The effect of learner age on the interpretation of the nonverbal behaviors of teachers and other students in identifying questions in the L2 classroom

Abstract

This study investigated how learners’ ages affect their interpretation of the nonverbal behaviors (NVBs) of teachers and other students in distinguishing between questions and statements in the second language (L2) classroom. After watching 48 short video clips without sound in which three L2 teachers asked a question or made a statement with or without gesture, 36 elementary school pupils and 30 university students judged whether they thought the teachers asked a question or made a statement along with their reasons. The findings show that, regardless of learners’ ages, L2 teacher’s gestures were found to help learners better identify questions. Furthermore, the six major types of NVBs used for judgments most frequently were identical across the two age groups regardless of the accuracy of their judgments. Nevertheless, incorrect judgments were made as often and sometimes even more often than correct judgments by applying the same assumptions. The effect of age was evidenced in that the university students were able to use a larger number of NVBs for correct judgments, and better distinguish questions and statements without linguistic information than the elementary school pupils. The data suggest that it is the learners’ (L2) classroom experience that seems to be playing the major role in yielding this difference. The study indicates that adult L2 learners are better able than children to incorporate and interpret NVBs of teachers as well as other students quantitatively and qualitatively.