TEMA 2: LA COMUNICACIÓN EN LA CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA:

COMUNICACIÓN VERBAL Y NO VERBAL. ESTRATEGIAS

EXTRALINGUISTICAS: REACCIONES NO VERBALES EN DIFERENTES
CONTEXTOS.

1. INTRODUCTION
Historically, communication did not have same prestige in foreign language
teaching (FLT) as it does today. In fact, some schools of thought, like
Behaviourism, believed languages were learnt through a stimulus-response-
reinforcement process; whilst others, such as Cognitivism, argued that the
ability to learn languages was innate.

These approaches to FLT have now been superseded as the Organic

Law for the Improvement in Educational Quality 8/2013 clearly supports the use
of a communicative approach. Thus to able to appreciate the implications of this
decision for teachers and students alike, this essay will firstly answer the
questions what is communication and what is the communicative approach.
Next, verbal and non-verbal communication will be considered in a classroom
context. Finally, the last section will deal with extralinguistic strategies, in
particular non-verbal reactions in different contexts.

2. COMMUNICATION
Although there is no universally accepted definition, it can be seen to be a
process in which one person or group (the sender) evokes an identical meaning
in a second person or group (the receiver), resulting in the meaning being
shared by both people or groups.

The communication process consists of various components: the sender,

the channel, the message, the receiver, feedback, noise and social context. The
key steps through which communication takes place between the sender and
the receiver are:
 Step 1: Idea formation. This is when the sender wishes to communicate
an idea.
 Step 2: Message encoding. Encoding is a process in which the idea is
converted into a perceivable form that can be communicated to others. The
sender makes use of symbols to convert his idea into a message.
 Step 3: Message transmission. The message is communicated to the
receiver by sender through a medium (speech or writing) and a channel, for
example email or face-to-face contact.
 Step 4: Message decoding. This is how the receiver interprets the
message transmitted by the sender.
 Step 5: Feedback. This permits the sender to analyse the efficacy of the
message. It helps the sender to confirm the correct interpretation of the
message by the receiver.
All forms of communication can be categorised as either verbal or non-verbal.
The Order dated 16th June 2014 states that children need to develop a basic
communicative competence in, at least, one foreign language, hence both

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verbal and non-verbal communication must be addressed by teachers in the
classroom.

3. VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Verbal communication refers to how people use language to transmit meaning.
Emphasis must be placed on the word 'use' as languages, like English, are
essentially just a collection of symbols that can be arranged in a particular order
according to a particular grammar. To successfully learn how to use verbal
communication in English, students need to have ample opportunity to use it. It
is only through this use that children will become familiar with the its
characteristics and possibilities.

The main characteristics of verbal communication are:

 Symbols
These are arbitrary representations of something else, which means
there is no direct connection between a symbol and what it represents,
for example the word chair - there is no natural connection between the
object used to sit down on and the symbols that represent it. Its meaning
is established through use.
 Meaning
It can either be denotative or connotative. The former is the general
meaning of word, that which appears in dictionaries. Denoting the same
object or idea by the same words is an obviously fundamental
requirement for communicating. The polysemic nature of words can
make determining meaning more challenging. The connotative meaning
refers to the overtones and implications associated with a word or an
object, for example calling someone a pussycat implies that he or she is
soft and cuddly. Words carry strong and varying connotations in
particular cultures and within particular relationships.
 Relationships
Verbal communication influences relationships, and relationships
influence it, for example the words 'I love you' have different meanings
attached to them depending on the relationship in which they are spoken
and the physical location in which they are communicated.
 Culture
Like in the previous point, verbal communication influences culture, and
culture influences verbal communication. Whenever people communicate
verbally, cultural assumptions are presumed involving appropriateness
and meanings with a given society or group.
 Frames
The use of frames assist people in making sense of verbal
communication by drawing attention to how they should be
communicating, how they might expect others to communicate, and how
they should assign meaning to symbols being used. Both relationships
and culture affect frames giving rise to different ways of communicating
verbally.

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4. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
This type of communication is expressed through non-linguistic means. It
encompasses the actions or attributes of humans, including their appearance,
use of objects, sound, time, smell and space, that have socially shared
significance and stimulate meaning in others. Unlike verbal communication, it is
impossible for humans to stop sending non-verbal messages as frequently they
are transmitted involuntary. They is often ambiguous and therefore subject to
misinterpretation; a yawn may mean a person is tired or bored. All non-verbal
communication needs to be interpreted within a specific context, thus continuing
with the last example, if the person had not slept very well the night before, it
would be logical to conclude that tiredness was the problem.

Non-verbal communication has various functions, which need to be interpreted

correctly by the receiver if they are to understand correctly the message being
transmitted. Non-verbal cues can:
 contradict or negate verbal messages creating a double message - the
words say one thing, the non-verbal cues, another.
 emphasise verbal messages by raising or lowering your voice, or slowing
down the rate of speech.
 regulate face-to-face interactions, for example establishing turn-taking in
a conversation can be done through eye contact, gestures and voice
changes.
 reinforce a message, pointing to the light switch and saying turn it off
helps transmit the idea.
 substitute spoken words. A shrug of the shoulders is frequently used to
express 'I don't know'.

Different types of non-verbal communication exist. Understanding how they can

affect the communication process and its outcome forms part of a student's
learning if he or she is to become communicatively competent.

Kinesics is the study of human body motion, for example the face is the prime
communicator of emotion. The ability to read emotions depicted in facial
expressions determines whether a person is able to respond appropriately to
others' feelings. In general, the ability to read another person's face increases
with familiarity, an understanding of the communication context, and an
awareness of behavioural norms.

Eye behaviours are a key part of interpersonal communication, as they

are used to establish, maintain and terminate contact. As with all non-verbal
cures, the messages humans send with their eyes may be interpreted in a
variety of ways, but there are three central functions eye movements serve:
 Eyes reveal the extent of interest and emotional involvement.
 Eyes influence judgements of persuasiveness and perceptions of
dominance or submissiveness.
 Eyes regulate person-to-person interaction.

Furthermore, LING (1997) points out that eye behaviour can be cultural,
for example people from some cultures may lower their gaze to convey respect;

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however, the same action in other cultures might be interpreted as being
evasive.

Humans communicate through their movements. Ekman and Friesen

identify five categories of non-verbal behaviour to describe bodily cues, namely:
 Emblems: These are movements of the body that are consciously sent
and easily translated into speech, such as a thumbs-up gesture that
means 'okay'. Emblems are frequently used when noise or distance
makes it less feasible to be understood through words alone.
 Illustrators: Like emblems, these bodily cues are sent consciously and
deliberately. They enhance receiver comprehension of speech by
supporting or reinforcing it, for example when someone gives directions,
they normally use illustrators to facilitate your task.
 Regulators: They are cues that are used intentionally to influence turn
taking - who speaks, when and for how long, for example, when
someone nods their head, it usually encourages the speaker to continue.
A person's use or misuse of regulators reveals much about their social
skills.
 Affective displays: are movements of the body that reflect emotional
states of being. Although the face is the prime indicator of emotion, the
body reveals the emotion's intensity. Typically, humans are less aware of
affective displays because they are not intentional.
 Adaptors: These involuntarily reveal information about psychological
states at the same time they meet a person's own physical or emotional
needs. Adaptors include movements such as nose scratches, hand over
lips or hair twirling. Others interpret these as signs of nervousness,
tension or lack of self-assurance.

Paralinguistics refers to the messages humans send with their voice. Often it
is not what is said rather how it is said that determines an interaction's outcome.
Among the elements of paralanguage are pitch, volume, articulation,
pronunciation, hesitations and silence. Each plays a part in the impression
others form of the sender.

Turn-taking is the behaviour associated with role changes between the

speaker and the listener during an oral interaction. Duncan, in his research,
identified several different types of turn-taking cues, ranging from turn-yielding
cues whereby the speaker indicates to the listener that he has finished what he
wants to say and someone else can have their turn, to turn-requesting cues
employed by listener so the speaker relinquishes his turn - these include talking
simultaneously and using buffer words like "you know".

Proxemics is the study of how space and distance are used to communicate.
They signal either desire to communicate or disinterest in communicating.
Proximity or lack of it also indicates how dominant or submissive participants
are in a relationship.

Haptics or touch is usually involved in a human's closest relationships.

Touching signals the desire for closeness as it correlates positively with

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openness, comfort with relationships, and the ability to express feelings, though
it is, in part, culturally conditioned.

5. TEACHING VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN A

CLASSROOM CONTEXT
It is, therefore, essential that foreign language teachers are capable of
incorporating all the different aspects of communication into their daily teaching
so pupils can develop a basic communicative competence as required by the
curriculum.

Consideration must be given to the types of classroom activities which

lend themselves to this type of teaching. Such activities need to be:
 Interactive - as the communication process is essentially an interaction
between the sender and the receiver, hence pupils have to take on an
active role in them, for example taking part in a dramatisation of
storybooks like Jack and the Beanstalk.
 Authentic - only by truly reflecting real-life situations can pupils really
communicate effectively.
 Purposeful - communication takes place because the sender wishes to
express something, thus to be familiar with the different ways of
communicating ideas, all activities must have a purpose.
 Within a context - both the situational and linguistics context exercise a
significant amount of influence over the communication process.

The number of participants in a communicative situation varies -

sometimes communication takes place between two individuals whereas in
other moments it involves a large group. Classroom teaching needs to reflect
these different circumstances as each one has its own set of demands This
can be done through the use of various student groupings.

Appropriate communicative activities include:

 Participating in role-plays, for example buying food items in a
supermarket, allows children, amongst other aspects, to take on other
roles and learn the use of please in English.
 Using a model to write a postcard to a friend.
 Playing games, for example if pupils have been working on physical
descriptions, they could then play who's who to practise describing.
 Give instructions to classmates to see if they can recreate a model of a
monster as part of their Halloween celebration.
 Pretending to be policemen and filling in a form with a suspect's details
and taking their fingerprints.
 Blindfolding a classmate and giving them directions so that they get from
point A to point B correctly and safely.
 Write a review of a theatre trip for the school magazine or blog following
a model as a guide.

These activities require more than the traditional class textbook.

6. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL REACTIONS TO

DIFFERENT MESSAGES

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Those aspects of communication which do not relate to language are called
extralinguistic. In second language learning a learner's age, cognitive style,
personality traits and social and psychological are important extralinguistic
factors that significantly influence language acquisition. For example, the
amount of language exposure a young child has to a second language is
limited, thus he or she is unlikely to be able to express themselves as they may
wish. The use of strategies allow children to overcome many linguistic barriers,
reducing any pressure they might otherwise feel and generally make their
second language learning experience more enjoyable and rewarding.

Marzano and Pickering argue that non-linguistic representations have

positive effects on student learning. Instructional strategies include:
 Engaging in kinesthetic activities, for example through the use of Total
Physical Response in games such as Simon Says.
 Drawing pictures to represent what students want to say.
 Using gestures in a role-play, for example if a student does not know say
a particular word, such as carrots, they can point to them.

7. CONCLUSION
Communication is a complex process encompassing verbal and non-verbal
communication. Teachers need to ensure they incorporate both types into the
teaching-learning process so that pupils become effective users of them, and
thus achieve the goal of being communicatively competent.

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Edge J Essentials of English Language Teaching Longman 1993
 Harmer, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. 2007.
 Horgan R and Hall J Non-verbal communication in Human Interaction
Wadsworth Publishing 2013
 Littlewood, W. (1981) Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge
University Press.
 Widdowson H (2008) Teaching language as communication Oxford
University Press.