts have poor or non-existent sensory-motor representations. Yet, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory suggests that they are grounded on concrete concepts. Moreover, analyses of signed languages reveal ways in which signs can exploit metonymies and conceptual metaphors to iconically refer to abstract concepts. Here, we explore whether iconic signs from Spanish Sign Language (LSE) can facilitate the learning of foreign words for abstract concepts in hearing participants who do not know any sign language. In two studies, participants were presented with new labels for abstract and concrete concepts in an artificial language (Vimmi). The labels could be accompanied by either a video of an iconic or non-iconic sign taken from the existing vocabulary of LSE, or a static image of the signer. In study 1, participants did not have to enact the signs they were presented with, while in study 2 they did. Both studies showed that iconic signs facilitated the learning of abstract foreign vocabulary, regardless of enactment. The strategies that sign languages use to develop iconic signs for abstract concepts make those signs useful to assist the learning of foreign words by hearing non-signers

Foreign language · Gesture · Iconicity · Linguistics · Sign (mathematics · Sign language · Vocabulary · Computer Science · Hand Gesture Recognition Systems · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology

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