Learners of a second language commonly rely on their first language to break into the novel linguistic system. One would expect that due to the modality differences between speech and sign, learners of a sign language as a second language lack a system that could alleviate some of the burden to learn the target language. However, hearing non-signers have at their disposal a repertoire of gestures which are expressed in the same modality as signs and share the property of iconicity, i.e., the direct relationship between form and meaning. In many instances signs and gestures may overlap in meaning due to their iconic links to the concept they represent. In this talk I will provide empirical evidence suggesting that learners recruit their gestural system at the earliest stages of learning and that iconic gestures may function as ‘manual cognates’ that assist making form-meaning associations with a novel signed lexicon.