Gesture is assumed to be a tool which favors and enhances the language acquisition process. Therefore, the use of gesture is also beneficial in teaching English to young learners in EFL context. This research aimed to know what types of gestures mostly used by a teacher, in what situations the gestures are mostly used, and for what purposes the gestures are mostly used in teaching English to young learners.udThe present research was a case study research, in which a teacher of a primary school in Bandung was determined as the respondent. The instruments for data collection were classroom observations and interview. The data derived were analyzed using McNeill’s (1999) theory for the types of gestures, Bower’s (1980) theory for the situation of using gestures, and Hudson’s (2011) theory for the purposes of using gestures. Some clarifications from interview were also added. udThe results show that the teacher exhibited four types of basic gestures proposed by McNeill (1999) in which deictic gesture was the most commonly used gesture in the classroom. All gestures were used mostly in eliciting situation to initiate the interaction in the classroom. The teacher always tried to explain and clarify the words, terms, and sentences she used during the classroom. This means that gestures were used mostly for lexical explanation purpose.udKeywords: Teaching English, Gestures, EFL context, Young Learners
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