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This paper investigates the potential relationship of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to gesture and second language learning. It is asserted that the ZPD is both a tool and a result, not a tool for result; it is both product and process at the same time. The process of learning a new language/culture in the case of a person who is living in a country where the second language is dominant is at least in part a transformational process. In this process, there is an unavoidable element of play and drama, where the individual struggles to "play" him or herself in the new language and culture. Gestures are an integral part of this inevitable drama and play acting. Gesture is in general highly linguistic in nature, a finding that needs to be considered in conjunction with verbal accounts of language learning. This study documents many cases in which gestures become lexical items repeated by both interactants as the interlocutors scaffold each other in their efforts to co-construct meaning. Clearly gestures are an important means of enhancing communication and facilitating comprehension, and are therefore a necessary part of sound pedagogical practice. (Contains 15 references.) (KFT)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert