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Abstract: As everyone knows, the classroom teaching is one of the most important ways that the students learn English. As far as the English teaching in the middle schools is concerned, teachers have to arouse the students’ interest so that they may learn better. There are many ways to arouse the students’ interest and help them to learn better, and body language used in English teaching is one of them.
Keywords: English teaching; body language; application
中图分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2013)21-0015
I. Introduction
Body language is an important media through which people communicate with each other. It refers to the patterns of facial expressions and gestures that people use to express their feelings in communication. The specialist on body language research, Fen. Lafle. Angles, once said: “Once it was lost, a baby couldn’t have grown into a normal person”. It’s also true to the juveniles. In school education, body language plays a positive role in cultivating the students’ characters. For, teachers are usually respected, and factually, what or how the teachers say and do will be possibly imitated by the students (sometimes subconsciously). In a word, teachers’ graceful body language helps to improve the students’ artistic-appreciation and moral character. If the students develop a wonderful body language, which will possibly leads them to form an optimistic and active feelings, they will surely have a more smooth interpersonal relation. The affection of teachers’ body language on the students is reflected not only by establishing a good example, but also shortening the teacher-student estrangement by which a more harmonious studying atmosphere is created. As a matter of fact, teachers’ friendly appearance can greatly encourage the students’ studying enthusiasm. Furthermore, the characteristics of theoretic and abstraction of knowledge also requires the vivid, dramatic and an accessible gestures to make it specific and figurative. As a result, the students’ interest is motivated and the effect of teaching is greatly improved.
II. The Definition of Body Language
What is body language? 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 attributable to the actual words of a conversation. Your ability to read and understand another person’s body language can mean the difference between making a great impression or a very bad one! It could help you in that job interview, that meeting, that business function, or special date! Every one of us has experienced that feeling of an instant like or dislike of someone but without necessarily knowing why. We just weren’t happy, there was something about them. We often refer to this as a hunch or gut feeling, two descriptions directly relating to our own body’s physiological reaction. III. The Importance of Body Language
People can not live without each other, we are social beings. As soon as we are in contact with others we are communicating. For this we can make use of spoken and written language. In these ways we make the content of a message clear to each other. However we can also communicate without words. This kind of communication tells us something about the relationship between people. Often this is more important than getting the content of the message across. The communication about this non spoken communication, which tells us something about the relationship between people, is called Meta-Communication. Communicating about communication!
1. Words are inadequate
When we connect with a person, we also have to make it clear to each other how the content of a spoken message needs to be interpreted. How we do this says something about the relationship we have with the other person, or think we have anyway. Often words are inadequate for this purpose. For instance we do not tell each other that easily how we feel about each other, or how the words of a message need to be interpreted. To make the meaning of our words clear we use body language. Body language is a language without spoken words and is therefore called non verbal communication. We use body language all the time, for instance looking someone in the eyes means something different than not looking someone in the eyes. In contact with others it is just not possible to be not communicating something.
2. Subconsciously
Usually body language occurs unconsciously. Yet the body language we use decides to a large extent the quality of our communication. It follows that therefore it would be good to become conscious of our own and others’ body language. We can learn to use our body language for a purpose. As well as learn to understand and interpret body language of others. It is important to note that body language has different meanings in different cultures. How we can interpret body language depends on the situation, the culture, the relationship we have with the person as well as the gender of the other. This means that there is not one signal that has the same meaning all over the world. If you do not take this into account you may get yourself in some serious trouble! Body language is also interlinked with spoken language and a whole pattern of behaviour from a person. As well as that, various body language signs can complement each other to make a particular meaning crystal clear or strengthen the meaning of what we communicate. Some groups have developed a whole specific body language which can be very explicit in its meaning and is used to communicate where the use of words may otherwise be difficult or dangerous. Examples of this are mostly groups, such as gay people, people in slavery, prisoners, etc. who have a history of prejudice against them from the dominant culture. 3. Used to express feelings
Body language is used especially to express feelings. For instance if we do not like someone, it is often difficult to say that directly to the person. However we can make it clear either intentionally or unintentionally through body language. The opposite is also true. We may say that we ARE angry through words yet our body language may be saying loud and clear that we are NOT. This can be very confusing for the receiver. This is usually described as giving out double messages-one message in words and an opposite message in body language. It is also difficult to lie or cover up our feelings through body language. People may give their true feelings away by not being aware of their body language. Research has shown that most people pay more attention to, and believe more readily, their impression of how a person acts through body language than what is said through words. As a consequence we tend to doubt, or put a question mark behind, the spoken words if they do not correspond with the language of the body .
4. The importance of knowing how we communicate
How we come across to someone is decided only for a small part by the words we speak. To leave a good impression behind, say at a job interview, it is important that we know, and to a certain extent can control, our body language. The person on the receiving end of our body language will have a feeling or impression that is often difficult to describe - difficult to put into words or difficult to prove what actually was communicated. Haven’t we all said at times: “I have a feeling he/she likes me”, or something like: “I doubt if what he/she is saying is really the truth”. This type of feeling is called intuition. Body language plays a big role in intuition as it gives us messages about the other person that we can interpret at an intuitive level. It is therefore necessary to get to know our own body language first. We should learn about it so that we can recognise it in others as well as in ourselves. For this purpose, all the different aspects of body language that we can learn something from will be described next.
IV. The Necessity and Importance of Using Body Language in English Teaching
English teaching is a key part of the school education. With the English teaching methods reform, more and more English teachers organize the teaching process in English so that they may realize the Communicated English. The Communicated English means that teachers instruct the students and explain questions basically in English, and the students are also required to use English in class. Contemporarily, however, the students in the middle school can’t speak very well; neither can they understand why they should use different tones in different time or situation; their
Keywords: English teaching; body language; application
中图分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2013)21-0015
I. Introduction
Body language is an important media through which people communicate with each other. It refers to the patterns of facial expressions and gestures that people use to express their feelings in communication. The specialist on body language research, Fen. Lafle. Angles, once said: “Once it was lost, a baby couldn’t have grown into a normal person”. It’s also true to the juveniles. In school education, body language plays a positive role in cultivating the students’ characters. For, teachers are usually respected, and factually, what or how the teachers say and do will be possibly imitated by the students (sometimes subconsciously). In a word, teachers’ graceful body language helps to improve the students’ artistic-appreciation and moral character. If the students develop a wonderful body language, which will possibly leads them to form an optimistic and active feelings, they will surely have a more smooth interpersonal relation. The affection of teachers’ body language on the students is reflected not only by establishing a good example, but also shortening the teacher-student estrangement by which a more harmonious studying atmosphere is created. As a matter of fact, teachers’ friendly appearance can greatly encourage the students’ studying enthusiasm. Furthermore, the characteristics of theoretic and abstraction of knowledge also requires the vivid, dramatic and an accessible gestures to make it specific and figurative. As a result, the students’ interest is motivated and the effect of teaching is greatly improved.
II. The Definition of Body Language
What is body language? 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 attributable to the actual words of a conversation. Your ability to read and understand another person’s body language can mean the difference between making a great impression or a very bad one! It could help you in that job interview, that meeting, that business function, or special date! Every one of us has experienced that feeling of an instant like or dislike of someone but without necessarily knowing why. We just weren’t happy, there was something about them. We often refer to this as a hunch or gut feeling, two descriptions directly relating to our own body’s physiological reaction. III. The Importance of Body Language
People can not live without each other, we are social beings. As soon as we are in contact with others we are communicating. For this we can make use of spoken and written language. In these ways we make the content of a message clear to each other. However we can also communicate without words. This kind of communication tells us something about the relationship between people. Often this is more important than getting the content of the message across. The communication about this non spoken communication, which tells us something about the relationship between people, is called Meta-Communication. Communicating about communication!
1. Words are inadequate
When we connect with a person, we also have to make it clear to each other how the content of a spoken message needs to be interpreted. How we do this says something about the relationship we have with the other person, or think we have anyway. Often words are inadequate for this purpose. For instance we do not tell each other that easily how we feel about each other, or how the words of a message need to be interpreted. To make the meaning of our words clear we use body language. Body language is a language without spoken words and is therefore called non verbal communication. We use body language all the time, for instance looking someone in the eyes means something different than not looking someone in the eyes. In contact with others it is just not possible to be not communicating something.
2. Subconsciously
Usually body language occurs unconsciously. Yet the body language we use decides to a large extent the quality of our communication. It follows that therefore it would be good to become conscious of our own and others’ body language. We can learn to use our body language for a purpose. As well as learn to understand and interpret body language of others. It is important to note that body language has different meanings in different cultures. How we can interpret body language depends on the situation, the culture, the relationship we have with the person as well as the gender of the other. This means that there is not one signal that has the same meaning all over the world. If you do not take this into account you may get yourself in some serious trouble! Body language is also interlinked with spoken language and a whole pattern of behaviour from a person. As well as that, various body language signs can complement each other to make a particular meaning crystal clear or strengthen the meaning of what we communicate. Some groups have developed a whole specific body language which can be very explicit in its meaning and is used to communicate where the use of words may otherwise be difficult or dangerous. Examples of this are mostly groups, such as gay people, people in slavery, prisoners, etc. who have a history of prejudice against them from the dominant culture. 3. Used to express feelings
Body language is used especially to express feelings. For instance if we do not like someone, it is often difficult to say that directly to the person. However we can make it clear either intentionally or unintentionally through body language. The opposite is also true. We may say that we ARE angry through words yet our body language may be saying loud and clear that we are NOT. This can be very confusing for the receiver. This is usually described as giving out double messages-one message in words and an opposite message in body language. It is also difficult to lie or cover up our feelings through body language. People may give their true feelings away by not being aware of their body language. Research has shown that most people pay more attention to, and believe more readily, their impression of how a person acts through body language than what is said through words. As a consequence we tend to doubt, or put a question mark behind, the spoken words if they do not correspond with the language of the body .
4. The importance of knowing how we communicate
How we come across to someone is decided only for a small part by the words we speak. To leave a good impression behind, say at a job interview, it is important that we know, and to a certain extent can control, our body language. The person on the receiving end of our body language will have a feeling or impression that is often difficult to describe - difficult to put into words or difficult to prove what actually was communicated. Haven’t we all said at times: “I have a feeling he/she likes me”, or something like: “I doubt if what he/she is saying is really the truth”. This type of feeling is called intuition. Body language plays a big role in intuition as it gives us messages about the other person that we can interpret at an intuitive level. It is therefore necessary to get to know our own body language first. We should learn about it so that we can recognise it in others as well as in ourselves. For this purpose, all the different aspects of body language that we can learn something from will be described next.
IV. The Necessity and Importance of Using Body Language in English Teaching
English teaching is a key part of the school education. With the English teaching methods reform, more and more English teachers organize the teaching process in English so that they may realize the Communicated English. The Communicated English means that teachers instruct the students and explain questions basically in English, and the students are also required to use English in class. Contemporarily, however, the students in the middle school can’t speak very well; neither can they understand why they should use different tones in different time or situation; their