An Analysis on Function of Nonverbal Communication in English Language Teaching.doc

论非语言交际在英语教学中的作用an analysis on function of nonverbal communication in english language teachingabstract: as an important component of human communication, nonverbal communication plays a vital role in english language teaching. proper use of it in language teaching can greatly improve nonverbal communication ability of the students. this paper stands at the starting point of the influence of nonverbal communication in language teaching and emphasizes the application of nonverbal communication here this paper also does some explanations and analysis of the definition, distinguishing feathers, classification and functions of nonverbal communication in language communication and certain means of nonverbal behaviors used in language teaching, which further points out the importance of nonverbal communication. besides these, we also get some enlightenment on the language teaching so that the teachers can adopt proper means of communication, stimulate students interests, create a good studying atmosphere and optimize the classroom teaching.key words: english language teaching; nonverbal communication; application摘 要：作为交际的一种重要手段，非语言交际在英语教学中起着不可或缺的作用，恰当运用非语言交际辅助教学有助于更好地培养学生的语言交际能力。本文从非语言交际对外语教学的影响出发，着重分析了非语言交际在外语课堂教学中的应用。本文通过对非语言交际定义，特点，分类和其语用功能的介绍及阐释，同时通过对教学中常见非语言交际行为的解释及其分析，进一步揭示非语言交际在教学中的重要性。此外，通过研究我们还将获得一些非语言交际对外语教学的启示，从而帮助教师在今后英语教学中采取恰当的非语言交际方式与学生交流，激发学 生的学习兴趣，创造良好的学习氛围，优化课堂教学。关 键 词：英语教学；非语言交际；运用contentsi. introduction.1ii. an introduction of nonverbal communication.1a. the definition of nonverbal communication.1b. the characteristics of nonverbal communication.2 c. the functions of nonverbal communication. 3d. the brief classification of nonverbal communication.4 iii. the relationship between nonverbal communication and the result of the english language learning.6a. the introduction of nonverbal communication in language teaching.6b. some typical ways of nonverbal communication used in language teaching.8iv. the enlightenment of nonverbal communication on the english language teaching.9a. the methods in which teachers treat nonverbal behaviors in language teaching. 9 b. the methods in which teachers improve their own and students nonverbal communication ability. 10v. conclusion.11works cited.12iintroductionhuman communication consists of two parts. one is verbal communication, which is quite familiar to us. the other is nonverbal communication. as we all know, language is the most important means when people are communicating with each other. so when we are talking about the human communication, the first thing comes to us naturally is verbal communication. from this point, we can get an important piece of information. the stress people usually put on the components of human communication is quite different. actually there are two different means of human communication. one is verbal communication. the other is nonverbal one. verbal communication is easy for us to understand. from its literal meaning, we can know it must be closely connected with words. that is the words information produced while people are communicating with each other. for years, people tend to pay more attention to the former one. they think it can be greatly informative. though nonverbal communication has been existing for a long time, it has not received as much care or attention as verbal communication. so it has a fairly short history as a discipline. as time goes on, people have began to realize the great significance of nonverbal communication. nowadays people have admitted that nonverbal communication, as a means of communication, takes an irreplaceable part in human communication. this paper will give a brief account of nonverbal communication and an analysis of the significance in improving the students nonverbal communicative ability in english language teaching. it will also provide some workable suggestions to the students on enriching their cultural knowledge of nonverbal communication so as to improve their nonverbal communicative competence in english language teaching.ii. a brief introduction of nonverbal communicationa. the definition of nonverbal communicationas for the definition of nonverbal communication, its hard to give a fixed definition. at present, it can be open to many interpretations. malandro and other scholars easily define this term as the communication without word（邓 5). while miller (liu 17), another famous scholar, gives a concrete definition that it is the actions or properties which are not expressed by words. these actions or properties are dispatched by delivers intentionally or consciously, and also the receivers accept them consciously and may give some feedback. samovars definition is that it is the factors under a certain communicative environment, which both delivers and receivers will get some useful information. these factors can be invented by man or can be brought with the environment. now the commonly-accepted definition is that nonverbal communication refers to all aspects of a message which are brought about by both the human being and the environment, which is valuable to both delivers and receivers in the deep sense. it usually contains eye contact, facial expression, gestures, postures, body language, intonation, silence and space distance. b. some distinguishing features of nonverbal communicationas a pattern of communication, compared with verbal communication, nonverbal communication has its own characteristics.firstly, desmond morris, the british scholar, thinks “most of the nonverbal behaviors may have different meanings under different cultural environment, and often they have opposite meanings” (贾 455). if you know little about this phenomenon, you will feel confused when you are under a totally different environment. in u.s.a, where being casual and friendly is valued, people, consciously or unconsciously, often act out this value by the way they drop into chairs or how they slouch when they stand. in many counties, such as in germany and sweden, where lifestyles tend to be more formal, slouching is considered a sign of rudeness and bad manners. in turkey, putting ones hands in ones pockets is a sign of disrespect. but all the behaviors mentioned above may be treated differently under certain situations.secondly, nonverbal communication is nonstructural. it does not have a systematic structure or regular pattern. most of the nonverbal behaviors are unconscious and irregular. to get a better and exact understanding of nonverbal behaviors, we must fully analyze the synthetic environment. the same actions may deliver different information in different time or place. for example, when people hit the other one with their fists, it not only shows the anger towards the others but sometimes it shows the intimacy among them. nonverbal communication is also successive. for example, after a heated discussion, both parties keep silent, and in the surface they do not talk with each other. but we can not say they do not communicate with each other, because their eyes and actions may deliver more information than the words do at that time. that is to say, when people involve in a certain situation, their body movement, facial expression, gestures, ect. can speak louder than words.besides these features, from the point of view of neurological psychology, while using verbal communication or nonverbal one, we are employing the different hemisphere of our brain. the present research achievements have proved that when we are engaged in verbal communication, the left part of our brain is working, which is also responsible for the analysis and reasoning of the language information. yet nonverbal communication is in charge of the space, pictorial and abstract information. we may use the right part of our brain. thus it can be seen that we know the ways we use to analyze and possess information are not alike.lastly, nonverbal communication is a kind of intrinsic and instinctive behavior of the human being. though people can acquire some ways of nonverbal communication, some certain actions are really intrinsic. nobody teaches a little baby how to cry or laugh, yet they will cry when they feel uncomfortable or hungry. and they will use their smiles to show their satisfaction. a visitor in a foreign country can not communicate by using the local language, but he can adopt certain nonverbal communication skills-gestures by instinct to do some necessary activities in order to meet their basic needs.c. the functions of nonverbal communicationas a pattern of communication, nonverbal communication can be used to show ones attitude towards a certain thing, exchange thoughts, convey ones emotion, conceal ones inside word, eliminate the differences or ease up a contradiction so as to enhance the effect of communication. besides these, nonverbal communication also possesses the following functions.first, nonverbal communication may complement a verbal message. sometimes verbal communication can not transmit the message sufficiently, and then we will draw support from nonverbal one in order to make the expression more vivid and lively. for example, when parents tell the children the story about the big wolf, they often imitate the voice orations of it so as to make them get a better comprehension. and also if you smile and say,“hi, how are you ?”, these behaviors complement each other.second, nonverbal behavior may contradict other message. sometimes, verbal communication can not reflect peoples inner heart. that is to say the information conveyed by verbal behaviors can not be always true, while nonverbal message must be the real information. breaking eye contact while saying,“ nice to see you,” contradicts a speakers positive verbal message. shrinking back and frowning while saying, “i love you”， is another example of a nonverbal message contradicting a verbal message .third, a nonverbal message can repeat a verbal one. for example, a librarian says, “lets be quiet” and places a finger to the lips. in u.s. culture, the index finger to the lips is a symbol of the need to be quiet. it will send a clear message without verbal utterance.fourth, nonverbal communication is to regulate communication. it is the major means of the controlling the flow of conversation between interact ants. by heads nods, eye contact, vocal inflection，and body leans, we can tell if it is our turn to enter a conversation.a fifth function of nonverbal communication is to substitute. nonverbal message may substitute for verbal ones in certain settings. a small child may point to a toy instead of saying, “i want that.” in your classroom, you may wave to a friend instead of yelling across a crowed room.the last is emphasizing. emphasis is mainly used to stress verbal message or other special features of nonverbal information. for instance, the speaker often halts at some important points during delivering the speech. and also the players may wave their fists to show sense of pride while they defeat others in a match.overall, nonverbal behavior functions as a culturally rule-governed communication system. rules dictate all of our communication behaviors, but rules are especially evident in nonverbal communication. the examples are countless, including greeting, leaving, and politeness, entering a room, friendship expectation, and classroom behaviors. furthermore, the rules are governed by culture, and the rules of nonverbal behaviors differ among cultures.d. the brief classification of nonverbal communicationgenerally, there are a number of categories into which nonverbal communication can be divided. the following part will give a look at the common five of them. by looking at categories of nonverbal behavior we come to a better understanding of the many ways intercultural meanings are inferred. they are kinesics, proxemics, haptics, chronemics, paralanguage and sensorics.1. kinesics refers to gestures, facial expression, eye contact, body positions, body movement, forms of greetings and their relation to communication. certain kinds of body movements are physiological, such as yawning, stretching, and relaxing. other kinesics patternsstaring, walking slumped over, raising a clenched fist, showing a victory signare personally and culturally conditioned. for instance, when you say, “hello,” you may use a greeting gesture such as the palm of your hand extended outside with the fingers pointed upward, in the manner of waving, moving the palm from side to side. as they say goodbye, north americans place the palm of the right hand down, extend the fingers, and move the fingers up and down which is different among cultures. the kinesics is closely connected with our foreign language teaching.2. proxemics refers to the study of the spatial relation. the study of proxemics includes three aspects of space: fixed features of space (such as architecture and spacing of building), semifixed features ( such as seating arrangements and furniture arrangements), and personal space. for instance, visitors from parts of the southwestern united stated, who are used to wide open spaces, seem amazed at the closeness of residences in the northwest. in a study of seven countries reports indicated that the english use more space than the french or the italian. the french and the italian in turn use significantly more space than the irish and the scottish. it seems, therefore, that a comfort level exists interculturally that lends itself to stability. when two peoples with different ethnicity interact, they experience discomfort because they do not know the proxemic rules of the other peoples culture. 3. chronemics refers to our use of time. our understanding of time falls under a class of nonverbal communication called chronemics and is also influenced by culture. time is a potent force, communicating as powerfully as verbal language. in north america, for instance, lateness for a business appointment means lack of interest. a resent news report indicated that certain u.s. workers can be docked half a days wages for being as little as one minute late, according to one labor contract.4. haptics refers to touch behaviors. intercultural communication also involves cultural touching and its effects. the nature and importance of our use of touch is called haptics. a number of factors have been linked with haptics behaviors, most notably culture and gender. there are rules about touch governed by the culture and the gender of the interactants. to illustrate intercultural haptics, observations of touching during north american communication show that males avoid touching other males, but females express themselves in touching other females during conversation. overall, when you find yourself in a contrasting culture, we suggest that you initially observe, ask, and probe-and avoid operating on stereotypical information only. it is imperative that we become observers of nonverbal behaviors in a host country to avoid the barriers that only nonverbal behaviors can erect.5. paralanguage refers to a set of audible sounds that accompany oral language to augment its meaning. in other words, speech carries symbolic cues, not only through verbal and nonverbal cues, but also through vocal qualities to which various linguistic systems ascribe meaning. you may again recall meridians report that when americans communicated feelings, words accounted for 7 percent of the messages, paralanguage for 38 percent, and facial expressions for 55 percent of the total feelings communicated. one way to illustrate paralanguage is to consider a phrase and with different vocalic emphasis completely change the meaning. the following will illustrate.a. john, you love mary.(declarative statement of the fact)b. john, you love mary? (question, i thought you loved someone else)c. john, you love mary! (excitement)clearly, words alone do not carry the meaning. rather, we interpret the feelings and emotions of the speaker by perceiving the variations of vocal quality. furthermore, a number of variations in vocal quality, intensity, tone, and pitch height can alter otherwise simple statement or questions. iii. the relationship between nonverbal communication and the result of the english language learninga. the introduction of nonverbal communication in language teachingnonverbal communication is an important part in the process of communication as well as in foreign language teaching. by using nonverbal behaviors properly, we can create a better relationship between teachers and students, improve their interests in learning. through the illustration and analysis of the forms of expressions and the functions of nonverbal communication in classroom teaching, my paper points out the importance of nonverbal communication.in language teaching, the process of students learning is also a process of information exchanging between the teacher and the student. the realization of this process lies not only in verbal communication but also nonverbal communication. both carry different functions. verbal communication can deliver the information directly, which sometimes can make the communication quite easy. however, nonverbal communication is also easier for us to accept when both of them are functioning. in our language teaching classes, if we combine verbal communication with nonverbal communication, the result must be more satisfying. that is because nonverbal communication has its unique characteristics of transmitting information and communicative function in terms of its content, characteristics and functions. just because of its unique advantages, communicatio