On the Application of Body Language in Classroom English Instruction

卢泽佳

【摘要】本文根據理查兹和罗杰斯等专家的理论， 结合作者的课堂实践， 研究肢体语言在英语课堂的应用。首先介绍什么是肢体语言， 包括肢体语言的概念， 分类及其特征。特别是肢体语言在英语班级授课的运用在此文中得以详细的说明。紧接着作者对本班学生的情况做初步研究， 提出并执行肢体语言于英语课堂教学中。最后作者在运用肢体语言过程中， 总结出肢体语言对英语课堂听说读写教学起促进作用等一系列规律， 并对以后英语课堂教学应用肢体语言时提出一些建议。

【关键词】肢体语言 应用 英语课堂教学

1. Concept of body language

Hu Wenzhon said：“Non-verbal behavior includes eye contact， gestures， facial expression and so on. Some scholars think that， when people communicate with each other， 30% of the messages are conveyed by verbal behavior， and 70% are delivered by means of nonverbal behavior”（胡文仲， 1999：94）. Therefore we can see people communicate with each other by their body language in the ways of nodding， waving， eye contacting， shrugging and so on. According to the research results of psychologists， these ways can express what the verbal language cannot directly.

2. Classification of body language.

There are various forms in body language and much content is in it. Therefore teachers are required to analyze and classify it， to put its various forms in order and to master it skillfully and scientifically；thus we can make it more systematic， standard and operational.Body language can be divided into：

l） Facial expression：to express emotions， feelings， attitudes， etc. by facial expressing；

2） Limb movements：to describe things， or to express thoughts， ideas and feelings through the movements of limbs；

3） Body postures：that is， setting moving bodys posture to express feelings or to explain things.

3. Research on my Class

This part of my study was conducted from Feb. 28th， 2015 to Mar. 6th， 2017 when I taught in Nanhua Experimental School in Shenzhen， I met a difficult problem that most of my students are week in English， moreover， they have little interest in having English class. Therefore， I decide to make a research so that I can enhance their interest in having English class and improve their level of English.

4. Implementation of Body Language in Classroom English Instruction

This part of my study was conducted during Mar. 8th 2015 and Mar. 29th 2016， according to the purpose of middle school English teaching， which is to improve the students four skills of listening， speaking， reading and writing， with the base of necessary phonetics， large vocabulary and well-structured sentences. But this is not the final purpose. The final purpose is to enable students to communicate with English language. Therefore， I applied body language in my class， as a result， it helps to improve listening， speaking， reading and writing.endprint

1） Body language helps to improve speaking

The contemporary emphasis is gradually laid on spoken English teaching. The first lesson of every unit in Junior English （Go for it） begins with dialogue. The teaching programs require the teachers to organize the class to practice English according to the characteristics of dialogue. As mentioned above that body language can arouse and sustain the students interest of learning English. Therefore， in classroom English instruction， not only do I apply body language to encourage them to speak and interact， but also ask the students to use them according to the different situation. For instance， the first lesson in Unit One， Book two （Go for it） is about the time when the new students first meet， and they dont know each other. So a teacher can introduce himself first， such as：“Hello， everyone， nice to meet you here. Now Ill introduce myself to you. My name is Louis. I enjoy playing football， for， it makes me much stronger；I like playing chess， for， it makes me more clever；and I like reading books， for， ‘reading makes one perfect”. During the introduction， the teacher should use the new vocabularies and sentence structures with a vivid expression and mating gestures as possibly as he can. He smiles when he says hello to the class；he shakes hands with some students saying “Nice to meet you”；he writes name down on the blackboard；he imitates the action of kicking the football， playing chess and turning pages to explain his hobby. After his introduction， the teacher can create a circumstance for the students to practice：“Tom and Jack are new classmates. They are walking together in the street， and they meet one of Jacks old friends， Jim. Then Jim and Tom are introduced to each other by Jack.” After the students practice the dialogue is introduced naturally from it. Usually， the application of body language in different situations will result in an attracting and successful lesson.

2） Body language helps to improve reading

When reading the sentences， attention should be paid to where to speak softly， emphasize， and raise or lower our tone. To make it clear， we can imitate the strong or soft pats that are used in music teaching， which means to use the arcs to represent different tones. Actually， there are four tones in English：the falling tone， the rising tone， the fall-rise tone and the rise-fall tone. The most frequently used are the first three.

Take an example， the sentence I cant eat anything， when said in the falling tone， is equal in meaning to I can eat nothing. But if it is said in the fall-rise tone， it implies that there are particular things that I can eat.endprint

But for middle school students， at least they should know that they should use falling tones in declarative and special interrogative sentence， first rising tones and then falling tones in the choosing interrogative sentence.

In a word， the vivid gesture together with the fluent English can create a good circumstance of learning， which will surely play an active part in improving the students reading ability.

3） Body language helps to improve writing

Writing is one of the four basic skills of learning language， and it is such an important skill that we can even say without it， people cant communicate with others. Not only should the students get some English knowledge and vocabularies， but also the ability to communicate in spoken and written English as what is mentioned in the teaching programs. To some extent， writing is much more important than speaking， for it can spread without the limitation of space and time. Since the students learn English as a media for communication， they should have the ability of writing. Teachers use different method in order to improve the students ability of writing， among which， the application of body language can deepen the object impression， such is magnificent in developing the students writing ability.

4） Body language helps to improve listening

we know how important the listening is in our daily life. To understand others， especially the teacher， is a basic purpose in classroom English instruction. However， it is difficult for middle school students to totally understand the listening material or what the teacher said in class， especially those low-level students. And body language can help to improve listening.

When beginning a new lesson， I narrate the story outline in English with the help of body language. For example， I stretch my arms slowly when I say “She is in a very big room”；I open my eyes widely with mouth opened when I say “She is so beautiful a lady”. As a result， the students will have such an impression：She is very beautiful indeed；a teacher who imitates the crying or the movement of the animals under the premise of teaching order will surely achieve a better effect.

5. Conclusion

All in all， the application of body language can not only attract the students attention， deepen their impression and imagination. but also be completely up to the standard of audio-visual teaching principle， so teachers should try to teach in English from the beginning to the end， together with the corresponding vivid body language. As a result， students will be rewarded with positive progress in their English competence.

參考文献：

[1]邓炎昌，丁往道，胡文仲.义务教育课程标准试验教科书英语（新目标）（Go for it）[M].北京：人民教育出版社，2006.

[2]胡文仲.跨文化交际学概论[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1999.endprint