online language teaching: the application of socio-cultural thinking-for-speaking model

Slobin’s (2003) thinking-for-speaking (tfs) model- based on the sociocultural approach to second language acquisition- investigates learners’ ability to develop thinking through meanings available in the l2, with a special focus on the interaction between speech as the verbal carrier of meaning and gesture as the imagistic carriers of meaning. according to mcneill (2005), speech and gesture together form a growth point that makes the process of conceptualization and comprehension much easier. therefore, the gesture of the teacher in the classroom plays an important role in transferring meaning and content. in the academic year 2019/2020, throughout the covid-19 pandemic, online teaching has been adopted in all stages of education. most of the platforms used for this purpose provide students with just the voice of the teacher and the students were deprived of video and gestures of the teacher. this study aimed to investigate the efficiency of online teaching based on the thinking-for-speaking model. to this end, two intact classes were randomly assigned to a control group and an experimental group. one group was taught online without any video and therefore gestures from the teacher, and the other was taught in person. this study used a mixed-method design and both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through results from pre-test and post-test as well as students’ interviews. the result indicated that the teachers’ body language and gestures significantly influenced participants’ scores, and enhanced their comprehension and learning. the findings have implications for teacher training and designing better platforms for online teaching.