A Study Of Teachers’ Nonverbal Messages Projected In English Classes In Model Senior High Schools From A Perspective Of Communication Studies

The sending and receiving both verbal and nonverbal messages consist of the whole process of interpersonal communication. Nonverbal communication refers to the course of delivering messages by means of various vehicles other than the oral and written forms. It is an indispensible way of human communication. During the classroom teaching, nonverbal communication is fairly vital; teachers convey nonverbal messages through eye contacts, facial expressions, body languages and so on to interact with students. In the light of the particularity of teachers and students in model senior high schools, under the influence of the pressure of college acceptance rate, social expectation and the psychology of examination-oriented teaching and learning, in English teaching practice, there exists such a phenomenon—some teachers focus more on imparting the knowledge and explaining test points as well, while ignore the communication with students, and fail to be aware of the influence of their own nonverbal messages projected on students. Research works on nonverbal behaviors in intercultural communication have emerged year by year. Comparatively, there lacks studies that combine nonverbal messages with communication. Therefore, it is of necessity and great significance to conduct a study of teachers’nonverbal messages projected in classes of model senior high schools from the perspective of communication.On the ground of the previous researches, the author distributes the questionnaires to46teachers and400students from Grade One and Grade Two of both Changyuan No.1Middle School and Changyuan No.10Middle School, which are model senior high schools in Henan province; simultaneously, the author selects16teachers of Changyuan No.10Middle School to conduct classroom observation, which lasts for almost2months, with the help of interviewing8English teachers from these two schools. The following four questions are investigated in this paper.1. Do teachers and students have consciousness about teachers’nonverbal messages conveyed in classroom? 2. Which types of nonverbal messages are conveyed most by teachers in classrooms of model senior high schools?3. Are there gender differences in students’perception of teachers’nonverbal behaviors?4. What are the influences of nonverbal messages on English teaching?The research findings indicate that:1. Teachers and students of model senior high schools have consciousness of teachers’ nonverbal messages projected in classes to some degree, but not fully of aware of them and not profound enough.2. Teachers’beliefs and their behaviors are not consistent, so, it is essential to train teachers in such field.3. Teachers convey more positive nonverbal messages than negative ones in classes; they are able to transmit appropriate, accurate and timely nonverbal messages to assist teaching, organize and regulate the class.4. There is significant gender difference in perceiving the influence of teachers’nonverbal messages on classroom atmosphere and students’cognitive learning, teachers’nonverbal messages have more influence on female students.5. The communication of teachers’nonverbal messages can affect the aspects followed, namely, the teacher-student relationship, classroom atmosphere, students’eagerness of classroom participation and their cognitive learning.Through analyzing the research findings, the author summarizes the pedagogical implications, aiming to provide reference for the teaching practice, and better teaching effectiveness from the following five perspectives:1. Being aware of the importance of nonverbal messages.2. Changing the conventional ideas about communication.3. Training teachers’nonverbal behaviors.4. Projecting nonverbal messages to assist English teaching.5. Activating classroom atmosphere to facilitate students’cognitive learning.There exists some limitations in this empirical study and further discussion is needed.