英语专业毕业论文.doc

The Use of Body Language in Children English Teaching

I. Introduction
Children were born with a unique feeling and a special observational angle to the world, they are lively, curious about the surroundings; and they have a strong imitation ability, intellectual curiosity and creative thinking. As children’s thinking is intuitive and concrete, their thinking mainly depends on the specific image, appearance and the associations of appearance. So, their language learning can not be separated from the specific objects, actions and situations. Therefore, in most cases children understand and express language through intuitive movements, expressions or specific situation.
American body language expert Patti Wood1 found in a long-term experiment: if a person wants to convey complete information to others, simple language only covers 7%, tone 38%, and the other 55% of the information needs to be conveyed by non-verbal language. American psychologist Edward T. Hall2 also pointed out in his book the Silent language 3: the silent language not only shows much more meaning than the sound language, but also much more profound, as sound language tends to hide many or even most meaning of the expression. No matter “Non-verbal language” or “silent language”, both of them mainly refer to body language. So it is clear that body language plays a communicative role which can not be replaced by sound language, as it emphasizes the contents of the speech and increase special significance to the speech. Then, what is body language?
Body language, which is an important medium people use to communicate with each other, refers to the patterns of facial expressions and gestures people use to express their thoughts and feelings in communication. 4It not only refers to the body movements, gestures, postures, facial expressions, eye contact, voice, etc. in our ordinary sense, but also the space occupied and clothing. One of the most important features of body language is its large amount of information. One’s eye contact, clothing, gesture, posture, distance with others, voice pitch, language rhythm can transmit variety of information simultaneously. It is limited and abstract for one to convey information only relying on hearing in communication; and appropriate use of body language is more visual, vivid and concrete, and can make the communication easier. As most of the body language is shown subconsciously, most of them reflect the actual state of people’s mind. As a result, the reliability of their information is much stronger. In addition, information of body language is continuous and changeable, people’s every movement, facial expression changes in the conversation pass the information at all times; as long as the two sides within the audio-visual scope, their language exchange of the information will continue, and the constant change of their facial expressions, gestures and body positions can cause visual attention of those who stimulate their interest.

II. The Function of Body Language in Children English Teaching
A. Subsidiary Function
Subsidiary function is the main function. Firstly, if body language is applied in class teaching appropriately and reasonably, the transmission of the sound language can be enhanced. In class, students learn primarily through auditory and visual, and the flow of these two sources is determined by the exciting of auditory and visual nervous system. If teachers can not send out information with body language during the output of sound information to the students, the “gate” of students’ visual system will be shut down, and the information that students obtained by auditory system alone would be greatly reduced. Secondly, body language enables language expression more vivid. For example, when someone tries to prove his loyalty, he always says, “I swear”, and at the same time raises his right hand above his shoulder with palm forward. In this way, the language appears more vivid. Thirdly, it can increase the content of semantic information, and deepen the content of expression. For example, if a teacher wants somebody to answer a question, he can hand up and ask with a smile, “Who can answer the question?”Thus, students will not be nervous and willing to answer it. And if the right answer is given, the teacher could send students a favorable gaze, thumb up or give him a clap; then students would be more proud than be given a common of only “good” by teacher.
What’s more, with the reform of English teaching method, English teachers often use English to achieve the purpose of Communicated English5. Simultaneously, however, children cannot speak English very well, as their vocabulary and expressive ability are limited. These limitations make it difficult to realize the utilization of Communicated English in classes; therefore body language is required by both teachers and students. For example, when a teacher gives out an instruction, “You two, please come to the blackboard.” Students can easily understand it if the teacher looks at or points to two of students and then he points to the blackboard. The students will carry out the order without obstacle even if they do not understand the key word “blackboard”. Thus, we can realize that in English teaching on children, the appropriate use of body language is necessary and practical, which can not only enrich the teaching methods, but also develop the students’ interest in learning English, improve their understanding ability, and play a very important subsidiary role.

B. Feedback Function
Feedback is not only an important mechanism for class activities, but also an important channel for teachers to understand students in psychology and learning conditions. Classes are the special environments which do not allow students to disturb arbitrarily with oral language. In order to get the teaching effect on time, teachers can only rely on the physical feedback of students. When students’ physical feedback is the same as the teacher’s expectation, the teacher could confirm his teaching content, method and behavior, and go on with recent process and plan; On the contrary, teacher should adjust the lecture content, improve the teaching method and expression in time in order to improve the teaching effect. For example, if students frown, it may mean that they “do not understand”; if they twist the bodies, it often shows they are “impatient”, and then teacher should adjust the lecture process or method.
C. Substitute Function
The sound language teaching is the most important means of information transmission in English teaching. However, in some cases, body language can replace the sound language in expression. According to the survey, if teachers keep far from students, and without expressions and gestures, students can receive only 25% of the information teachers send out; if visual aids (charts, captions, etc.) is used, the information that students receive can up to 40-50%; if gestures, movements, facial expressions are used, the students can receive more than 75%.6 Information or instructions provided through facial expressions, gestures or behaviors by teachers are useful in attracting students’ attention and inspiring their learning initiative. And the knowledge and information that students received directly from the teachers’ body language is the most impressive. For instance, as the words “laugh”, “smile” and “grin” are similar in meaning, so it is difficult for students to distinguish these words without facial or body language. However, if facial expressions and appropriate movements are used, the abstract meaning becomes concrete and intuitive, and students can easily understand the difference among these synonymous words.

D. Regulatory Function
Monotonous teaching makes children tired and bored, and even loses their attention in study. The use of appropriate gestures, facial expressions or posture can regulate the atmosphere and keep the lecture lively, vivid, and eliminate the fatigue of students. At the same time, proper body language can effectively control the students’ behavior in class. For example, if a student does not pay enough attention, the teacher can slow down or stop the speech and stare at him. In this condition, this student would look up at the teacher, stop his action immediately and concentrate on the lecture. This approach not only corrects the students’ bad behavior, but also maintains the normal order of the lecture. When the class atmosphere becomes lifeless or students are abstracted, teacher can design a body language game -- look and guess. Teacher performs an action on the stage, and then lets students guess what the action refers to freely. Take the learning of the adjective “funny”, “young”,“ old”, “active” for example, teacher can make a face, and students would say “funny”. Teacher pretends to gasp and cough as if he is very old, and students would say “old”. Teacher can also ask a student to perform and let others guess. This game not only recalls a large number of learned words, but also enriches the imagination of the students.

III. The Concrete Application of Body Language in Children English Teaching
A. Classification of Body Language
1. Facial Language
Facial language generally expresses through the action or state of eyes, eyebrows, lips, tongue and facial muscles, such as frown, pout, wink and so on. Generally speaking, facial expression which is showed by the change of the facial organ is random and spontaneous, but it can also be controlled. In communication, sometimes people control their own expression to reach the effect they want. In English teaching on children, the change of teacher’s facial expression will affect the teaching effect directly. In normal circumstance, teachers should keep smiling and have rich facial expressions in order to attract students and create a harmonious atmosphere.
a. Smile Language
Smile is a simple but attractive facial expression, but not everyone has realized its importance. According to a survey7, more than 95％ of students like teachers keeping smiling in classes, it is because smiles can make people relaxed and cheerful, and eliminate the tension and timidity. Slimes can also make the teacher-student relations closed. Therefore, smiling in teaching can influence the students’ attitudes towards studying by invisible mental force. For instance, if teachers get into the classroom with a smile, the class atmosphere will be much relaxed and in that case students are glad to express themselves freely; if teachers stare at students with a sincere smile when they are asking questions or expressing their own opinions, students always feel encouraged greatly and their self-confidence are normally be enhanced.
b. Eye-contact Language
As the saying goes，eyes are the window of the soul. Eye-contact is the expression of the inner world of teachers and students. Eye-contact causes the delicate exchange of feelings through eyes--open, close, squint, stare, blink, etc. On one hand, students can get strength and self-confidence from the eye-contact with teachers and listen to teachers carefully; on the other hand, learned information could feed back to teachers through the expression of the children’s eyes, and provides a basis for teachers to examine their teaching effect and let them adjust teaching method accordingly.
Teachers’ warmly gaze can narrow down the distance between teachers and students. If a teacher often keeps a cold face, students would be nervous and fearful once they see the teacher. Every child needs to be accepted and respected, and teachers’ attitude upon them is very important for them and far more than their parents’, partners’ and others. Children believe that their teacher’s attitude towards them reflects the degree of their knowledge, ability and teachers’ judges whether they are good students or not; their pure, tender and sensitive hearts need to be encouraged by their teachers. Sometimes, too much interpretation may delay the progress and instruction of teaching, so eye-contact is a good way to save time and energy. For example, if some students do not listen carefully and do something irrelevant, in order not to interrupt the teaching thread, teachers can remind the students by eye-contact. Thus, children get the signal of “stop” and their self-respect is well protected.

2. Clothing Language
Different clothes give people different impressions and feelings. The decent, generous and clean clothes can not only show the self-cultivation and knowledge level of teachers, but also attract the attention of students, so that students could feel joy and relax, and enjoy learning with the teacher. Psychological studies have shown that children born with the aesthetic and observational ability, and they are outspoken, once the teacher enters the classroom they may comment on what they are watching. Children’s impression to teachers would affect the teachers’ position in these children’s minds; furthermore affects the emotional attitude of the students.
At the same time, it is noteworthy that as children's teacher, the clothes should neither be too old-fashioned nor too strict, and teachers can wear lively, vivid and casual clothes. On the one hand, the style of clothes gives the students a feeling of freshness, and makes students’ attention concentrated unconsciously; on the other hand, it is in line with the children’s aesthetic idea, so that they prefer keeping close to their teachers, and regard teachers as their friends.

3. Movement Language
Movements mainly include the hand movements and body postures. Teachers’ accurate and appropriate gestures and body postures can not only transfer thoughts and express emotions, but also increase the efficiency of class instructions. The effect of movement language is broad. For instance, when teaching the beginners letters, teachers can fully mobilize every part of the body and make out the shapes of letters. Thus, the class would be much interesting, the impression of the letters will be remembered much deeper and the memory efficiency will be greatly improved.
a. Gesture Language
Gesture language mainly is accomplished through hand (one hand or both) and finger movements, such as saluting, snapping one’s fingers, and thumbing one's nose at somebody and so on.8 It includes implied signals (e.g. pointing to the blackboard or a picture), described signals (e.g. drawing contour) and information tips, which can attract students’ attention and create a relaxing atmosphere.
In the teaching process, teacher can use gesture language to replace the speech or increase the expressive force of the speech, so that the lectures could become vivid and interesting. The gesture language should come out naturally and change with the teaching content. The appropriate gesture language can not only improve the teaching effect efficiently, but also show the demeanor and temperament of the teacher. Of