Fredy Mendieta
PhD Candidate
Spanish and Portuguese
Title of Dissertation : Meaning in Motion: Co-Speech Gestures as Cognitive Constructions in Spanish Monolinguals
Even though people usually rely on their hands to gesture while communicating in face-to-face interactions, many studies focused on communication only by considering the way they use speech to communicate, and only recently there has been a special interest in the way gestures also help achieve the goal of communication. The project Co-speech gestures across Spanish-speaking communities explores the way people use their hands alongside speech to help listeners decodify messages transmitted to them when communicating. This project explores these uses inSpanish monolingual speakers and extends the analysis of the way different levels of bilinguals use those gestures. This project will give us a better understanding of the way human communication system works in face-to-face interactions. 
