A Study On Teacher Body Language In College English Teaching Classrooms

As one prominent part of nonverbal communication, body language facilitates verbal communication in human interactions. In most cases, body language overwhelms verbal communication, for it is more complete and more reliable. Teacher body language in language teaching classrooms can not be neglected due to its performances and influence. It contributes to teachers'charm; meanwhile it functions as a media of teacher-student communication. Classroom language teaching is promoted by teacher body language to a large degree.The author conducts an empirical study on teacher body language (TBL) in college English teaching (CET) classrooms, by which to explore the particular performances and functions of TBL in CET classrooms, and to find out influencing factors for the employment of TBL in CET classrooms, finally to give suggestions to teachers and students on TBL in CET classrooms. The purpose is to better the future college English teaching and learning. The thesis is composed of five chapters:Chapter One is the introduction presenting the significance of the study and the main structure of the paper. Chapter Two is literature review on body language, including its definition, classification, basic functions, as well as historical studies done in this field home and abroad.Chapter Three is the empirical study on three research questions:⑴What are the performances and functions of TBL in CET classrooms? ⑵What are influencing factors for the employment of TBL in CET classrooms?⑶What are teachers'and students'reactions to TBL in CET classrooms? Research data are collected from classroom observation and questionnaires, and they are analyzed respectively in this part.Chapter Four provides answers to Chapter Three. TBL in CET classrooms are used to⑴regulate class;⑵promote teacher-student relationship; and⑶improve students'cognitive learning. Several factors influence the employment of TBL in CET classrooms, like Chinese culture elements, teacher personality, teacher gender & age, and also College EnglishTeaching Syllabus. There are also suggestions for teachers and students at the end of this part,such as reading literature works on nonverbal communication or communicating with the help of nonverbal behaviors in the real settings. The last part of the paper is a general conclusion, covering summary of the study and limitations of the research. In spite of the limitations, it is hoped that the implicative findings can contribute to the study of nonverbal communication, especially the study of teacher body language and its applications in language teaching classrooms.