On Body Language in English Teaching.doc

on body language in english teachingabstract: body language is an important part of nonverbal communication and an important medium through which people communicate with each other. with the continual reform of language teaching and learning methods, teachers are trying every way to organize the class. one of them is transmitting information to students through proper body language, such as, facial expression, eyesight, gesture, posture and touch. it can achieve good results like gaining the ability about learning skills which includes listening, speaking, reading and writing. in addition, body language helps students to improve their comprehension and facilitate the communication to teachers. to the teacher, using body language creates a better atmosphere for teaching and builds a bridge to the students inner world. therefore, it is important to use body language properly in english teaching.key words: body language；english teaching；classification；functions摘要：身势语是非言语交流的重要组成部分，是人们互相交流的重要媒介。在语言教学和教学方法的不断改革下，教师正在试用各种方式组织课堂。其中的一种方式，即用身势语：面目表情，目光，手势，身姿和碰触等向学生传达信息。身势语可以帮助提高听说读写的能力。此外，身势语可以帮助学生提高理解能力，便利于学生与教师之间的交流。对于教师来说，身势语的使用帮助活跃课堂气氛，了解学生的内心世界。所以，恰当地应用身势语在英语教学中式非常重要的。关键词：身势语；英语教学；分类；功能1. introductionat present, english learning becomes more and more important to students. without the language speaking environment, classroom teaching is one of the most important ways that the students learn english. for rapid changes in education reform, teachers are facing great challenges and stresses. they realize the old teaching way does not fit the students any more, so, in order to arouse the students interest, they have found many ways. body language is one of them.what is the definition of language? body language is an important media for peoples communication. body language refers to the patterns of facial expressions and gestures and that people use to express their feelings in communication. according to a study made by psychologists，words make up seven percent of the information spreading and achieving by human beings, sound makes up thirty-eight percent and body language makes up the most important part of it, fifty-five percent. in the classroom teaching, the accurate body language of teachers will make students form the active character, build the peace atmosphere, arouse the interests and enthusiasm of study and improve the teaching effect.2. the classification of body language we have discussed the meaning of body language. we know body language is an important media through which people communicate with other. though with the development of technology, traffic and contact all over the world, the meanings of body language are renewing every day, the body language can be mainly divided into the following five sorts: facial expression, eyesight, gesture, posture and touch.2.1 facial expression “the face has been called an organ of emotion because we constantly read facial expressions to understand what others are feeling. the face provides vital clues to our own feelings and those of the people around us. of all the nonverbal channels, the face is the most important broadcaster of emotions.” all of the facial expressions, the smile is the most common one. smiling is the most commonly used by all over the world among the all kinds of body languages. it is also the most mysterious activator among the world. in english teaching, many things will make students confuse, they may get the bad temper. so, when students ask questions, a smiling from their teachers will make them have the feeling of kindness, naturalness and relax. teachers shake their heads with smiling while students give the wrong answer will not make the students embarrassed which may hurt them and debase their learning interests. natural and decent smile will help to transform the information and carry out the teaching aims. so i hope every teacher can go towards the platform with smile and treat every lovely face, every learning- eyes with pure heart.2.2 eyesightthere is an old saying like this “the eyes are the window of the soul.” people can know others ideas though reading from their eyes. eye language means expression in ones eyes, which is deeper, more implicated, more delicate, and richer in both the expressive fore and the infectivity. a professor from chicago university said “eye language can be the best way to express the pure-hearted passion and interests. the opening eyes are connected with satisfaction and happiness.” therefore, in the english teaching class, teachers should to be good at scanning and discerning the students eye language, so that, they can catch the feedback information and adjust their teaching mind and schedule. if students do not look at the blackboard, whisper to each other or downhearted, it means they are not interested in the class taught by their teacher. when it comes, the teacher should find out the reasons, suit the remedy to the case and try their best t o divert the students attention to the class. whats more, a blaming looking will bring the students attention when he is doing other things which will neither broke his proper pride nor affect other students.2.3 gesture gesture which is the important part of body language means we communicate and express by movement and manners of our hands and fingers. it is widely used in everyday life. “gesture is the second language of oral language.” so, it is important for teachers to use gesture in english teaching class. such as, a student tell his teacher he will go to attend a match another day, his teacher will prick up his first finger and middle finger and keep the other fingers bending which will form a “v” symbol and it means “ you will success”. the student gets it in heart and he will be more confident. when a student give the right answer, the teacher can prick up his thumb which means you are great. when the teacher wants to explain the phrase “take a photo”, he can just do a taking photo gesture. then students can understand clearly. also, teacher can just wave their hands when he is explaining the meaning of “say goodbye to somebody” and students can realize the meaning. according to these, we can say if teachers often use gestures in english class, students of poor foundation will understand the knowledge easily with delight mood. these will also help students to deepen the memory of knowledge and boost up the effect of the english teaching class. 2.4 postureposture is a matter of how people stand, sit and walk. what kind of posture a teacher use can reflect the students a lot.2.4.1 the posture of standing what the way one standing can express his character. so does the teacher. try to imagine a picture like this: a teaching stands on the platform bending his back and separate his two feet. no matter how good his class is, he can not give his students a good example. also, his students will not glad to listen to his class carefully. therefore, a teacher should stand straightly just like the pine.2.4.2 the posture of sittingthere is an old saying in china say that one should sit like a bell. it means that one should sit in a good manner. when students are having an exam, a teacher sits in the front of the classroom with his legs cross each other and shaking them all the time. this will disturb the students thinking clues and cause their antipathy. on the contrary, if a teacher sits quietly in the front, he will build a good atmosphere for the students.2.4.3 the posture of walking when a teaching is having his class, he often needs to go to the students and answer their questions. at this time, if a teacher walks dragging his feet, he will disturb the students. so, he should walk in a slow, quiet, light way. all these postures above are really important to a english teaching class which will influence the students a lot in a non-language way.2.5 touchtouch means the way people exchange information by touching ones body. hands shaking and hugs are the most common touch behavior. chinese belong to low-contractual cultures. however, as an english teacher, one should try all the ways to communicate and do a favor to his students. a warm hug will be more than thousands of words. it will make the students feel warm and want to talk about the confusing things.3. the functions of body language as we have know the kinds of body language and the importance of body language. now teachers often add a lot of body language into their english teaching class. then, what are the functions of body language? it can help to improve the four basic learning skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. whats more, it helps to make the class more alive through attracting students attention; it makes the students understand their teachers idea clearly and show their teacher their inside feeling about things; also, it enhances the relationship between teacher and their students. 3.1 the concrete application of the body language in learning skills for chinese students, they learn a foreign language mostly from the class, from their teacher. the teacher uses every way to train their learning skills. the following are the concrete application of the body language in listening, speaking, reading and writing.3.1.1 body language helps to improve listeningthe greek philosopher epithets has said: “nature has given man one tongue and two ears that he may hear twice as much as he speaks.” according to this saying we can learn how important the listening is in our everyday life. when we learn a language, it is the basic part to understand what one has said. helping the students to improve their listening ability is a duty of english teachers. in this procession, if the teacher can use the body language appropriately, it will achieve the better effect. when the teacher wants to teach some new words about animals, he can imitate the actions or habits of the animals. such as, he can rap his beast bosom with his fist when he is teaching orangutan; he can totter with two feet apart when he is teaching penguin. the body language will help the students to deepen their memory. in training the students listening ability, the teacher could use some body language. when a teacher is telling a story to the students as “the prince comes into the big hole, he see the princess sleeping on a bed. he low his body and kiss the princess, after that, the princess open her eyes.” he can stretch his arms slowly when he says “the big hole”; he can low down his body to say “the prince low his body”; he can open his eyes when he says the princess wakes up. as the result, the students will have clearly understanding though he may not know what the word means.3.1.2 body language helps to improve speakingpeople communicate, exchange ideas, transfer emotions mostly by speaking, so we should try to develop the students ability of speaking. the proper body language will help to stimulate and keep the interests of learning and using of english, it also helps to improve the speaking skills. at last, students are helped to reach the teaching aim in a certain degree by their teachers body language. there is a small part of practicing speaking dialogue in each unit of the english book. in this small dialogue, students should not only learn how to speak, but also cooperate with the body language. such as, on learning the greeting of the first meet, a teacher should introduce himself at first. in the introduction, the teacher can say “hello, everyone, nice to meet you” with shaking his hands to the students and then “i am going to introduce myself to you” with the hands putting before the chest. then the teacher could say “i like swimming for it makes me stronger; i like running for it makes me much faster; i like watching tv and sometimes it really makes me happy.” during this part, the teacher should use the verbs with doing the actions. he imitates the action of swimming and running when he says he likes them; he can open his eyes and make it bigger when he is saying watching tv and he can smile and laugh when he says the tv makes him happy. all these can help to make the class lively and give the students a deep impression. in addition, the teacher can create a circumstance for the students to practice. such as the dialogue:a: excuse me, where is the nearest hospital? i got a headache.b: go along this street, turn right at the second crossing. it is on the left side of the road.a: thank you very much.in this dialogue, the student a can use the finger to press his head for saying “i got a headache.” the student b can say with his hand pointing at right and then the left when he tells the direction of the hospital. these applications of body language will achieve an attracting and successful lesson.3.1.3 body language helps to improve readingreading is one of the four basic skills of learning language, and it is so important s skill that we can even say without it, people can not get progress. reading is for the better learning of english. english as a foreign language for chinese, there is no place for saying english. so, the students can acquire the language sense by reading the english test. whats more, reading can help the students to get the correct pronunciation and intonation of the words. and once you read things out, you can find out the internal feelings of the article easily. a linguist ever said: “a poem is not a poem until it is read.” when the students are reading, the teacher should give them the guide to develop the students reading skills by using body language.when the students are reading the test, the teacher should command the students whether to boost or lower the intonation. this helps the students to understand the meaning of the words. when the students read the sentences, the teacher should pay attention to where to speak softly, emphasize, and raise or lower the tone. when the students deal with the declarative and special interrogative sentence, the teacher should let the students to use falling tones. when they meet the interrogative sentence, they are taught to use the rising tones at first and then falling tones. a lot of students are not often accustomed to them. but, they can solve the problem with the help of body language. after training for sometimes, the students will get the right accent, intonation and connect the pronunciation of the word with spelling and meaning in a good order. then, they can read without the gesture of teachers. but, the body language for training them is in their heart. 3.1.4 body language helps to improve writingone of the purposes of learning english is to train the students preliminary ability of using written english. writing is one of the four basic skills of learning language, and writing is so important a skill that people can not communicate with others without it. sometimes, writing is much more important than speaking, because it can spread without the limitation of space and time. thus, the student should have and try to improve the ability of writing. while talking about writing, some students may have the feeling of being dull and tiring and having no words to write. to get rid of these, the teachers have to use every possible method. not only should the teachers teach the students some english knowledge and vocabularies, but also the application of body language. the application of body language can deepen the object impression and attract students interests.the famous linguist franklin has said, “tell me, ill forget; teach me, ill remember; involve me and ill learn.” the students would have difficulties if their teacher asks them to write an unfamiliar composition. however, if they have the experience about the articles, they can finish the writing job well. in and out of class, the teacher should ask the students to participate some english-related activities, and ask them to write it down. take “a picnic in the garden of plants” for example, the teacher could organize the students to have a picnic and have enjoined themselves in the beautiful scenery of the outside and the happiness atmosphere with their classmates. after that, the students can write a composition much better for having the experience and deep impression. the students are deeply impressed by the body language of the teacher and themselves in the picnic. this can give them the truly scene and help to write the better composition which the imagination can not achieve. 3.2 the concrete application of body language in english teaching body language can not only help to improve the learning skills as what has said in the above, but also it can do a great help for the hole class which is ranging from the class atmosphere to the relationship of teacher and their students. it can help to make students to put their attention into the class. also, it can help the students in understanding their teacher and from the eyes of the student, the teacher can tell what they are thinking about the class.3.2.1 posture helps to attract students attentionin the english teaching class, standing is the most important posture for a teacher. the teacher stands straightly in front of the students, then form the silent order and bodiless authority. however, english teaching as a language teaching subject needs a lot of discussion in the group and practice with others. so, teachers should have some walk in the classroom to ensure the communication between teacher and students. it is better for a teacher to go to join into the students from the platform than standing on the platform. this can make the students get more interested in the class and waken the students enthusiasm. whats more, a teacher can use some typical posture to show his thinking. in a more decent way, a teacher use a short action to express his likes and dislikes. such as, when a teacher wants to show his dissatisfaction to a stu