The Application of Body Language in English Teaching

#CCU 5

In English teaching, body language as a kind of nonverbal language plays a very significant role in the interaction between teachers and students. It not only can express the speakers’ intention more accurately and effectively, simplify the teaching instruction but also can help improve the students’ ability of listening, speaking, reading and so on. Body language is a kind of language through gestures, manners and countenances, which include eye contact, facial expression, and gestures and so on. Nonverbal communication occupies almost 50 percent of our daily communication while words themselves take up only 7 percent.

Body language can be a good tool for improving the imaginations of the students and helping teacher express their ideas and language points more vividly. And by the body language, they can express some connotation of language that is difficult to express by mouth. As a matter of fact, most students enjoy an active atmosphere of English learning instead of a boring and serious one. In an active and lively class, the students are more willing to cooperate with teacher and attend class conscientiously.

There are some body language that can used by the teacher in classroom such as facial expression, gestures, eye contact and body distance. Each of these body language has its own meaning. For example, in the  English classroom teaching, teachers stand in different positions which give students different feelings. Students indicate that when teachers stand near students two to three point five meters, that distance can produce one kind of control. If some students do not concentrate in the class time, the teacher only needs to go nearby place that would change the students‟ absent-minded condition.  Teachers usually lead students to read in middle school. When the teacher is reading, he can go to students‟ “space zone”. If he does like this, he will control the disciplines and correct their wrong pronunciation properly. Moreover, if the teacher does the dictation with walking properly in the classroom, he can draw students‟ attentions.

            So as a teacher we should know, what body language that can we use in the classroom to gain students attention or even motivate them to be more active in learning activity. We also have to be wise in using such kind of body language in order not to make the student miss interpret it.

Source :           The Application of Body Language in English Teaching

                        by Yuanyuan Tai

School of Foreign Languages, Heze University, Heze, China

ISSN 1798-4769

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 1205-1209, September 2014