Body Language in English Class.doc

英语课堂中的身势语body language in english classcontentsabstract.1key words.11. introduction22. literature review.23. nature and the application for body language in english class.53.1 the nature of body language.53.2 the applications for body language.64. views on the effectiveness of body language84.1 the body language of the teacher.84.2 the body language of the students.95. conclusion.10references .10abstract: in the 21st century, non-verbal communication is very important, so english teachers should pay more attention to it. and with the continual reform of language teaching and learning, the task for the teacher is how to organize the classes in english. as a public subject, english plays a role in cultivating a qualified student. and especially in middle school, the problem lays in the student, even the teacher, who pays less attention to the non-verbal communication. non-verbal communication basically accompanies with the verbal language in communication, and it is also the communicative tool. in middle school, with the limitation of students vocabulary, teachers have to simplify their teaching with the help of the facial expressions and body movements in the class. meanwhile, english teachers also should pay more attention to the students body language. in this paper, the author describes simply the state and the cause of the english teaching in middle school, and discusses the definition of body language; the author also analyses the effect of body language between teachers and students, aiming to help the teachers improve the students interest in learning english. key words: body language; english class; significance; interest 摘要: 进入21世纪，非语言交际非常重要，英语教学应对其有足够的重视。而且随着语言教学和学习的改革，老师的任务就是怎样用英语组织课堂。英语作为一门重要课程，对于学生成为合格的、高素质的人才极为重要。尤其是在中学，作者认为问题主要是学生，甚至是教师,对非语言交际手段重视不够导致的。在中学，由于学生的水平有限，教师不得不借助课堂上的面部表情和身体运动来简化他们的教语。同时，英语教师也应该对学生的身势语给予重视。本文作者简要描述中学英语教学现状及成因，论述身势语的定义及其在英语教学中的重要性，并且按照身势语的类型分析其在教师与学生中的作用，旨在引导教师帮助学生提高学习英语的兴趣。关键词：身势语；英语课堂；重要性；兴趣1. introductiontoday we have entered the information society, and we face the challenge of the knowledge, so the task for the teachers is very hard. in china, the language teaching methods influence foreign language teaching. and we know that an important function of humans language is to promote interpersonal communication. in the last quarter of the 20th century, communicative language teaching has been put forth around the world as the new or innovative way to teach english as a second or foreign language. the goal of the communicative teaching is to develop students communicative competence. this communicative competence dose not only involves the students ability to deal with language usage, but also includes the ability in communication. and learners can only acquire the communicative ability in real communication context. and since our teaching is conducted in a non-english speaking country, it is unrealistic to require the teacher to carry out his teaching in a completely real communicative context all the time. however, as an english teacher, we should try our best to provide our students with a real communication environment, and to make classroom activities naturally.we all know that the classroom teaching is the most important way the students learn english in school. and the english teaching is becoming more and more important in middle schools. but how to raise the students interest in learning english is the teachers task. maybe you know why some students can not study english well. and now most of the middle school students do badly in english. perhaps the cause is the english teachers dull teaching, especially when it refers to the teaching of grammar. as the students meet the grammar first, if the teacher can not find the right way to teach language, their results will be not come to. and there are lots of ways to help teachers to teach english well, and body language used in english teaching is one of them. and by using body language, teachers can often tell whether students are feeling well or not, or are becoming agitated within a few moments, and their quick attention to these non-verbal signs adds significantly to a positive classroom climate. this paper aims to introduce body language in english teaching and learning. body language is so important that we should attach importance to it and put it into practice. most educators have realized this point, but how to do it needs further research. 2. literature reviewin “language and human behavior” (bickerton:1995), bickerton points out that the term language has been put to a variety of uses as well as misuses. so many people confuse language with communication. generally speaking, language is the most important communicative tool, as to some certain situations, language may become the obstacle of communication. and communicative language teaching was introduced into china in the early 1980s and has become popular since then. but what are the issues in applying communicative language teaching in chinese teaching context? many scholars have discussed a lot on this topic. for example, one scholar proposed that traditional grammar translation method should be complemented by communicative method in china for the following reasons:(a) the communicative approach ignores the communicative competence which the adult already has when he acquires his first language.(b) it is difficult to evaluate the students only by the communicative approach.(c) china can hardly provide foreign language teachers that traditional grammar method can meet the high requirements of the communicative approach.according to this scholar, despite all the above mentioned disadvantages, the communicative methods also have its unique advantages. it can replace boring, mechanical and monotonous exercises with exciting, engaging, and interesting activities. and if the classroom is studentcentered, it will greatly arouses the initiative and motivation of the students. it also introduces various kinds of practical material to the students, such as advertisements, shopping, making a telephone call, seeing a doctor and news report. and the communicative method seems to be able to make up for the weakness of the traditional grammar translation method.another scholar, however, argues that communicative language teaching is best for china. first, the adoption of communication language teaching is the chinese governments opinion. the chinese government feels that the use of communicative language teaching will be helpful to china. by introducing communicative language teaching, teachers can keep up with the developments in english teaching methods outside china. if not, teachers may return to the traditional way of teaching, where the process of language teaching is reduced to the mere grammar and vocabulary.second, we all know that china dose not have its own teaching methods. in the recent history of english language teaching in china, most teachers have adopted some western methods, such as “grammar-translation” method, the “direct method”, and the “audio-lingual method”. although some methods have been created by chinese people, they are not really methods at all, and these methods can not equal to the foreign methods. for example, the “zhang sizhong method” is all about personal experience; it has no “approach” and “no design”. to sum up, the adoption of communicative language teaching in china will definitely bring about a positive effect on english teaching and learning.third, proper non-verbal communication- body language can make the english class harmonious. as a matter of fact, teachers friendly appearance can greatly encourage the students studying enthusiasm. if the teacher smiles while the students did a good job, the students will feel confident. if the teacher have no reaction to the students who improve quickly, he or she will be sad. and day after day, they will lose interest in learning english. particular to the middle school students, because the teachers praise is the best prize to them. and the teachers encouragement can stimulate the bad students to work hard to catch up with other students, because all the students like the kind, and warm hearted teacher.as english is an international language of the science and technology and 85% of the information in worldwide information storage and retrieval networks is in english, even in china, english has become one of the most important school subjects. but due to the testoriented education, very little emphasis has really placed on communicative english skills, because there is a discrepancy between communicative language teaching and the examinations taken in china. for example, the practical reason for chinese middle school students to learn english is to pass the college entrance examination, so now it is the primary duty of the chinese middle school teachers to help the students pass the examination. as a result, the english teachers pay no attention to the students feelings; they think that as long as the students can learn the grammar and vocabulary well, then their task is completed. due to their placing no emphasis on the students interest, the result is that most of the students have a poor score on english.later, many people believe that the communicative competence (dell hymes: 1992) and the communicative method are great advantages in the field of language pedagogy in western countries, but it is a challenge to chinese education. in china, the communicative competence is a relatively new method in the english classroom. it needs to be seriously studied and promoted. it is obvious that an english teachers proficiency in language needs to be improved greatly. and as we all know that, there are verbal communication and non-verbal communication, and usually we communicate by speaking, however, non-verbal communication is also essential to us. as language communication can not be isolated from the non-verbal communication, and it is better to resort to some non-verbal language to accomplish the communication. and narrowly speaking, the non-verbal communication refers to body language.it is often said that interest is the best teacher. johann amos comenius said that if somebody were forced to eat something without being peptized, he would feel nauseated at least suffer from indigestion. but it is pleasant to accept, eat, and digest it well if he is hungry. according to this, we can say that students will try their best to study if they are interested in some subjects. however, interest in english is not born with the students. therefore, teachers should try to provoke the students interest in learning english and develop their interest which they have had, so that they become more and more confident to study it, and then they will pay more attention to it and try their best to enjoy study. and teachers should improve the students interest of study, and guide them to transform interest into steady motives of study to make the students become more and more confident, develop and practice their ability of dealing with difficulties, and realize their advantage and disadvantage and so on. it is true that students will become bored after studying for a long time, and then they will lose self-confidence and interest even give up studying as time goes by. so the teachers also have the duty to make them keep and even increase interest in english. to sum up, developing the interest in english is an important and a basic step. and the most important thing is that body language can help the teachers achieve this goal. through body language some teachers will get a lot of experience during their teaching courses about how to develop the students interest in english.3. nature and the application for body language in english class 3.1 the nature of body languageto give an exact definition of body language is not easy. and different people have different definitions.1) body language is the unspoken communication that goes on in every face-to- face encounter with another human being. it tells you their true feelings towards you and how well your words are being received. between 60%-80% of our message is communicated through our body language, only 7-10% is attributed to the actual words of a conversation. 2) “body language is a broad term for several forms of communication using body movements or gestures, instead of, or as a complement to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. in turn, it is one category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not language.(allen, e.d:2005) the specialist on body language research, fen.lafle.angles said, once it was lost, a body couldnt have grown into normal person. and body language relates to how the body divulges personal information about our inner thoughts, either conscious or subconscious. although we may not realize it, when we speak with others we communicate by much more than words. by our expressions, gestures and other body movements we send messages to these around us. and a smile and an outstretched hand show welcome. a frown is a sign of displeasure. nodding ones head means agreement“yes”. waving an outstretched hand with open palm is the gesture for “goodbye”. leaning back in ones seat and yawning at a talk or lecture shows lack of interest, boredom. and since body language comprises 55% of the force of any responses, whereas the verbal content only provides 7%, and “paralanguage”, or the pauses and signs given when answering, represents 38% of the emphasis, so the significance of body language should be realized.3.2 the applications for body language 3.2.1 the aspects of body languageresearch has shown that most people pay more attention to body language, and believe more readily, their impression of how a person acts through body language than what is said through words. as researched, body language depends on the situation, the culture, the relationship we have with the person. this means that there is not one signal that has the same meaning all over the world. and body language involves the following aspects:posture: it refers to a position of a human body, and it also can be called a persons attitude. it means the way you hold yourself, your posture, makes a big contribution to your body language and conveys your level of self-confidence. such as by orienting your body towards someone, you show attentiveness. by falling away from them or leaning back, you show a lack of interest and some level of reserve. when we are feeling low in confidence and want to hide away, we hunch our shoulders and keep our heads down. when we are feeling aggressive or are trying to defend our space, and we puff ourselves up. a relaxed body posture will help you to appear and feel more relaxed and confident. additionally, if you are not moving, a human can be in one of the following main positions: standing, sitting, lying.personal space/distance between people: space between people is very important. and in a school setting, teachers proximity to students signals how closely the students are being observed. and the closer teachers are to their students, the easier it will be to notice mischievous behavior. and posture can also figure into the concept of personal space. a person who is interested in a subject tends to lean forward and face the person who is speaking. conversely, an apathetic attitude can be shown by sitting or leaning back, and not facing the subject speaking.eye contact: eye contact is another important aspect of body language. eye contact is an intense nonverbal, visual connection made as one person gazes into the eyes of another. it is a highly emotional link established as two people simultaneously observe each others eyes. one could draw up quite a list of “rules” about eye contact: to look or not to look; when to look and how long to look; who and who not to look at. and fast points out that with people who are unfamiliar, we must avoid staring at them, and yet we must also avoid ignoring them. and we look at them long enough to make it quite clear that we see them, and then we immediately look away. and our eyes give clues to our emotions. a direct stare implies intensity. it may also mean romantic interest, aggression, or fear. and making very little eye contact can either convey shyness or submissiveness. the middle ground of a gaze says that you are interested, secure, and at ease.physical contact: physical contact is another element of body language. in english-speaking countries, we know that physical contact is generally avoided in conversation among ordinary friends or acquaintances. but if you touch someone, you may cause an unpleasant reaction. if one touches you accidentally, he/she will utter an apology such as sorry, oh, im sorry, excuse me. and touch can be a sign of intimacy, as it lessens the distance between two people.3.2.2 the application for body language in english classthere are many useful applications for body language in the classroom. in order to teach students effectively, it is very important to treat every student as an individual. first, body language can be used to arouse the students attention. at the beginning of class and during the lesson, it is necessary for the teacher to grab the attention of his or her class. eye contact with each student is critical in the teaching classroom. in order to raise the students attention, the teachers should try to keep an eye on each other at least every few minutes. the teacher has to be aware of what students are doing, and, where possible, how they are feeling. this means watching an