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

VERBAL Y NO VERBAL. ESTRATEGIAS EXTRA-LINGSTICAS: REACCIONES NO

VERBALES A MENSAJES EN DIFERENTES CONTEXTOS.
COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION. EXTRA-LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL
REACTIONS TO MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS.
I.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

What is communication?
Types of communication.

II.

VERBAL AND NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION.

Vocal and non-vocal communication
Types of non-verbal communication: Occulesics, Vocalics, Haptics, Olfactics, Proxemics
Territoriality, Chronemics

III.

COMMUNICATION IN THE CLASSROOM:

The Communicative Approach
The Natural Approach

IV.

EXTRA-LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES
The strategic competence
Strategies: Facial Expression, Gaze, Body Posture, Gestures
Non-verbal method: TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asher, J. 1982 Learning another Language through Actions: The Complete Teachers Guide Book.
Los Gatos, Cal. Sky Oaks Production.
Canale, M., and Swain, M. 1980. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second
language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1).
Hymes, D. 1972 On Communicative Competence in Sociolinguistics. Penguin. London
Krashen, S. and Terrel, T. 1983. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom.
Oxford: Pergamon Press
Masterson, John 1996 Nonverbal Communication in Text-Based Virtual Realities
Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge
Universitiy Press.

COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION. EXTRA-LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL
REACTIONS TO MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS.
I.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

According to MICHAEL CANALE, communication is a process involving a number of

characteristics, it is a form of social interaction taking place in a context, and it is understood
as the exchange and negotiation of information between at least two individuals through the
use of verbal and non-verbal symbols. The communication process falls into some types and
subtypes:
INTENTIONAL:
Linguistic
Verbal (speech)
Non-verbal (writing)
Non-linguistic or paralinguistic (cough, waving hands, etc..)
UNINTENTIONAL:
Informative behaviour
Depending on what we understand by the word verbal, we can make a different taxonomy:
if we understand verbal as vocal the difference will stand between oral and written language, on
the other hand if we interpret its meaning as using words the difference will lie between linguistic
and paralinguistic communication. We will consider the latter.

II.

VERBAL AND NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Verbal communication is the one we mostly use or pay attention to in common circumstances;
it has been far more studied by Linguistics and Semiotics. It roughly includes vocal (oral)
communication and non-Vocal communication, involving the written word, images and other
manners of getting the message across.
Non-verbals are so important in our day to day communications that health professionals,
sales people psychologists and counsellors are all taught these important skills.
Vocal (non-verbal) communication involves the tone, speed, pitch, volume, emphasis, vocal
qualities of the voice as well as sighs, screams, grunts, groans etc. Put any new student out of the
front of the class to speak and they will talk fast, the tone of their voice will rise and fall, they will um
and aah, lose their place, perspire, maybe grunt and groan a little, change feet often, and their voice
may even shake in terror.
Non-vocal (non-verbal) communication involves facial expressions, eye movement, body and
hand gestures, body movements and overall appearance, clothing worn etc
Both verbal and non verbal are equally important at the time of coding or decoding
messages, so, for example, although literally the meaning is the same, it cannot be interpreted the
message I beg your pardon the same way if the tone and pitch, the eye contact or the gestures are
different.
The different types of non-verbal communication use all of our senses, including our sixth
sense, our environment and time, and they are:
Occulesics (Appearance) You can look deeply into a person's eyes and learn who they are,
where they are (for example autism), learn about their character and honesty. People who avoid eye
contact, or drop their eyes and won't look right at you, are often thought to be hiding something, or
being evasive.
Kinesics (Movement ) The word 'kinesics' derives from the Greek word for movement, and
refers to all bodily movements except for those which involve the touching of another person (which
is haptics). The lay term for kinesics is body language. It refers to such things as posture, movement
styles (moving in a dramatic or exaggerated way, or a slow purposeful way) and specific gesture
categories like emblems (which are gestures that have direct verbal translations), and regulators
(to help maintain conversational coherence), adaptors (unintentional nonverbal displays, often in
response to some source of emotional discomfort), and others.
Vocalics (Voice) or non-verbal cues found in a speakers voice. The way an utterance is made,
can have as much or more meaning, than the actual content of the message. Paralanguage is tone,
pitch, volume, regional and national accents, emphasis, sarcasm, emotion, truthfulness or deceit,
hesitancy etc. Personality have an effect on vocal behaviour as well in pitch, breathlessness, volume,
rate, turn-requesting and turn-yielding vocal cues and variety
Haptics (Touch ) Touching is essential to healthy development. Research has shown that
infants deprived of touch failed to thrive. Touch is important for physical and mental health. Touch
also plays an important role in our communication with each other. A gentle touch on the arm can
encourage trust, compliance and in some cases affection. Aggressive touch, will naturally have a
negative effect. Individuals and cultures differ in the amount of social touching

Olfactics (Smell ) one's scents and odors. Though this varies across different cultures, a
persons scent and odors effects what others think of our dental and bodily hygiene, our personality,
our financial state, our culture etc.
Proxemics (spatial relationships) Humans exhibit a need for personal territory, just as
animals do. A real invasion of space can cause anxiety and distress. Even a perceived invasion of
space can lead to 'physiological responses, anxiety cues, withdrawal, decreased task performance,
perceived discomfort, and verbal aggressiveness.
Territoriality differ from personal space in that the personal zone accompanies the person
wherever they go while territoriality is stationary. Territoriality is established very quickly, even in the
classroom. Long-term territory takes on the control of the occupant. This public personal zone, such
as a 'reserved' seat at the bar, an office at work, will become defended territory, however subtle the
defense might be.
Chronemics (Time) Being punctual is held in high regard in many countries and to keep
someone waiting can be taken as a personal insult. On the other hand other (particularly American)
cultures believe in being 'fashionably late'.
However, members of a culture typically know only the gestures from their own society and
country but tend to be ignorant about gestures from all other societies. Different cultures can fail to
understand each other. Some of these cultural differences reflect language and translation problems.
But many others involve subtle differences in etiquette, gestures, values, norms, rituals,
expectations, and other important cross-cultural variations. This is because culture affects almost all
behaviour.
All these cues should be taken into account if we want to have a fluent communication with
our students. Maybe they are not aware of them, but we should, so we can deduce if the
communicative process has been successful or which reactions they have to the different messages
we send to them.

III.

COMMUNICATION IN THE CLASSROOM: THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHES.

IV.

EXTRA-LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES

Within recent or innovative methods and approaches, there are two that could be considered
as the today optimal ways to learn a modern foreign language: THE COMMUNICATIVE AND THE
NATURAL APPROACHES.
The recent emphases on communication, discourse analysis and functions of the language
have led linguists to develop new methods considering the new researches.
When we communicate, we use the language to accomplish some functions such as arguing,
persuading or promising. Moreover, we carry out these functions within a social context. In other
words, students may know the rules of language usage but they are unable to use the language. This
is the main purpose of CLT (COMMUNITY LANGUAGE TEACHING). Some of its characteristics are:
Goals focused on communicative competence, not restricted to linguistic competence.
Form is not the primary framework for organizing lessons but functions (this is the notionalfunctional syllabus)
Accuracy is secondary, fluency is more important.
Students have to use the language productively and receptively.
Authentic material (real speed of dialogues, texts from newspapers, etc..) is used, so
technology (radio, video, TV) can be of some aid for the teacher.
Although less popular and less used than the communicative approach, THE NATURAL
APPROACH is also communication based.
Ideated by Krashen and Terrel, the natural approach could be regarded as the continuation of
TPR for advanced levels.
The goal is that of basic personal communication in everyday language situations. The task of
the teacher is to provide comprehensible input. Learners do not say anything (silent period) until
they feel positive to do it. Student should undergo three stages:
Preproduction stage (listening skills development)
Early production stage (struggles with the language)
Extending production.

Hymes and Campbell and Wales among others reacted to Chomsky's notion of linguistic
competence by introducing the idea of communicative competence.
The language user should have the ability to produce utterances which are not so much
grammatical but, more important, appropriate to the context in which they are made.''
The notion of communicative competence was taken up by various groups of researchers,
including those in second language learning like Canale and Swain [Canale & Swain1980,
Canale1983]. They too had four aspects of communicative competence:
Grammatical competence
This corresponds to Hymes' first aspect and includes knowledge of the lexicon, syntax and
semantics.
Sociolinguistic competence

This is concerned with the appropriateness of communication depending on the context

including the participants and the rules for interaction.
Discourse competence
This is concerned with the cohesion and coherence of utterances in a discourse.
Strategic competence
This is the set of strategies that are put into use when communication fails. These are of two
main types: grammatical strategies that are used when grammatical competence fails, and sociolinguistic strategies that are used in situations when the socio-linguistic competence is inadequate:
this is what is also known as EXTRA-LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES.
Non-verbal communication is an effective way to measure THE REACTIONS of students, learn
what they are feeling and for them to stress meanings. It often originates in the subconscious of the
subject and expresses what he or she may not be able to put into words. The process is so subtle to
the person communicating in this way that he or she will usually fail to recognize what is being
perceived on the other side. This leaves an open door for teachers to explore that which a student
may intend to keep secret. Some of the non-verbal reactions we can control are:
FACIAL EXPRESSION: Facial expression is an indicator of emotions and attitudes as well as
stress makers. If one appears angry while trying to convey a friendly attitude, one is not likely to be
successful. Norms define the standards regarding what can and should be expressed where. The
norms related to expression of emotions vary according to culture.
GAZE: The term gaze refers to a person's behavior while "looking." Gaze avoidance may
occur because of deference to the speaker, fear of revealing feelings, or fear of negative feedback.
We use gaze to express feelings, intentions, and attitudes.
BODY POSTURE: We indicate our attitudes and emotions not only by gaze and facial
expressions but also by our posture and body position. Tightly crossing your arms over your chest
may give the impression of anger or tension. Indifference may be communicated by shoulder shrugs,
raised arms, and outstretched hands. Clenched fists and hunching convey anger. Slouched shoulders
may convey a lack of confidence. In contrast, good posture with the shoulders rolled back in a
relaxed position (not "at attention") - make it more likely that others will view you as self confident.
GESTURES: We use gestures such as head and hand movements to reveal or conceal
feelings. We can use them to add emphasis, to illustrate points, and to manage turn taking. You can
encourage others to continue talking by nodding periodically, whereas some gestures such as
scratching your head or face indicate impatience or disinterest.
Apart from these involuntary reactions, we can work reactions out to teach English in the
classroom by means of the TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE method.
Originally developed by James Asher, Total Physical Response (TPR) is based on the theory
that the memory is enhanced through association with physical movement. It is also closely
associated with theories of mother tongue language acquisition in very young children, where they
respond physically to parental commands.
A typical TPR activity might contain instructions such as "Walk to the door", "Open the door",
"Sit down" and "Give Maria your dictionary". The students are required to carry out the instructions
by physically performing the activities. Given a supportive classroom environment, there is little
doubt that such activities can be both motivating and fun, and it is also likely that with even a fairly
limited amount of repetition basic instructions such as these could be assimilated by the learners.
Among the weaknesses of the method we have
Firstly, from a purely practical point of view, it is highly unlikely that even the most skilled and
inventive teacher could sustain a lesson stage involving commands and physical responses for more
than a few minutes.
Secondly, it is fairly difficult to give instructions without using imperatives, so the language
input is basically restricted to this single form.
Thirdly, it is quite difficult to see how this approach could extend beyond beginner level.
Fourthly, the relevance of some of the language used in TPR activities to real-world learner needs is
questionable.
Finally, moving from the listening and responding stage to oral production might be workable
in a small group of learners but it would appear to be problematic when applied to a class of 30
students.
Among the advantages of the method, it is necessary to say that it was never intended by its
early proponents that it should extend beyond beginner level.
In addition, a course designed around TPR principles would not be expected to follow a TPR
syllabus exclusively, and Asher himself suggested that TPR should be used in association with other
methods and techniques.
Short TPR activities, used judiciously and integrated with other activities can be both highly
motivating and linguistically purposeful.
Many learners respond well to kinesthetic activities and they can genuinely serve as a
memory aid. A lot of classroom warmers and games are based, consciously or unconsciously, on TPR
principles.