Gestures are associated with powerful forms of understanding; however, their causative role in mathematics reasoning is less clear. We inhibit college students' gestures by restraining their hands, and examine the impact on language, recall, intuition, and mathematical justifications of geometric conjectures. We test four mutually exclusive…

Provides a rationale for approaching mathematics as a second language. Gives teaching suggestions: begin in early childhood, stress similarities between math and language, use spoken math before written, use authentic assessment, and focus on real-life math use. (SK)