Abstract:

One of the best-known percentages in the communication field can be traced back to 1967, to the research conducted by Albert Mehrabian et al., claiming that the meaning of an oral message consists of a formula which combines words, voice, and body language (7% verbal, 38% vocal, and 55% facial). However their conclusions have been challenged since then and regardless of the controversies related to their methods or results, the importance of non-verbal cues for the encoding and decoding of verbal messages comes through as indisputable. Facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, voice contextualize the message, complete the meaning of words, and enhance rapport. Given these thoroughly researched functions, it becomes clear that teachers also rely, either involuntarily, or strategically, on such tools that can improve communication and make learning more efficient.

This paper focuses on how non-verbal cues can be used to support the language learning process, by analyzing teacher non-verbal behavior in relation to student feedback, as well vocabulary acquisition for A1 level learners. Consequently, the study explores two categories of non-verbal components: the spontaneous use of gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, distance, and voice by teachers, with the purpose of illustrating verbal messages, supporting learning, and establishing rapport, and the strategic use of such behaviors to teach vocabulary, in order to help A1 students make consistent and coherent connections between words and their gestural counterparts. We shall refer to kinesics (posture, head movements, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact), paraverbal language (pitch, volume, rate), and proxemics.

In order to draw conclusions on the usefulness of non-verbal cues in teaching, as well as to propose didactic methods that would involve their use, this study draws upon data collected during Romanian foreign language classes, beginner level, and proceeds to quantitative and qualitative processing of classroom observation sheets and interviews.

Keywords:

Non-verbal cues, foreign language learning, kinesics, para-verbal language, proxemics.