The Application of Body language in English Teaching in Primary School

论文总字数：35680字

摘 要

语言教学方法的不断改革对教师组织英语课堂和创设英语学习环境提出了更高的要求。然而，由于小学生词汇量的限制，英语教师不能仅限于使用口语和书面语来传递信息，还可以利用肢体语言简化教学。本文介绍了肢体语言的定义，分析了肢体语言在小学英语教学中的重要性和必要性。并分别从四个方面介绍了肢体语言的运用，希望能对当前的小学英语教学有所启发和帮助。

关键词：肢体语言；小学；英语教学

Contents

1. Introduction……………………….……….......…….…………………..…1

2. Literature Review..........................................................................................1

3. The Introduction of Body Language.………..........…….....……….....……2

3.1 The definition of body language.....................................................................2

3.2 The background and present situation of using body language in Teaching..2

4. The Necessity and Importance of Using Body Language in English Teaching in Primary School...…...................…....................4

4.1 Strengthen the teacher’s charm.....…..........................................................5

4.2 Arouse students’ interest…………..............................................................5

4.3 Deepen students’ impression ..................…............................................…6

4.4 Reduce the use of the Chinese language...........................….……6

4.5 Enliven the atmosphere of the English class……….............................7

5. The Types of Body Language....................................................................8

5.1 Eyesight.............................................................................................8

5.2 Gesture............................................................................................9

5.3 Posture.............................................................................................9

5.4 Facial expression..............................................................................9

6. The Application of Body Language in English Teaching...............10

6.1 Body language in listening…………………....................…….....10

6.2 Body language in speaking…………………………….…....................11

6.3 Body language in reading………………...…………….................12

6.4 Body language in writing……………………………………....................13

7. Conclusion…………………………………………..….......................13

Work cited……………………………………………............................15

1. Introduction

Body language plays a very important role in English teaching. The teachers teach knowledge mainly by verbal communication and nonverbal communication. Many researches of verbal behaviors have been carried out from macroscopic to microscopic. And these researches and achievements have carried class teaching to a new stage and made English teaching a great improvement. However, the nonverbal communication of being overlooked is another very important way to spread information. Body language is a basic tool to communicate with others and convey information, thereby the teachers should never ignore it in English teaching. Some teachers do not have a clear idea about the influence of body language and they maybe only use verbal language in class, which makes the class boring and difficult to understand. As a result, the efficiency of the classroom is low. Actually teachers can transmit much more information by their varied body language to the students and make the class more interesting. If teachers use more body language in English teaching these body language will influence the students’ intelligence and inner world deeply. Body language as one of the most important kinds of nonverbal communication should be paid much more attention. This paper will roundly focus on the research of application of body language in English teaching in primary school.

2. Literature Review

Body language is much earlier than natural language. There has been body language since the existence of human beings. For a long time, body language was the main tool of human communication. Only after the sound language and text came into being, did it drop to an auxiliary position. The time of body language as a kind of teaching method began to be used by human is unknown. Somebody think ancient Greek from B.C.400 to 600 had interests in nonverbal communication (Malandro 36), but some people think that people at that time usually used gestures and body language in speech. The last view is 1872, Darwin explained the relationship between animal movement and human movement, he is considered as the father of modern nonverbal communication. In modern times, some scholars have been studying human nonverbal behavior and special body language. They succeed in setting nonverbal communication as a new branch through their efforts .

In 1940, some scholars, such as F. Boas, E. Sapir，W. LaBrre and D. Efron definitely pointed out that human body movement code can be revealed. Later there were four studying body language pioneers: R.Birdwhistell，E.Goffman，A.E.shelfen and A.Kendon. Their studies reached a climax in 1960s. In America, hundreds of researchers studied the new branch of learning nonverbal behavior from former disciplines (Zhuangamp;Li 223). Without varied, harmonious body language, there are no vivid and moving effects. If the teachers without several of expression transmit knowledge in class, at this moment, they just are megaphones. They are not respectable, interesting and humor teachers (Li 44). Therefore, body language is so important that the teachers should learn to properly use it in English teaching.

3. The Introduction of Body Language

3.1 The definition of body language

Body language is known as non-verbal behavior which transmits information through eye contact, gestures, posture and facial expression. People communicate with each other by their body language in the ways of nodding, waving, eye contacting, shrugging and so on. Body language can be divided into eyesight, posture, gesture, manner, facial expression, and clothes language (Bi 107). The main characteristics of body language are universality and intuition. The wide use of body language makes communication simple, quick and flexible. Body language with flexible and changeable expressions, movements and posture, forms a certain human body image to express the meaning of expression, exchange information and directly appeal to the visual organs of people, which has the features of visual image.

3.2 The background and present situation of using body language in Teaching

3.2.1 The background of using body language in Teaching

Body language used in education has been a long history, but it was officially applied and educated more than 400 years ago. It was the first great French deaf and dumb educator, father Depera, who invented the sign language for the sake of expression. In 1960, his hospice became a school, and he was appointed the first president, and from then he devoted himself to the teaching of body language.

Foreign language learning also plays an important role in the history of application of body language in teaching. In 1887, Mrs. Mei Naide, the American missionary, founded a school in Shandong, mainland China. She taught oral English with body language. The application of body language in this kind of education is concerned by the people of the educational circles. It is believed that body language can play an auxiliary role in the education of foreign languages. It is believed that the use of body language can improve students" interest in learning foreign languages and improve the students" ability to use body language and exchange their hands and brain when communicating with each other. Gestures, eyesight, facial expression and posture make body language widely used in teaching, especially in the field of foreign language teaching

3.2.2 The present situation of using body language in Teaching

In the new curriculum standard of primary school English, it has been advocated that teachers should use English as much as possible in primary school English class and create a good English learning environment for students. But for the students in China who have just come into contact with English, it is unrealistic. They cannot speak English very well, neither can they understand and master the language by listening to the teachers only. English is a new and unfamiliar field. Their vocabulary and expressive ability are extremely limited too. These limitations make them have difficulties in understanding the English teachers in the class when the teachers teach in English all the time. If teachers say a lot that they can"t understand, they will gradually feel bored, lose confidence and interest in English learning, and even They will have a fear of English learning. But if the teacher uses body language to assist the teaching, the situation is different. Students can guess the teachers’ meaning and intentions according to the teachers’ gesture and posture, as a consequence, their interest can be attracted quickly and they will be more and more confident in English learning.

Modern English teaching attaches a great importance to visual teaching, and some advanced teaching aids are also widely used. But most of the teaching aids have their shortcomings, they need a large investment and are used complicatedly. Some machines are not convenient to carry and do not achieve the desired effect. On the contrary, body language is free from any restrictions, and can be used anytime and anywhere. Teachers can change their facial expressions, gesture and body flexibly to arouse the attention of students through the whole English classroom teaching activities.

4. The Necessity and Importance of Using Body Language in English Teaching in Primary School

Linguist Grant Hennings believes that 82% of classroom effects are achieved through human actions such as teachers" facial expressions and manners. Only 18% of information is expressed through linguistic behavior. Body language can express something that verbal language can not directly express. In the English teaching activities, many teachers usually used to teach students knowledge by speaking or writing on the blackboard. As we know, this kind of teaching way is too rigid to arouse the interest of students. Psychological studies have shown that maintaining the same attitude for a long time can make people tired and disgusted, and if students have a sense of boredom, they will be depressed in class and their attention will be not concentrated. Learning a second language needs persistent passion. However, in this condition, the students have not enough passion to be motivated. They are longing for freedom to study in a fresh way. So I surely believe that body language is a more effective language in teaching. American psychologist Albert Merabien pointed out the conclusion through experiments: 55% information is passed through the body language. It can be seen that body language plays a very important role in English teaching. The linguist Mr. Gu once said that foreign language teachers should be able to perform and dance for joy, make a vivid gesture, movement and countenance as an actor, should not always be gentle and cultivated or just stand stiffly on the platform (Gu 199). If the teachers can use the body language properly, correctly, naturally and harmoniously, teachers can organize the teaching procedure well and improve the teaching effect. As a matter of fact, body language can help teaching more effectively than the speaking language in certain cases. From the above we can learn that the use of body language in English teaching is necessary and practical.

4.1 Strengthen the teacher’s charm

A lot of conscious or unconscious body language can reflect teachers’ psychology and quality, because of the authenticity of the body language. The students will be affected by the teacher"s words and deeds gradually. When teachers have graceful body languages, they will have a good effect on students naturally. if the students develop a wonderful body language, which will possibly leads them to form optimistic and active feelings. They will surely have a more smooth interpersonal relation. Body language is not only teachers’ civilization accomplishment, but also links to the teachers’ profession image. Students like to imitate the teachers’ words and deeds. When teachers have good body language, they will leave a good impression on the students. So appropriate, elegant and abound individual glamour body languages still can strengthen the teacher’s charm in students’ hearts.

4.2 Arouse students’ interest

Teachers are organizers and helpers of classroom teaching. They should adopt various teaching methods to stimulate students" interest in different levels, so that students dedicated themselves body and soul to the classroom activities. At the same time, it is necessary to use a certain performing art to organize the students to reproduce the scene, try to arouse the students" intentional attention, stimulate the students" emotion, and make the students devote themselves to the study in a happy and relaxed mood. Since body language have direct audio-visual effects on receives, students are more likely to pay attention to it. It is the same in classroom, teachers’ body language can arouse students’ interest easily. As an old saying goes, interest is the best teacher. The teachers’ appliance does not focus on teaching itself only, and the students can absorb better if they study at their own will (Cooper 18). The teachers have to stimulate the students, and the way teachers use to motivate them can be very important. If the teachers just speak without gesture, students will feel bored and dull. On the contrary, If the teachers have body language in class, the students will have interest in class. Also it can provide a lot of entertainment to reduce students’ pressure as well. In order to attract students’ attention and facilitate learning, the teacher should use body language in class consciously

4.3 Deepen students’ impression

According to the scientific test: 80% human memory is established by vision. Memory has a very important position in learning. The nature of the children is active, teachers use body language to lead the students to learn by action, which enable students to release part of physical strength and increase students’ interest. In addition, children’s thinking generally belongs to the image thinking, the use of body language teaching promotes students to achieve natural memory in the language environment of words, phrases and sentences through internalized understanding, behavior response, listening and speaking practice. They feel relaxed and natural, without pressure, and naturally learn knowledge while they are happy. This kind of memory is pleasant, reliable and low forgetting rate. For example, during the teaching of animals: dog, cat, rabbit and other animal words, teachers can copy the corresponding animal movements, such as the word rabbit, teachers can put two "V" gestures on the head, and say that rabbit, rabbit, jump, jump, jump. and ask students to follow, deepen single word impression. When teachers teach the word dog, they can stick out their tongues. As long as the teacher do the action later, students will be conditioned to associate the word rabbit or dog. There is no doubt that teachers" body language helps students remember more deeply.

4.4 Reduce the use of the Chinese language

In the English course of primary school, creating a strong English atmosphere is one of the most important links in teaching. Only when students are in the atmosphere of English will they make it unconsciously speak English. In language teaching, teachers are always encouraged to reduce the use of native language so as to create a more authentic context for language learning. However, body language and oral expression have the same characteristics, that is, the more complex the content of conversation, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding. Another reason for learning difficultly in English is that the primary school students just touch English, most of the teachers often have to use too much native language, which may have negative effect on language teaching and learning. One of the functions body language can serve is to make some explanations or evaluations. They can use body language to substitute their spoken words, which will do well to achieve the goal that teaching English by English, and saving much class time for students’ practice. For example, Pupils are not self disciplined and cannot sit right after the bell rings. At this time the teacher needs a hint ‘sit down’. if he just speak English alone, students must be confused. The teacher needs to have a good posture at the same time. And then students can immediately understand the instruction and act. So did stand up. Moreover, let students take out the English book, as long as the teacher picked up an English book from the desk with please take out your English book. Students will do it immediately. Teachers needn’t speak listen carefully in Chinese, they can only use a finger to circle the ear and students will understand. The tacit agreement between teachers and students will be better and better. Everything will be understand without mother tongue, so that we can create a good atmosphere for English teaching.

4.5 Enliven the atmosphere of the English class

One of the aims of teaching is to cultivate students" ability of self-study independently. The brain of the primary is at their developmental stage. Being active and playful is the nature of children, and it is an inevitable desire for students to behave themselves. In class, teachers make good use of children"s nature, which will greatly improve the quality of teaching. If the teacher can use body language in English teaching, let the students imitate learning, the classroom atmosphere will be active immediately, which will greatly stimulate the interest and enthusiasm of students. This not only guides the students to actively participate in English learning, but also narrow the distance between teachers and students. Once the students have eliminated the fear, they will naturally love the subject. With body language teaching, students can easily understand, once they understand, students will have the desire to learn and they will feel that the class is a kind of enjoyment. Body language has increased the image and interest in English classroom teaching, attracted the attention of students, stimulated the students" interest and motivation to participate in learning, and greatly stimulated the students" desire to perform. Finally the class will be harmonious and active.

5. The Types of Body Language

5.1 Eyesight

The eyes which are the window of the mind can express delicate emotions. Emerson believed that human eyes transmit as much information as they say. Without a dictionary, you can understand the soul world from the language of the eyes. Teachers and students communicate with each other through eye contact. Two kinds of eye language commonly used by teachers are sweep and gaze. sweep means scanning the ring in a larger range. Sweep is like a baton of music command, taking care of every musician in the orchestra in order to play a beautiful and harmonious movement together. If there is no sweep in the whole class, teachers will not be able to mobilize the learning emotions of the whole class effectively, instead, they will give students the impression of being stiff or arrogant. The other common eye language is gaze. Gaze is that eyesight is fastened to someone or something for a long time. It can be divided into serious attention, teaching attention and close attention. Teachers" different eyesight can adjust students" emotional changes. Teachers" friendly and caring eyes can enable students to feel the love and encouragement from their teachers. On the contrary, teachers’ cold and solemn eyes indicate warnings and criticisms. Teachers must use their eyes reasonably in class. The efficiency of classroom teaching is directly related to the eye contact between teachers and students during the teaching period. Excellent teachers are always good at making use of their eyes. It can be used to organize classroom teaching order, or to stimulate students" thinking, or to reproduce text emotion. The classroom without harmonious eye contact will certainly not be an efficient classroom.[Li Body 102]

5.2 Gesture

Gestures refer to various gestures of hands and arms used to indicate. Communicators can understand the true state of each other through body language. Gestures are a very complex body language. It is a very important tool for human communication. Specific gestures represent specific emotions. For example, cross arms will hide your emotions so that outsiders can"t peep at your heart as if you have erected a roadblock, so no one dares to come to the roadblock. However, if this posture is maintained for too long, you will inevitably feel negative. Of course, if you feel cold, it"s natural to hold your arms and warm up. In all kinds of human body language, its status can be said to be in keeping with people"s facial expressions. As an important part of body language. Gestures are called the second language in language teaching. In the course of teaching, teachers can use the various forms of different parts of the hand to replace the language in classroom teaching, in order to achieve less words and to purify the language of the classroom. For example, when a student answer the question correctly, the teacher’s erect thumbs will show praise, when a student speak aloud with others, the teacher’s index finger pressed up on the lips will indicate that the students should be quiet.

5.3 Posture

In the classroom teaching, the main posture of the teacher is the standing position, that is to stand on the platform or move back and forth. The experiment shows that different teachers" stations will give students different psychological feelings, for example, if a student does not listen carefully or does not behave well, the teacher walking around the student will make the student change the misbehavior quickly.

5.4 Facial Expression

Facial expression refers to a way of communicating information through facial expression. Romain Rolland, a famous writer, once said that facial expression is a language that has been cultivated successfully after many centuries, and is more than 1000 times as complex as the mouth. Therefore, People have to admit that no matter what you say, people believe in your facial expressions, not your words. Facial activity is second only to eyes. Though you try to hide your emotions, your pursed lips and flashing eyes will give you away. Teachers should be good at using different facial expressions to assist and organize teaching. It can also transfer other people"s emotions. If teachers can apply facial expressions to the classroom teaching properly and freely according to different situations in class, the class will be easy and efficient . For example, when teachers ask questions, they can use facial expressions to respond to students. if the students answer correctly, the teacher can smile to them, so they will feel happy and to be encouraged, which gives them confidence to make greater efforts in learning.

6. The Application of Body Language in English Teaching

6.1 Body language in listening

The Greek philosopher Epictetus ever wittily said that nature has give man one tongue and two ears that he may hear twice as much as he speaks. Form the saying we can learn the important of listening in our daily life. The most basic purpose of English teaching is to make students understand others, so teachers need to train the students’ listening accordingly. The best way to train students" listening is to use English as much as possible in class. In the introduction of the new text, it is inevitable to appear some new words or phrases. However, in the process of English teaching, body language can eliminate the conflict of thinking between English and Chinese, and avoid speaking Chinese in the English class. For example, when students study these new words: jog, walk, run, jump, teachers can teach these words with the four different actions to explain. In this way, students can understand their meanings deeply, also can distinguish the differences between them clearly. Similarly, the teacher can ask a student to read these words while the other student makes the corresponding movements to deepen their memory. Also when beginning a new lesson, the teacher narrates the story outline in English. The body language may be a great help. For example, when the teacher describe a person who has a short hair and big eyes, he can point his head and open his eyes and said that she has a short hair and big eyes. Then he raised his hand and said that she is tall and she is slim. The teacher said she is so beautiful a lady with opening his eyes widely. As a result, the students will have such an impression: She is very beautiful lady. A teacher who used the body language will surely achieve a better effect. And these body language may help the primary school students understand the story more easily and intuitively. The teacher make use of students’ various senses to improve the quality of English teaching and enhance the memory of students. there is no doubt that students’ enthusiasm will be aroused and the interaction of teachers and students will be more harmonious. The students" listening level has been improved unconsciously. So for students and teachers, using body language to improve the primary school students’ listening is a practical and effective way. Teachers need to try their best to use body language in teaching English listening.

6.2 Body language in speaking

English Teaching in primary schools mainly focuses on students" sense of language and their ability to communicate in English in a preliminary way. In English teaching and learning, the pronunciation of letters or words is so important that teachers often spend much time teaching it. Only students learn the correct pronunciation can students use them accurately. For example, when teaching words mouth and mouse, teacher can teach well with the help of body language. The pronunciation of these two words does not seem to be very different, but the position of the pronunciation is exactly opposite. When teaching these words, the pronunciations of ‘th’ and ‘se’ are difficult to pronounce and distinguish, the teacher can make students look at the position of the mouth and tongue carefully. They will speak clearly with observing the teacher’s body language. Students’ ability of speaking is central to the English teaching and learning. Many students refuse to speak English because of their mistakes in pronunciation. Therefore, teachers should pay close attention to students" pronunciation problems and help them overcome these problems through body language. Factually body language plays an important role in a certain degree. What’s more, the focus of Contemporary English teaching has gradually fallen into the teaching of spoken English. The first lesson of every unit begins with dialogue. The teaching aims require the teachers to organize the class to practice speaking English according to the characteristics of dialogue. Generally speaking, body language can arouse and sustain the students’ interest of learning and using English. In the English class, the teachers should not only use body language themselves, but also ask the students to use it according to the different situations. Take it for example, the first lesson in unit one of the book of Oxford English grade three is about the greet when the new students firstly meet, and they do not know each other. So the teacher can say something about herself. During the introduction, he should use the new vocabularies and sentence structures together with a vivid expression and gestures as possibly as she can. She smiles when she says hello to the class, she waves a hand with saying:‘Nice to meet you.’ and then she can write down her name on the blackboard. At the same time, she can introduce her hobbies with some body language such as running or playing. After her introduction, he can create a good circumstance for the students to practice speaking English. For example, Daniel and Millie are new classmates. They are walking together in the street, and they meet one of Daniel’s old friends Tom. Then Millie and Tom are introduced to each other by Daniel. After the students’ practice, they can remember the dialogue. Usually, using body language in different situations will help students speak more English and result in an attractive and successful lesson.

6.3 Body language in reading

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