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This is a good example of ‘dramatic contrast’, a rhetorical technique in which twocontrasting ideas are juxtaposed for maximum impact. Although the contrast isnot necessarily clear in the language, it is very clear in the gestures. Thus thegestures in this sequence contribute to the overall coherence of the discourseby emphasising the antonymic relationship between the two ideas. They are thusserving an important discourse function.Other ‘signaling’ gestures are used to accompany potentially difficult vocabularyitems, such as ‘underpinning’ in the following example:http://youtu.be/vnzMzZC3AccAlicemotivations…motivations er involvedunderpinning these differentquadrantsRH palm up, claw shape,fingers move in and out twiceThe gesture in this example enhances the dynamic nature of the metaphor as itinvolves movement. ‘Underpinning’ could be read either as a stationary state or asa dynamic process. This particular gesture highlights its dynamic nature.Another signaling gesture involves the removal of a lecturer’s glasses to represent‘looking at’ and the placing of her glasses on the end of her nose to represent‘close detailed work’. The speaker below, Alice, does this a lot when referring toboth literal and metaphorical concepts (here: mentally considering something ismetaphorically construed as physically looking at it). In the following extract, theremoval of her glasses co-occurs with the term ‘looking for jobs’:http://youtu.be/ZO2nd6GmdvMInternational Students | 373