The predictive potential of hand gestures during conversation: An investigation of the timing of gestures in relation to speech

In face-to-face conversation, recipients might use the bodily movements of the speaker (e.g. gestures) to facilitate language processing. It has been suggested that one way through which this facilitation may happen is prediction. However, for this to be possible, gestures would need to precede speech, and it is unclear whether this is true during natural conversation. In a corpus of Dutch conversations, we annotated hand gestures that represent semantic information and occurred during questions, and the word(s) which corresponded most closely to the gesturally depicted meaning. Thus, we tested whether representational gestures temporally precede their lexical affiliates. Further, to see whether preceding gestures may indeed facilitate language processing, we asked whether the gesture-speech asynchrony predicts the response time to the question the gesture is part of. Gestures and their strokes (most meaningful movement component) indeed preceded the corresponding lexical information, thus demonstrating their predictive potential. However, while questions with gestures got faster responses than questions without, there was no evidence that questions with larger gesture-speech asynchronies get faster responses. These results suggest that gestures indeed have the potential to facilitate predictive language processing, but further analyses on larger datasets are needed to test for links between asynchrony and processing advantages.

Knowing the Future: Predictive Processing in the ELT Classroom

Recent research in neuroscience has confirmed the brain’s ability to predict linguistic input before it occurs. Predictive language processing (PLP) is linked to language comprehension and production, yet it is rarely discussed within the ELT academic community. This paper is intended to explore that omission in three stages. First, available research is reviewed. Second, the results of a questionnaire regarding English language teachers’ awareness of and attitudes towards PLP are discussed. Finally, a presentation of two techniques designed to train an L2 learner’s predictive abilities is offered as a model for future language teaching. 最近の神経科学の研究により、脳が言語的な入力をあらかじめ予想する能力があることが確認されている。予想言語処理（predictive language processing; PLP）は言語の理解力と発話に関わりがあるが、英語教授法（ELT）の分野のなかでめったに論じられていない。本論文では、この分野を深く三段階にわたって研究する。最初に、これまでの研究を総括する。次に、アンケート調査の結果から、PLPに関して英語教師の認識また態度について考察する。最後に、今後に応用可能な言語教授法のモデルとして、第二言語学習者（L2）の予想力を高めるための二つのトレーニング技術が提示されている。

Predictive language processing revealing usage-based variation

abstractWhile theories on predictive processing posit that predictions are based on one’s prior experiences, experimental work has effectively ignored the fact that people differ from each other in their linguistic experiences and, consequently, in the predictions they generate. We examine usage-based variation by means of three groups of participants (recruiters, job-seekers, and people not (yet) looking for a job), two stimuli sets (word sequences characteristic of either job ads or news reports), and two experiments (a Completion task and a Voice Onset Time task). We show that differences in experiences with a particular register result in different expectations regarding word sequences characteristic of that register, thus pointing to differences in mental representations of language. Subsequently, we investigate to what extent different operationalizations of word predictability are accurate predictors of voice onset times. A measure of a participant’s own expectations proves to be a significant predictor of processing speed over and above word predictability measures based on amalgamated data. These findings point to actual individual differences and highlight the merits of going beyond amalgamated data. We thus demonstrate that is it feasible to empirically assess the variation implied in usage-based theories, and we advocate exploiting this opportunity.

Lexical prediction in language comprehension: a replication study of grammatical gender effects in Dutch

[This is a postprint/accepted version of the manuscript. It is now published: https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2018.1524500 . Please cite the published version.] An important question in predictive language processing is the extent to which prediction effects can reliably be measured on pre-nominal material (e.g., articles before nouns). Here, we present a large sample (N=58) close replication of a study by Otten and van Berkum [2009, Does working memory capacity affect the ability to predict upcoming words in discourse? Brain Research, 1291, 92–101. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.07.042]. They report ERP modulations in relation to the predictability of nouns in sentences, measured on gender-marked Dutch articles. We used nearly identical materials, procedures, and data analysis steps. We fail to replicate the original effect, but do observe a pattern consistent with the original data. Methodological differences between our replication and the original study that could potentially have contribute to the diverging results are discussed. In addition, we discuss the suitability of Dutch gender-marked determiners as a test-case for future studies of pre-activation of lexical items.