Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
21st INGED International ELT Conference -Getting Off the Beaten Path in ELT, Kayseri, Türkiye, 3 - 05 Kasım 2023
With the widespread adoption of technology in education, the prevalence of online learning
platforms has necessitated adaptations in instructional strategies by English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) teachers. While gestures, as a non-verbal communication tool, play a crucial
role in face-to-face language classrooms, their effectiveness in online learning environments
remains relatively unexplored. This research study aims to investigate the employment of
gestural strategies by EFL teachers in online-synchronous classrooms at a preparatory school
at a state university in Türkiye. The data for this study consists of video-recordings of online
lessons, which were analyzed through multimodal Conversation Analysis. The findings reveal
that teachers employ hand gestures to facilitate online classroom interaction. Specifically, the
analysis unveiled that teachers utilized hand gestures to facilitate and orchestrate interactions
within the online classroom setting. This strategy of gesture use promotes embodied
participation, wherein students are encouraged to self-select their turn and provide responses
using gestures alongside their peers. By adapting their turn designs to the limitations of the
online environment, EFL teachers create an inclusive atmosphere that promotes multimodal
responses and maximizes student participation through gestures such as thumbs-up and
thumbs-down. This research study highlights the legitimacy of embodied participation as a valid
form of engagement in online synchronous classrooms. Furthermore, it offers pedagogical
implications for online language teaching environments and provides practical
recommendations to enhance video-mediated interaction for teachers, teacher educators, and
language practitioners.