HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGES OF FOREIGN LANGUEGES ENGLISH DEPATERMENT … … CROSS - CULTURE TOPIC: THE USE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN CLASSROOM Course instructor: Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh Full name : Ho Dang Thu Huyen Student code : 15F7511148 Group :7 HUE, 5/2018 Contents I Introduction II What is Nonverbal communication? III Why nonverbal communication is important in the classroom IV Influences of cultural on nonverbal communication in the classroom V Some differences in the nonverbal communication between Vietnamese students and other countries students in the classroom Eye contact Facial expression Gesture Posture VI Conclusion REFERENCES 10 I Introduction As we know, human beings communicate with others by exchanging information Usually, there are two ways of exchanging information, one is verbal communication, and the other is nonverbal communication Nonverbal communication has been defined as communication without words It includes apparent behaviors such as facial expressions as less obvious messages such as dress, posture and spatial distance between or more people The importance of nonverbal communication has been proven and it is now widely seen in numerous areas such as media, business, interpersonal relationships, education, and politics, and so on A lot of research and discussions on nonverbal communication have been carried out recently; however, there is little mentioning nonverbal communication in classrooms Teachers often complain about discipline, lack of attention, and many other problems of students, many of which lead to a breakdown in communication between teacher and students or between students themselves in the classroom It is well known that speech is only one part of communication, yet teachers often forget about or underestimate the importance of non-verbal communication in their own and their students’ performance (Ledbury 2004) Normally, teachers explain lessons, discuss ideas, or interact with students verbally It is a pity that they rarely use positive nonverbal communication in front of students It is really hard to find a smile on their face, or a glint of amusement in their eyes when they receive the best try from students (classroom observations) That is to say, they are quite unmindful of using nonverbal communication in classrooms, which often results in discouraging students to participate in classroom activities Many teachers not pay enough attention to nonverbal communication in class, contributing directly to failure in achieving teaching goals and students’ acquisition of knowledge However, through nonverbal communication, they can effect personalization between class members and thus lessen the inhibitions which normally plague students In fact, nonverbal communication plays an important role in our daily communication, and it is an indispensable part of in class Therefore, with all the thing concerned above makes me choose the topic "The use of nonverbal communication in classroom" to the essay II What is Nonverbal communication? The communicative behaviors of human beings can be divided into two types: verbal communication and nonverbal communication When it comes to the nonverbal communication, it refers to a form of communication without using the words to express oneself Miller (2005) provides a rather simplistic view of nonverbal communication as communication without words Zoric, G & Pandzic, I S (2007) state that “non‐verbal communication refers to all aspects of message exchange without the use of words” and goes on to say that “it includes all expressive signs, signals, and cues (audio, visual, etc.)” Nonverbal communication includes the use of visual cues such as body language (kinesics), distance (proxemics) and physical environments/appearance, of voice (paralanguage) and of touch (haptics) Nonverbal communication also involves the conscious and unconscious processes of encoding and decoding Encoding is the act of generating information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures For example is only a small percentage of the brain processes verbal communication Nonverbal communication is learned well before a child begins the process of verbal communication (Miller, 2005) The role of nonverbal actions is to assist in the communication process in ways that simple verbalization cannot As infants, nonverbal communication is learned from social-emotional communication, making the face rather than voice the dominant communication channel As children become verbal communicators, they begin to look at facial expressions, vocal tones, and other nonverbal elements more subconsciously Verbal communication only has oral form and written form Different form verbal communication, nonverbal communication has many forms, including gesture, touch, body language, facial expression, eye contact and so on According to the different standards of classifications divided nonverbal communication into four types: body language, paralanguage, object communication, and physical environment Body language refers to designation for instinctive, conscious and conventional expressive movements of the body, including posture, head movements, facial expressions and gesture and so on Paralanguage, sometimes called vocalic, is the study of nonverbal cues of the voice It includes voice quality, emotion, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress These paralanguages may change the meaning of the words Nonverbal communication can be communicated by object communication And object communication includes clothing, hairstyle, architecture, symbols and so on Physical environment also has an influence on communication behaviors However, this environment is not research about the natural environment It includes furniture, architectural style, interior decorating, lighting condition, colors, temperature, noise, and music Also, proxemics and chromatics also are physical environments All physical environment factors may affect the behaviors of the communicators during interaction III Why nonverbal communication is important in the classroom: I think that nonverbal communication is important in the classroom because of the following reasons Firstly, Communication is more than words, and it is important for teachers and students to understand the nonverbal messages they are sending and receiving in the classroom "The telltale body is all tongues," Emerson once said, while West famously noted, "I speak two languages, body and English." Some experts suggest that only seven percent of a message is sent through words, with the remaining 93 percent sent through facial expressions (55 percent) and vocal intonation (38 percent) In the classroom, teachers and students-both consciously and unconsciously-send and receive nonverbal cues several hundred times a day Teachers should be aware of nonverbal communication in the classroom for two basic reasons: to become better receivers of students' messages and to gain awareness of the student's communication Secondly, nonverbal communication has implications for the teacher as well as the students The effective use of nonverbal cues assists in a wide range of classroom practices by use of gesture in normal conversation, teachers can perform aspects of classroom management quickly, quietly and efficiently For example, gestures for 'work in pairs','open your books', 'listen' and 'write' are universal, while individual teachers have developed nonverbal repertoires involving the use of fingers to represent words, expressions to denote approval/disapproval Finally, nonverbal messages are an essential component of communication in the teaching and studying process Obviously, adequate knowledge of the subject is crucial to each teacher's success; however, it's not the only crucial element Creating a climate of learning and retention demands good nonverbal skills in the classroom to increases the degree of the perceived psychological closeness between teacher and student, allow teachers to be better receivers of students' messages and to reinforce learning IV Influences of cultural on nonverbal communication in the classroom: As in most cultures, non-verbal communication plays an important role in society, sometimes to accompany and reinforce linguistic symbols, sometimes as a substitute for words Matsumoto (2006) notes that culture plays a significant role in molding our nonverbal behaviors it is imperative that we understand and recognize cultural influences In the process of making meaning of behavior, it is important to identify nonverbal cues that are considered universal, versus those that carry specific cultural meaning For instance, the easily recognized smile is a common expression of pleasure among all cultures The smile, which is sometimes enigmatic to the American observer, is another nonverbal symbol conveying the feeling of respect in Vietnamese culture It is used as an expression of apology for a minor offense, for example for being tardy to class, or as an expression of embarrassment when committing an innocent blunder For the Vietnamese, the smile is a proper response in most situations in which verbal expression is not needed or not appropriate It is used as a substitute for “I’m sorry”, “Thank you” or “Hi!” It is used instead of a ready yes to avoid appearing overenthusiastic While some nonverbal cues may have universal meaning, the ease with which they are exhibited is also a cultural variable such as the facial expressions A Vietnamese student who sits quietly and listens attentively to the teacher wants to express respect to his teacher This behavior has often been misinterpreted by the American teacher as passivity and non-responsiveness It is also out of respect that the Vietnamese student avoids eye contact with the teacher when speaking or being spoken to By American standards, a person acting in this way would appear suspicious, unreliable, or mischievous In Vietnamese culture, however, looking into somebody’s eyes, especially when this person is of a higher status (in age or in social or family hierarchy) or of a different gender, usually means a challenge or an expression of deep passion The proper respectful behavior is to avoid eye contact in talking who is not an equal or the same sex Moreover, the personality characteristic of people in countries which have an influence on nonverbal communication As Duong, Diller, and Sutherland (1975) state that “According to Vietnamese custom, one should remain modest and humble, showing the extent of knowledge or skills only when asked In Vietnam, there is the motto of saying less than what one actually knows, often an admirable characteristic Modesty and humility for Vietnamese are very important social graces, and deeply ingrained into their identity” Vietnamese students are often the hesitation and shyness They are rather quiet in class and seldom volunteer to express their ideas or to contribute to the lesson, let alone asking the question to the teachers It leads to “one way question” all the time in class In other words, only teachers give out the question and students just wait for the answer And when they are asked to make questions, their response questions usually carry practicing characteristic V Some differences in the nonverbal communication between Vietnamese students and other countries students in the classroom: Eye contact Normally, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and eye contact occurs when people look directly into each other’s eyes while talking Since the visual sense is dominant for most people, eye contact is an especially important type of nonverbal communication The way we look at someone can communicate many things, including interest, affection, hostility or attraction The eyes are said to be the window to the soul, so “the cheapest, most effective way to connect with people is to look them into the eye” (Nicholas Boothman) However, there are differences among different cultures in the way they evaluate the importance of eye contact in communication In the classroom of Vietnam, when students present the presentation, they often avoid eye contact with the audiences or teacher when they talk Because Vietnamese students are hesitation and shyness or even they are not confident and they don’t care about the audiences So it is too difficult for the Vietnamese students to have a successful presentation Whereas, some countries such as America, Hungary, and southern Europe, looking people in the eyes is assumed to indicate honesty and straightforwardness If we communicate without eye contact, people can understand that you are not interested in them, even you are not truthful Unlike Vietnamese students, when students from Western countries present a presentation, eye contact is maintained during the presentation If they look at the audiences’eyes a lot when they talk, the audiences will think that the presenters are pen, friendly, confident, and natural and it also means that the audiences can involve them in your presentation easily Facial expression The human face is extremely expressive, able to express countless emotions without saying a word It can’t be denied that facial expression is mysterious Unlike some other forms of nonverbal communication, facial expressions are universal The facial expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, and disgust are the same across cultures However, the different cultures also construct their own rules for what are appropriate facial expressions For example, smiling facial expressions have many different significant For Vietnamese students, they smile because they not know how to reply to a hard question from their teacher Simply, they smile to express their emotions or they smile because they satisfied with their current environment 3 Gesture The gesture also plays an important role in communication However, the meaning of gestures can be very different across cultures, so it is necessary to be careful to avoid misinterpretation For example, in most countries, shaking head side to side means disagree, but in India it has opposite meaning In English-speaking countries, beckoning people to come with palm up is very common, however, the same gesture in Vietnam, as well as other Asian countries, is considered rude, because it is used to beckon an animal The use of gestures and hand signals help students express themselves and clarify verbal questions or responses Steepling, which is either the process of interlocking one’s fingers or merely placing the fingertips of opposing hands together, is a demonstration of confidence Posture Posture plays a significant role in exchanging meanings because people tend to remember better what they see than what they hear The images always make a deep impression on human brains; especially it is the image of the person who is giving information to a group of people In Vietnam, when speaking to a teacher, posture is very important Slouching and sitting while crossing the legs is not acceptable, while hands in pockets or clasped behind the back is impolite In addition, putting the feet up on a table or chair is shows that they not care about what the teacher is saying and is disrespectful Also, a cap should not be worn, and students need to pay attention to the dress code such as no tank tops or short shorts Teachers should be treated in the same polite way whether inside or outside of class, and they should be referred to 'thầy' (male teacher) or 'cô' (female teacher) Even if the student is older than the teacher, they would still have to use the proper terms of address, but can use the informal way of saying I, 'tôi’ instead of referring to one’s self as “em”, also known as “younger sibling” When the entrance and exit of a teacher in a classroom is made, all students must stand up and slightly bow Opposing a teacher’s thoughts and opinions or lectures is not as open and accepted in Vietnam, as suppose to the United States Different from Vietnam, the relationship between teachers and students in American schools is equal and friendly Students communicate with their teachers freely Teachers receive and evaluate students' opinions without any personal attitude VI Conclusion: To sum up, nonverbal communication is a universal and well‐defined form of interaction When the cultures crossed, nonverbal communication is essential for all of us to become more sensitive, more aware, and more observant to the myriad emotions, gestures, and body language that surround us each day Sometimes, such differences on culture are not easy to realize immediately which leads to misunderstanding Consequently, these differences can reduce the effectiveness of learning and teaching activity In reality, nonverbal communication can improve teaching effectiveness and help for students in learning process The teacher can use nonverbal communication to teach more vivid and visualization Therefore, both students and teachers should know distinctive features of nonverbal communication to help themselves overcome cultural barriers in learning and teaching process to achieve the best effective REFERENCES: Ledbury, R (2004), The Importance of Eye Contact in the Classroom, The Internet TESL Journal, VOL X, No 2 Miller, P W (2005), Body language in the classroom, Techniques Zoric, G & Pandzic, I S (2007), Facial Gestures: Taxonomy and applications of non‐verbal, non‐emotional facial displays for embodied conversation agents, In T Nishida (Ed.), Conversational Informatics: An Engineering Approach West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Matsumoto, D (2006), Culture and nonverbal behavior, The SAGE Handbook of Nonverbal Communicatio Duong, B T & Diller, A-M & Sutherland, K (1975), A handbook for teacher of Vietnamese students: Hints for dealing with cultural differences in schools, US: Center for applied Linguistics Unisquehanoi, Deep cultural, https://sites.google.com/a/unishanoi.org/uniqueunis/vietnam/deep Vietnam Culture, Vietnamese Non-verbal Communication, http://www.vietnamculture.com/articles-55-6/Non-verbal-communication.aspx The progressive Teacher (2007), Effective Body Language In The Classroom, http://www.progressiveteacher.in/effective-body-language-in-the-classroom/ ... https://sites.google.com/a/unishanoi.org/uniqueunis/vietnam/deep Vietnam Culture, Vietnamese Non-verbal Communication, http://www.vietnamculture.com/articles-55-6/Non-verbal-communication.aspx... admirable characteristic Modesty and humility for Vietnamese are very important social graces, and deeply ingrained into their identity” Vietnamese students are often the hesitation and shyness... communication In the classroom of Vietnam, when students present the presentation, they often avoid eye contact with the audiences or teacher when they talk Because Vietnamese students are hesitation