In fact, in China, English classroom teaching, basic and main forms of studying English to a great extent relies on how the teachers use verbal and nonverbal language to communicate information in the classroom。 It is reported that 82% of the teachers in the classroom use movements, while only 18% are spoken。 And others argued that for the sake of helping students learn, it is not the latest means that we need, but more a fuller understanding of what is carried out in the classroom。 As an outstanding teacher, the key point is to put himself as an example。 If you could make a good use of body language in English classroom teaching, students may succeed in language learning, and it will provide them with a pleasant lesson。 Students will be more concerned with what the teachers did instead of what they said。
1。2 Correlation between nonverbal communication and English classroom teaching 来自优W尔Y论W文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520,18766
Other than the verbal messages that we often transmit every day, there are plenty of silent messages together with the verbal ones, which are referred to as nonverbal behaviors。 Seriously speaking, nonverbal behavior is unequal to nonverbal communication。 Nonverbal behavior is any of a wide variety of behaviors in which human beings can engage that also have the potential for forming communicative messages。 Such nonverbal behavior becomes nonverbal communication if another person interprets that behavior as a message and attributes meaning to that message。 (Richmond 6-7) According to Ray Birdwhistell, nonverbal communication that in two-person conversations, words communication is only about 35 percent of the social meaning, while the nonverbal elements is more than 65 percent of the meaning。 Another estimate is that the nonverbal message carries 4。3 times the weight of the verbal message。 (McCroskey 93)The truth is that if you consider the ways when we communicate information nonverbally: either through postures, gestures,eye contact, facial expressions, and so on。 Nonverbal communication plays an important role in human communication as well as the verbal communication; sometimes the nonverbal behaviors overwhelmed the verbal ones in transmitting meanings。
English classroom teaching is also the process of communication。 As communicators, both teachers and students utilize not only the vocal symbols which is known as language, but also the nonverbal behaviors which is known as nonverbal communication, like facial expression and eye contact。 Earlier studies on English classroom teaching mostly pay attention to the verbal communications, ignoring the nonverbal communication between the teachers and the students。 With the development of teaching methodology and education in China, more and more emphasis has been put on the research of nonverbal communication in English classroom teaching。 The pedagogical functions of the nonverbal communication in English teaching classrooms have arisen by many people who are contributing to the field of study, such as Ray Birdwhistell, Mark Knapp, Cook, Mehrabian and so on。 In China, scholars such as Hu Wenzhong, Bi Jiwan, Yang Ping and Li Jiequn also make great contributions in the field。
2。 Literature Review
2。1 Definition of body language论文网
In each culture people learn to attach meaning to an elaborate set of verbal and nonverbal symbols。 Although we consider verbal and nonverbal forms of symbolic interaction separately for convenience, it should be remembered that they are interrelated。 (Samovar 205) Birdwhistell put forward the term “Kinesics”, which mainly refers to the study of body language, and made a systematic study of the relationship between communication and body movement。 Birdwhistell views communication as a process to which all participants in an interaction constantly contribute by messages of various, overlapping lengths along one or more channels (such as language, movement, and smell), whose elements are culturally patterned。 (Birdwhistell 5) A study of body language is a study of the mixture of all body movements from the very deliberate to the completely unconscious, from those that apply only in one culture to those that cut across all cultural barriers。 (Fast 18) We refer to gestures, body movements, facial expressions and eyes, as well as the spatial relationship between the communicator and the receiver, with a series of linguistic approaches that are directly related to the body posture of the communicator and the recipient。 (Gen 6) Body language is a set of image symbols, which are expressed by the human body, including the facial expression, body movement and body position, is one of the most important means of human communication。 (Zhou 1)