Kyoto ETJ Presentation January 13, 2008

“Increasing the Effectiveness of Classroom Activities (with nonverbal awareness)”

by Eric Kane

Eric Kane made a presentation on the importance of using nonverbal communication to
increase the awareness of your students while teaching English.

First Eric made the point of the importance of the backgrounds of the teachers. He then
asked all of us what our majors were in college. This influences how we see teaching a
language and guides the decisions we make in our curriculum and classroom technique.
Also the background of the students was also of importance in how they are learning
the language.

Eric set some parameters of what communication is for the purpose of the meeting.

“Communication is the intentional or unintentional sending and receiving of messages,
often involving feedback.”

“Nonverbal Communication=wordless messages.”

“Language (words) is a small part of out ability to communicate”.

Therefore communicating with people involves a lot more than simply speaking. An
aura of body language, cultural background, and environment “communicates” more
than the spoken words. Eric then demonstrated this by having all of us try to
communicate with each other without saying any words. We tried to show interest and
convey friendliness to another. Eric made the point that students have to be ready to
receive your message. This can be done using nonverbal communication.

Eric had a pie chart showing three elements of communication.
Vocal tone 38%
Body Language 55%
Words 7%

(Eric pointed out the exact percentage may vary from person to person. Nevertheless
they do demonstrate the importance of nonverbal communication)

The elements of nonverbal can be grouped in two categories
1. Things we can control
2. Things we can’t

Things we can control. At that point the meeting broke into groups. We brainstormed
more specific examples of things we can control in the class.

Examples that came up; Shaking hands, posture, facial expressions, appearance, voice,
tone, speaking speed, hairstyle, clothes, expression in your eyes, smile, proximity, how
you listen, confidence, breathing (and breath), the way you move, stand and touch
people, color choice, silence, temperature, organization. A million other possibilities
exist. By controlling, or a least being aware of, these things we can make choices in the
classroom that will bring a better understanding of the language being taught and a
more enjoyable lesson for the students.

Controlling your environment e.g. your classroom was also discussed. Things like the
color of your wallpaper, the proximity of your material, the layout of your school all can
be used to enhance your students learning experience.

Eric then discussed using these techniques for story books and songs. Again we broke
up into groups to brainstorm some ideas. Examples were; pre-reading activities (silent
reading, vocabulary identification, etc.) pausing to build up suspense, speed, emotion,
placement (where books are when students enter the room) etc. All this elements will
help pull students into experiencing the book and enhance their learning.

With songs some examples were starting and stopping the music, having no music,
changing the lyrics, pre-singing activities, pictures, speed control, word emphasis,
emotion , dancing and other actions.

In summary Eric said;
“If we place more focus on communications as a whole, our students will be more
engaged, more well-rounded communicators and generally enjoy their experience
more.”


These notes courtesy of William Letham.