gesture studies
While Gesture Studies is not a new area of study, it is a new field in linguistics itself and is still not recognized by many linguists and colleges that teach linguistics. However, contested or not, gestures are extremely important when we are speaking and body language is a huge part of our communication skills.
When making an argument for Gestures being a part of linguistics and a part of language itself, one of my professors asked us "how do you understand what 'yea big' means when you don't use the gesture?" Gesture Studies also encompasses a lot of our visual conceptions of language and improves our focus and understanding. Sometimes, when we can't find a word for something, we use gesture to communicate to the other person what we mean, and usually we are able to find the word we're looking for.
Another huge part of gesture is the use of Sign Language. This language relies completely on hand gestures and movements and is crucial. Sign Languages are languages themselves - they are not just based on other languages (such as American Sign Language being completely based on American English). While they certainly take basic language rules and vocabulary, they also have their own grammars and expressions that are unique. This is why it's important to take Gesture into consideration when studying language.