The use of nonverbal communication in the classroom

Abstract

Nonverbal communication has long been neglected in the domain of teaching and learning, especially prior to the advent of Communicative Language Teaching in the 1970s and early 1980s. This new trend brought changes all over the teaching and learning process. Among these changes are the roles of both a teacher and a learner. The role of the teacher is of concern here because he/she becomes a facilitator, counselor, and animator. These new roles require a change in the classroom discourse. More importance is given to visual techniques and body language. Communication became the pivotal focus of the teaching practice, that is to say more importance is given to interaction in the target language over grammatical formalism. This importance of interaction calls upon the communicative competence of both teachers and learners. All these reasons taken together brought nonverbal communication to the surface. Thus, the choice of this particular topic rises from the awareness of its importance to both teaching and learning. The current paper brings light to the effect of non-verbal communication on the language learners, as well as, the importance of teachers’ awareness of their own non-verbal communications for an effective language teaching and learning. Questionnaires for students were developed based on EFL class observations. 30 students from academic lyceums, secondary schools and first-year university students and 30 English teachers from the same educational establishments were involved in the survey.