The Application of Body Language in Elementary School English Teaching
1. Introduction
In our society, social relationships are based on communication among people. The relationship between teacher and student also belongs to this category. As is known to all, the classroom teaching is the most important way for students to learn English. Due to the important status of English in the world and the gradual popularization of English in our country, English teaching has been set up in elementary school education in our country, especially in coastal cities. English is a totally new language for the children and it, as a language lesson is aimed at making students know how to communicate with each other. As far as English teaching in elementary school is concerned, teachers 本论文由英语论文网/must arouse the students’ interest in order to make them learn better. In fact, there are many ways to arouse the students’ interest and help them to learn better. Since early years, English learning and teaching only concentrate on oral and written English. However, many people are not aware of the functions of body language and therefore do not realize their full potential. Communication theorists assert that in face-to-face communication less than 30% of the information is communicated through speaking, and over 70% of the message is sent by nonverbal means of which the major means is body language. One study done in the United States showed that in communication attitudes 93% of the message was transmitted by voice tone and facial expressions, whereas only 7% was transmitted by words. (Meridians A. & Winner M., 1967) From the above, we can see that body language is an important medium through which people communicate with each other.
2. The notion and patterns of body language
Body language, as is often understood, is the projection of messages through subtle and often unconscious changes in our posture, gestures, body distance and facial expressions. It is important to learn and to recognize the messages that we are transmitting through body language. It is the category of nonverbal symbols created through the body; it means more than just hand or arm gestures; it refers to any small movement of any part of the body. (顾日国，英语毕业论文，1997: 102) To sum up, body language is one of the nonverbal means of communication through which people communicate with each other in social intercourse. It contains gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, and body distance and so on. (亚德里安 弗海姆, 2017: 15)
2.1 Gestures
As the name implies gestures refer to the varied movements and postures created by fingers, palms and arms. Gestures have an extensive sphere of application, and it is very convenient to apply them. Also they could be used freely and they have a lot of variety. Not only can they assist vocal language, but also they could take the place of the latter. Because of this, some people regard gestural language as “the second language of oral expression.”（刘伟，英语论文，2017: 53）For example, when you want to describe the size of a big fish to your students, you could move your hands apart to show how long the fish is. This gesture communicates better than your vocal language.
Gestures are the most utilized and the most intuitive of all the movements that consist body language. (张强，2017: 162) Teachers often use gestures to supplement the spoken word. For example, when instructing the words like “big”, “small”, “high” or “low”, teachers common |
