GESTURES USED BY THE STUDENTS IN GROUP PRESENTATION ACTIVITY IN SPEAKING CLASS

Abstract

This paper explains about the use of gestures by students in group presentation. This research is descriptive research where the participant is the first year students of English Department of STKIP PGRI West Sumatra in academic year 2015/2016 in A and B class. The sampling technique used purposive sampling. The instrument of this research is observation. The result of this research is students used gestures in group presentation. Gestures are used in many situations such as when the students explain and deliver the information and opinions and also to give the instructions. Types of gesture which are stated by McNeill (1992), they are Iconic, Metaphoric, Deictic, and Beat gesture appear during process of group presentation. Iconic appears 12 times, this gesture has a function to describe the semantic information. Metaphoric appears 15 times, this gesture has a function to represent abstract content. Deictic appears 18 times, this gesture has a function to pointing and give the instructions. Beat appears 10 times, this gesture has a function help to find the words.

Keywords

• gestures, group presentation, speaking class.