Cultivating English Teachers' Nonverbal Communicative Competence In Secondary Schools

As a new and exciting science, the study of nonverbal communication only datedfrom 1950s, although nonverbal behavior even has a longer history than both oral andwritten communication. For a long time, people in daily life normally emphasize theverbal aspect of communication, overlooking the fact that a large amount of theinformation in face-to-face communication conveyed by the people is nonverbal. Asnonverbal communication is so basic that we tend to take it for granted and always ignoreit in our English classroom teaching. However, nonverbal communication has powerfulinfluence on English classroom teaching, and nonverbal skills are invaluable for teachersin getting the messages across to the class and understanding the messages of interest ormessages of confrontations, which are sent by each student in many aspects. Moreover,according to scientific researches which refer to the teenage students' cognitivedevelopment law and characteristics, the nonverbal cues are more appropriate to be usedin the English classroom teaching in secondary schools and they can enrich the teachingmethod, stimulate the students' interest, and better the teaching effect. Nowadays, sincethe ultimate aim of English classroom teaching is considered as cultivatingcommunicative competence, then, as an important component, the nonverbalcommunicative competence shouldn't be short of. English teacher, as the disseminator ofEnglish knowledge, should be equipped with nonverbal communicative competence first.Nonverbal communication, with a variety of definitions, has developed into a newdiscipline. It covers a wide range of scope that is classified in different ways by differenttheorists. This paper prefers such a kind of classification as the use of body language,space language, paralanguage, time language and environment language. Nonverbalcommunication characterizes a lot and functions a great deal, and it has its own types andfunctions in classroom teaching.Facial expression between teachers and students is one of the most important types ofnonverbal signals in the classroom and face cues are the first information that we give toor receive from others. A smiling teacher is thought to convey warmth and promote asupportive and non-threatening classroom atmosphere. Eye contact can seek feedbackbetween teachers and students, keep channels of communication closed or open and caninfer the relationship between teachers and students. Relaxed posture and lively gesturescan arouse students' positive attitude. Teachers' appearance and dress affect, eitherpositively or negatively, communication in the classroom.The spatial distance between teachers and students is a "critical factor in thecommunication process of teaching and learning" (Miller, 1981). The teachers whoconduct their classes while standing or walking among their students are viewed morepositively than those who stand in the front of the classroom. Touch is also a powerfulcommunicator for establishing a link to students or conveying emotions. In addition, thepatterns of seating arrangement are not only helpful for communication between teachersand students but also for communication among students themselves. As a result, toachieve a successful communication between teachers and students, teachers are requiredto develop the awareness of a proper use of patterns of seating arrangement.Such vocal elements as intonation, tone, pitch, rhythm, timbre, volume and inflection,pace, etc. form a powerful, subtle and vital part of communication between teachers andstudents. Silence or pause becomes the medium for conveying messages in classroomteaching. Because of the teacher's power position in the classroom, teachers determinewho talks, how often, how long, and when.Different cultures have different attitudes towards time. But it is common that bothteachers and students are required to be punctual to the class. Those students who arepunctual to class can impress teachers positively, while students also expect teachers to beon time for class. Different courses require different length of time and so do differentstudents. The environmental factors in the classroom, such as color, lighting condition,sounds and temperature used in the class for teaching purposes have shown greatinfluence on classroom teaching.However, nonverbal communication varies widely from culture to culture. People'semployment of nonverbal communication is subconscious, learned and culture-bound. Aproper behavior in one culture might be a faux pas in another. Therefore, cross-culturalawareness in the classroom has consequently become an integrated part of thedevelopment of the communicative competence of the teachers and students.This thesis aims at a comprehensive survey of this field on the basis of lots ofachievements of modern linguistics, psychology and sociology. It gives a brief account ofthe use of nonverbal communication in different cultures and in classroom teaching.Meanwhile, the thesis provides a wide variety of examples to clarify concepts, which arerelated to our life. In the end of the dissertation, the author provides some ways toimprove teachers' and students' nonverbal awareness and their nonverbal skills to achievegreater effect in teaching and learning.The writer of the thesis holds that the study of nonverbal language is beneficial notonly to our linguistic theory but also to our classroom teaching and learning.