Introduction

The introduction sets the stage for the chapters in the volume by providing an outline of existing research on gesture in second language (L2) research, followed by discussions of the concepts of ‘gesture’ and ‘multimodality’. We then discuss the mutual relationship between epistemology and empirical setting in gesture research which is a springboard to our summaries of the chapters in the book, divided as they are into a Part One, whose chapters report on classroom research, a Part Two in which the contributions report on research based on data from non-classroom settings. We conclude by pointing out that good research is not, in the first instance, a matter of the lens through which a researcher sees the world; rather, it is a matter of systematic and coherent theoretical and methodological choices.