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Abstract: A facial exprsession is one of body languages, which plays a very important role in our English classroom teaching .Due to complicated classification of body languange, this paper merely chooses facial expressions to discuss, and ask students in our school to explore the application of facial expressions in English classroom teaching.
Key words: facial expressions, body language, application
1.Introduction
Genelle Morain(in Chen,1990:479) divides body language into movements, gesture,posture, facial expression,touch, gaze and distacing, and a facial expression is of them,which results from one or more motions or positions of the muscles of the face. The saying “ A picture is worth a thousand words” well describes the meaning of facial expression. Facial appearance can reveal the information about age, sex, race, ethnic origin and status.
The facial expression is a basic mode of nonverbal communication among people. The facial expression of a person is often the basis on which we form significant impression of characteristics such as friendliness, trustworthiness, and status. Face is the most noted part of our body. Facial expression is a look on a person’s face and facial cues are the first information that we give to or receive from others. People receive information about the type of the person, personality traits from face. People also make predictions from the face about the person they meet. Usually a face gives away the first impression that decides the owner’s being liked or disliked.
2. Application of Facial Expressions in the Classroom
All people and thus certainly teachers and students use facial expressions to form impressions of another. Facial expressions between teachers and students are one of the most important types of nonverbal signals in the classroom and facial cues are the first information that we give or receive from others. Although facial expressions are more culturally uniform in their meaning and understanding，a cold hard stare has long been in the repertoire of teachers’ weapons. Similarly, a smile can be useful tool in reinforcing desired student behaviors. A smiling teacher is thought to convey warmth and encouragement in all cultures.Bi(12001) thinks that such a teacher promotes a supportive and nonthreatening classroom atmosphere, which aids students’ positive attitudes and corresponding achievement . Conversely, frowning can cause confusion because it can imply concentration as well as threat or anger. Students may use the frown when listening intently in class with puzzled or surprised expression and they may use it to stress what he is talking about.
A teacher can also use students’ facial expression as valuable sources of feedback. When, for example, delivering a lecture, a teacher should use students’ expressions to determine whether or not to slow down, speed up, or in some other way modify his presentation.
Facial expression involves some of the smallest body movements, but its impact on the classroom may be greater than any other body language the teacher exhibits. The teacher probably communicates more accidentally by his or her facial expression than by any other means. Often a teacher does not want to communicate what he or she is thinking to the students. While the teacher may not say that, his or her facial expression may communicate it very clearly.
To further prove its application and what the students think about the facial expressions in teaching, the following is a questionnaire of facial expressions designed by the writer.
3.The Questionnaire of Facial Expressions from our students
3.1Subjects
The subjects of this study are 91 college students in our school, who are attached to Beijing Posts and Telecommunications University.
3.2 Research Instrument
The questionnaire is written in English and Chinese and the 91 students are requested to anwer the questions by making their choices from letters A, B, C or D,and then, I make a table accordingly.
3.3 Statements of the questionnaire
Statement 1: In English classroom teaching, a smiling teacher can contribute a lot to the understanding of contents being taught.
Statement 2: The English teacher often gives a lesson with versatile facial expressions and attractiveness, which makes me cultivate interests in learning gradually.
Statement 3: The teacher who looks dispirited and depressed is bound to reduce my motivation of English learning.
3.4 Table and its Statistics and Analysis
Note:1.In the table, A stands for strongly agree; B stands for agree; C stands for strongly disagree; and C stands for disagree.
2. Choice means letter choices chosen by the respondents in the questionnaire.
These three statements in the questionnaire are about the application of facial expressions by teachers in the classroom. As can be seen from the table, a) among the 91 respondents, 74.73 % of them agree that a teacher with sweet smiles on the face is very helpful for them to comprehend what they are learning, only few students strongly disagree or disagree with the impact of smiling, the percentage of which accounts for 4.4% and 1.09 % respectively. b) In statement 2, 71.42 % of the students agree that facial expressions can raise their interests step by step, only 3.3 % of them disagree; c) For statement 3, 53.85 % of the students agree and 31.87 % of them strongly agree that facial expressions can enhance their motivations towards English learning, which means the great impact on their study.
4.Findings
In our English teching, besides verbal methods, teachers should emphasize anthoer communication means—facial expressions. In other words, if a teacher uses facial expressions appropriately and frequently, she/he will be perceived as more likeable, friendly, warm and approachable.The questionnaire indicates that facial expressions are of great impacts and importance in class and we must suitably apply them to our English teaching.
参考文献：
[1] Chen,Y.P.(1990). Introductory Reading in Linguistics. Guang zhou: Zhongshan University Publishing House.
[2] 毕继万(2001). 《跨文化非语言交际》 北京： 外语教学与研究出版社
[3] 杨 平 (1994). 《非语言交际评述》 北京： 外语教学与研究出版社
作者简介：刘家云，英语硕士，讲师，研究方向：英语学科教育
Key words: facial expressions, body language, application
1.Introduction
Genelle Morain(in Chen,1990:479) divides body language into movements, gesture,posture, facial expression,touch, gaze and distacing, and a facial expression is of them,which results from one or more motions or positions of the muscles of the face. The saying “ A picture is worth a thousand words” well describes the meaning of facial expression. Facial appearance can reveal the information about age, sex, race, ethnic origin and status.
The facial expression is a basic mode of nonverbal communication among people. The facial expression of a person is often the basis on which we form significant impression of characteristics such as friendliness, trustworthiness, and status. Face is the most noted part of our body. Facial expression is a look on a person’s face and facial cues are the first information that we give to or receive from others. People receive information about the type of the person, personality traits from face. People also make predictions from the face about the person they meet. Usually a face gives away the first impression that decides the owner’s being liked or disliked.
2. Application of Facial Expressions in the Classroom
All people and thus certainly teachers and students use facial expressions to form impressions of another. Facial expressions between teachers and students are one of the most important types of nonverbal signals in the classroom and facial cues are the first information that we give or receive from others. Although facial expressions are more culturally uniform in their meaning and understanding，a cold hard stare has long been in the repertoire of teachers’ weapons. Similarly, a smile can be useful tool in reinforcing desired student behaviors. A smiling teacher is thought to convey warmth and encouragement in all cultures.Bi(12001) thinks that such a teacher promotes a supportive and nonthreatening classroom atmosphere, which aids students’ positive attitudes and corresponding achievement . Conversely, frowning can cause confusion because it can imply concentration as well as threat or anger. Students may use the frown when listening intently in class with puzzled or surprised expression and they may use it to stress what he is talking about.
A teacher can also use students’ facial expression as valuable sources of feedback. When, for example, delivering a lecture, a teacher should use students’ expressions to determine whether or not to slow down, speed up, or in some other way modify his presentation.
Facial expression involves some of the smallest body movements, but its impact on the classroom may be greater than any other body language the teacher exhibits. The teacher probably communicates more accidentally by his or her facial expression than by any other means. Often a teacher does not want to communicate what he or she is thinking to the students. While the teacher may not say that, his or her facial expression may communicate it very clearly.
To further prove its application and what the students think about the facial expressions in teaching, the following is a questionnaire of facial expressions designed by the writer.
3.The Questionnaire of Facial Expressions from our students
3.1Subjects
The subjects of this study are 91 college students in our school, who are attached to Beijing Posts and Telecommunications University.
3.2 Research Instrument
The questionnaire is written in English and Chinese and the 91 students are requested to anwer the questions by making their choices from letters A, B, C or D,and then, I make a table accordingly.
3.3 Statements of the questionnaire
Statement 1: In English classroom teaching, a smiling teacher can contribute a lot to the understanding of contents being taught.
Statement 2: The English teacher often gives a lesson with versatile facial expressions and attractiveness, which makes me cultivate interests in learning gradually.
Statement 3: The teacher who looks dispirited and depressed is bound to reduce my motivation of English learning.
3.4 Table and its Statistics and Analysis
Note:1.In the table, A stands for strongly agree; B stands for agree; C stands for strongly disagree; and C stands for disagree.
2. Choice means letter choices chosen by the respondents in the questionnaire.
These three statements in the questionnaire are about the application of facial expressions by teachers in the classroom. As can be seen from the table, a) among the 91 respondents, 74.73 % of them agree that a teacher with sweet smiles on the face is very helpful for them to comprehend what they are learning, only few students strongly disagree or disagree with the impact of smiling, the percentage of which accounts for 4.4% and 1.09 % respectively. b) In statement 2, 71.42 % of the students agree that facial expressions can raise their interests step by step, only 3.3 % of them disagree; c) For statement 3, 53.85 % of the students agree and 31.87 % of them strongly agree that facial expressions can enhance their motivations towards English learning, which means the great impact on their study.
4.Findings
In our English teching, besides verbal methods, teachers should emphasize anthoer communication means—facial expressions. In other words, if a teacher uses facial expressions appropriately and frequently, she/he will be perceived as more likeable, friendly, warm and approachable.The questionnaire indicates that facial expressions are of great impacts and importance in class and we must suitably apply them to our English teaching.
参考文献：
[1] Chen,Y.P.(1990). Introductory Reading in Linguistics. Guang zhou: Zhongshan University Publishing House.
[2] 毕继万(2001). 《跨文化非语言交际》 北京： 外语教学与研究出版社
[3] 杨 平 (1994). 《非语言交际评述》 北京： 外语教学与研究出版社
作者简介：刘家云，英语硕士，讲师，研究方向：英语学科教育