The Application of Body Language in English Teaching

楊建梅 李婷玉

【Abstract】Body language， as a sort of nonverbal communication， plays an important role in the interaction between teachers and students. Body language can stir students interest and improve the effect of teaching. It also can improve the efficiency of learning English and optimize the design of English classroom activities. The teachers should make full use of body language in class and attach importance to the principle of using body language so as to get the best result.

【Key words】Body Language； English Teaching； Concrete Application

1. Definition of Body Language

What is the Body Language？ It should be spoken of the Nonverbal social intercourse and the nonverbal behavior. In human social intercourse process， specially the oral communication， people have some body movement while talking such as body posture， countenance， and so on. They are also delivering the information， making a set of system which is equal to the language signal one， the Nonverbal social intercourse（Yu Aihong，2002）.

2. The Importance and Advantage of Body Language in English Teaching

In order to evaluate the true role of English in the school system， it is important for the teachers who are not native speakers to evaluate their knowledge of and ability to use English（Fraud Durbin and Elite Olsten，2002）.English teaching is really a key part of the school education. In the school system， body language plays a positive role in cultivating the students characters.

A well-known proverb goes like this： interests are the best teacher. The teachers appliance does not focus on teaching itself only； and the student can absorb better if they study on their own will. It is going to be painful that they just work hard on academic course because the teachers expect them to do so. The teachers have to stir up the students， and the way teachers use to motivate them can be very crucial.

3. The Application of Body Language in English Teaching

3.1 The Circumstance of English Teaching

For one thing， let us investigate and draw a picture of the students behavior. In the school， the classroom is divided into many checkers carefully， and a large number of the students crowd into the classroom. All the students are dressed the same clothes， and they are faced to remember many new words， texts， to do much homework every day. They are bored with sermon of their teachers. Therefore， in this condition they lost the interest of studying.

3.2 The Application of Body Language in Different Aspects

3.2.1 The Application of Body Language in Listening

There is a saying that wrote by The Greek philosopher Epictetus “Nature has given man one tongue and two ears that he may hear twice as much as he speaks.” According to the saying， we can learn how important the listening is for our daily life. Understanding others is a basic purpose in English teaching， especially， in the class of primary school， teachers often train the students' listening abilities.

3.2.2 The Application of Body Language in Speaking

The spoken language is the important way to communicate with others in our life， so we should try to develop the students' ability of speaking. With reference to the English learning of junior schools， teachers always attach importance on speaking and listening in their English teaching.

4. Conclusion

We already realize that body language is an important tool which we could use for communication with each other. In class， body language is a positive way to cultivate the students personal characters and bring more effect on their studying， If their teachers are good at this， all the students would learn much more than the content from the books， In a word， teachers graceful body language helps to improve the students artistic-appreciation and moral character.

References：

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