2013 New York City Science and Engineering Fair Application STUDENT / PROJECT INFORMATION

Project Title: In Whose Hands? Language Acquisition and the Use of Gestures (651)

Student #1 (Team Leader) Information:

OSIS: 269055950 Name: Edward E Mordechay Address: 716 Ocean Parkway 5H City: Brooklyn State: NY Zip:11230

Email: emordechay_intel@yahoo.com Home Phone: (718) 6330305 Birth: 19950619 Ethnicity: 000001 Gender: M Cell: (347) 2947040 Current Grade: 12

School Information:
School Name: Edward R. Murrow High School ETS Code: ______________

School Address:_______________________________________ City:________________ Zip:________ Sponsoring Science/Research Teacher: Miriam Bluestone Email: murrowapeuro@gmail.com

Project Category:
Behavioral &Social Sciences Team Project?: No If this is a Team Project, are you the Team Leader? No

Will you need electricity for your display? No

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2013 New York City Science and Engineering Fair Application RESEARCH PLAN / PROJECT SUMMARY (Part 1 of 4)
The project summary is a succinct detailing of the rationale, research questions, methodology and risks of your research project and should be completed PRIOR to the start of your experimental research. This project summary must specifically address Part 1 clearly and concisely in 500 words or less. For most math, computer science, or engineering projects, the 4 sections of the project summary should be used to explain how you came up with and executed your project. Although your project may not fit each section directly, you must use the spaces provided to give detailed accounts regarding your project so that the NYCSEF SRC committee can adequately review your project for entry into this year's competition. Part 1 of 4: What is the RATIONALE for your project? Please include a brief synopsis of the background research that supports your research problem and explain why this research is important scientifically and, if applicable, explain any potential societal impact of your research. Please include citations in your project rationale. Title: In Whose Hands? Language Acquisition and the Use of Gestures (651) Student's Name(s): Mordechay, Edward School: Edward R. Murrow High School

While it is well known that we use gestures when we speak (McNeill, 1992), we still don't know why we gesture; however, research shows that gestures play a crucial role in communication, comprehension, and development. Many believe that nonverbal communication particularly hand gestures and verbal communication are closely related and are possibly entwined as one system in the brain (McNeill, 1992). Gestures are so embodied in our biology that people gesture while there speaking on the phone and while using a voice recorder (Bavelas et al. 2006). Moreover, people who are blind from birth also gesture and are the same as sighted people (GolinMeadow 1997). Although gestures are known to be integrated from adults, the development of gesticulation is also apparent early in life. In the early stages babies are able to use deictic (pointing) gestures before they can speak, and by the time they are 18 months old they begin to use cospeech gestures simultaneously as they speak (Goldin Meadow 2000). Shortly after, by the time kids are in school, they are able to retain more foreign vocabulary words for a longer period of time if gestures are enacted with the words (Tellier 2009). Other classes are also better taught when gestures are included. Mathematic is greatly improved by gestures (Perry et al. 1992), even if the speech and gesture mismatch just having the hands moving improves comprehension and memory (Singer &GoldinMeadow 2005). In addition, gestures don't just help us remember, but allows for a better flow of communication between two people (Kelly et al. 2009). These studies have shown that gestures are an important part of learning and that without the use of our hands, communication and learning would be very difficult. My study will be conducted to find whether students can acquire a basic vocabulary faster if they are taught with no gestures, with an instructor gesturing, or with the participants selfdevising their own gestures. If I can find significant evidence, my study could add a new insight on how to teach in foreign language classrooms and possibly expand teaching techniques in other classes to help improve comprehension and memory. As the global economy is expanding, and people are traveling to other markets to find work it's essential that they learn new languages in order to adapt and understand their surroundings. My research can open up a new method to learn languages, and can help people retain the language for a longer period of time.

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2013 New York City Science and Engineering Fair Application RESEARCH PLAN / PROJECT SUMMARY (Part 2 of 4)
Part 2 of 4: State your HYPOTHESIS(ES) / RESEARCH QUESTION(S) / ENGINEERING GOAL(S). Describe how your research question(s), hypothesis(es) and/or goal(s) build on the research described in your project rationale.

Title: In Whose Hands? Language Acquisition and the Use of Gestures (651) Student's Name(s): Mordechay, Edward School: Edward R. Murrow High School

1. The group that neither sees nor enacts gestures, when learning foreign language vocabulary, retains less vocabulary than the group that creates its own gestures or the group that mimics the instructor's gestures. 2. The group that creates its own gestures, when learning foreign language vocabulary, retains more vocabulary than either the group that mimics the instructor's gestures or the group that neither sees nor enacts gestures. 3. Within each of the three groups, participants who are part of a screened theater program retain more foreign language vocabulary than participants who are not in the same theater program.

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2013 New York City Science and Engineering Fair Application RESEARCH PLAN / PROJECT SUMMARY (Part 3 of 4)

Title: In Whose Hands? Language Acquisition and the Use of Gestures (651) Student's Name(s): Mordechay, Edward School: Edward R. Murrow High School

Students from Edward R. Murrow High school will be sample for my research. The sample includes adolescents, different racial ethnicities, and both genders. Only students from Edward R. Murrow High School were allowed to take part in the research. The students will take my survey, first test, and second test in class. The first test and survey will be given out right after the students watch a video, which, in all, will take 1015 minutes. The second test will be given a week later, and students will be given a randomized version of the first test only. The survey is a demographics survey. The tests will assess how much foreign language vocabulary words students learned initially, and how much they retained after a week. There are no risks involved in my research. My research may open up a new door in teaching methods, and language learning. All the tests and surveys are anonymous, but students were asked for their birthdays because I needed to correctly align the first test and second test. Students will simply be watching a video and then asked to take a survey, test, and posttest a week later. Students may stop anytime they want, and are not forced to complete any forms. To analyze the information I obtain I will be using a statistics program which, when fully inputted, I will ask a statistician to complete all of the statistical tests, and to explain what each test did. Three videos were created for three different groups for my research. Each video began with a script that introduced the topic. 1. The nogesture groups were presented the nogesture video: In the video I read the words, and then the Volapuk words were projected in the background, which changed every 15 seconds. After every word was projected, I pronounced the word and its translation three times, and then asked the participants to repeat the words three times. 2. The mimic gesture group saw the mimic gesture video: The video follows the same format as video 1; however, along with each pronunciation, I add an iconic gesture for each word; subsequently, the participants were asked to repeat the words and the gestures. 3. The selfdevised gesture group saw the selfdevise gesture video: This video followed the same format as video 1, except participants were asked to create their own gestures for each word and then repeat the selfdevised gestures as they repeated the words. I did not gesture in this video.

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2013 New York City Science and Engineering Fair Application RESEARCH PLAN / PROJECT SUMMARY (Part 4 of 4)
The project summary is a succinct detailing of the rationale, research questions, methodology and risks of your research project and should be completed PRIOR to the start of your experimental research. This project summary must specifically address Part 4 clearly and concisely in 250 words or less. Part 4 of 4: Provide a list of AT LEAST FIVE (5) MAJOR REFERENCES used to form the basis of your research project. References must be from science journal articles, books, or other publications. Encyclopedias and Internet search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, WebMD, Wikipedia, etc.) are not considered as major references and WILL NOT be accepted. Title: In Whose Hands? Language Acquisition and the Use of Gestures (651) Student's Name(s): Mordechay, Edward School: Edward R. Murrow High School

Beattie, G. , &Coughlan, J. (1999). An experimental investigation of the role of iconic gestures in lexical access using the tipofthetongue phenomenon. British Journal of Psychology, 90(1), 3556. Bavelas, J. , Gerwing, J. , Sutton, C. , &Prevost, D. (2008). Gesturing on the telephone: Independent Cook, S. W. , Mitchell, Z. , &GoldinMeadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106(2), 10471058. Cook, S. W. , Yip, T. K. , &GoldinMeadow, S. (2010). Gesturing makes memories that last. Journal of memory and language, 63(4), 465475. Hostetter, A. B. (2011). When do gestures communicate? A metaanalysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 297. Hostetter, A. B. , Bieda, K. , Alibali, M. W. , Nathan, M. J. , &Knuth, E. J. (2006). Don't just tell them, show them! Teachers can intentionally alter their instructional gestures. In Proceedings of The 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 15231528). Iverson, Jana M. , and Susan GoldinMeadow. "The resilience of gesture in talk: Gesture in blind speakers and listeners. " Developmental Science 4. 4 (2001): 416422. Kelly, S. D. , Manning, S. M. , &Rodak, S. (2008). Gesture gives a hand to language and learning: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and education. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(4), 569588. Kelly, S. D. , zyrek, A. , &Maris, E. (2010). Two sides of the same coin: speech and gesture mutually interact to enhance comprehension. Psychological Science, 21(2), 260267. Leonard, T. , &Cummins, F. (2010). The temporal relation between beat gestures and speech. Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 12951309. Macedonia, M. , Mller, K. , &Friederici, A. D. (2010). The impact of iconic gestures on foreign language word learning and its neural substrate. Human Brain Mapping, 32(6), 982998. Macedonia, Manuela, and Thomas R. Knsche. Body in mind: How gestures empower foreign language learning. Mind, Brain, and Education 5. 4 (2011): 196211. Mayberry, R. I. , Jaques, J. , &DeDe, G. (1998). What stuttering reveals about the development of the gesturespeech relationship. New Directions for Child Development, 79, 7787. McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. University of Chicago Press Paivio, A. (1971). Imagery and verbal processes. Rowe, M. L. , &GoldinMeadow, S. (2008). Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental Science, 12(1), 182187. Sueyoshi, A. , &Hardison, D. M. (2005). The role of gestures and facial cues in second language listening comprehension. Language Learning, 55(4), 661699. Tellier, M. (2007). How do teacher's gestures help young children in second language acquisition? Proceedings of the Meeting of International Society of Gesture Studies, ISGS 2005: Interacting Bodies. Tellier, M. (2008). The effect of gestures on second language memorisation by young children. Gesture, 8(2), 219235.

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2013 New York City Science and Engineering Fair Application OFFICIAL PROJECT ABSTRACT
After finishing research and experimentation, you are required to write a (maximum) 250 word, onepage abstract. Your abstract should include the following: a) purpose of the experiment, b) procedure, c) data, and d) conclusions. It may also include any possible research applications. Only minimal reference to previous work may be included. An abstract must NOT include the following: a) acknowledgments (including naming the research institution and/or mentor with which you were working), or selfpromotions and external endorsements, or b) work or procedures done by the mentor Title: In Whose Hands? Language Acquisition and the Use of Gestures (651) Student's Name(s): Mordechay, Edward School: Edward R. Murrow High School

Research shows that gestures play a crucial role in communication, comprehension, and development. The goal of this study was to see if creating one's own hand gestures helped participants retain more foreign language vocabulary words than did mimicking an instructor's hand gestures. There were 204 participants sampled from Edward R. Murrow High School. Participants were split into three groups: (1) a group that created its own gestures; (2) a group that mimicked an instructors' gestures; and (3) a group that neither saw nor made gestures. Each group watched a video of an instructor presenting 14 words from the constructed language Volapuk. Once the video finished, participants were given a demographics survey and a test of the vocabulary words. A second test one week later assessed how much vocabulary participants remembered. Results showed that participants who mimicked the instructor's gestures learned the most vocabulary initially; however, the group that created its own gestures retained the most vocabulary after a week (p

1. Student(s) independently performed all procedures as outlined in this abstract. Yes No 2. Student(s) worked or used equipment in a site other than school, field or home. Yes No 3. This project is a continuation of previous research. Yes No I/We hereby certify that the above statements are correct and the information provided in the Abstract is the result of one year's research. I/We also attest that the above properly reflects my/our own work.

Finalist or Team Leader Signature

Date

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