My name is Gale Stam. I am Professor of Psychology at National-Louis University. I
am also an alumna of the McNeill Gesture Lab at the University of Chicago and an invited
researcher at the Laboratoire Parole et Langage (LPL) in Aix-en-Provence and retain close
ties to both labs. My research interests include language and culture, language and
cognition, gesture, and first language and second language acquisition. 

I am particularly interested in thinking for speaking and gesture (the development of
first language thinking for speaking and how thinking for speaking about motion changes
both linguistically and gesturally with second language acquisition), speech and gesture
interlanguage, the effect of gesture in oral proficiency interviews, the function of
gesture in lexical retrieval, and language teachers’ gestures. 

My current research projects are a longitudinal study of L1 thinking for speaking, a
longitudinal study of changes in L2 thinking for speaking, and a study of gestures in
teacher talk with Marion Tellier, Université de Provence – Aix-Marseille I and CNRS
Laboratoire Parole et Langage.

Articles

PDF

Thinking for speaking about motion: L1 and L2 speech and gesture, International Review of Applied Linguistics (2006)
 

Books

Contributions to Books

Gesture studies and second language acquisition: A review (with Steven G. McCafferty), Gesture studies and second language acquisition: A review (2008)
 
What gestures reveal about second language acquisition, Gesture: Second language acquisition and classroom research (2008)
 

PDF

Second language acquisition from a McNeillian perspective, Gesture and the dynamic dimension of language: Essays in honor of David McNeill (2007)
 
Lexical failure and gesture in second language development, Oralité et gestualité: interactions et comportements multimodaux dans la communication (2001)
 

Selected Presentations

L1 thinking for speaking before age 3, 4th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS) (2010)
 
"Gestures of future language teachers" (with Marion Tellier), 4th Conference of the International Society for Gesture Studies (ISGS) (2010)
 

Link

Gestures in Teacher Talk / Les gestes des futurs enseignants de langue (with Marion Tellier), séminaire LPL (2010)
 
Thinking for Speaking, Gesture, and Second Language Acquisition, Laboratoire Parole et Langage (2010)

Languages differ typologically in how semantic domains such as motion, space, and temporality, are indicated...