Abstract:Human beings have two ways to communicate: verbal communication and nonverbal communication. Body language belongs to nonverbal communication. Body language is the nonverbal specific position or movements people adopt during communication to express feelings, to show attitudes or to convey some information. Body language plays a very important role in human communication especially when verbal communication does not work, it can play a key role in our communication. So just like the importance of body language in our daily life, so body language in the English language teaching, especially in primary school English teaching, also calls for our due attention.

The functions of body language can be summarized as: repeating or emphasizing information, expressing feelings, showing attitudes ,substituting etc. Therefore, in English classroom, body language can be used to demonstrate, suggest, and organized in subtle ways. 

The reason why the primary school English teaching needs the body language during the class time is about: the physical and psychological characters of primary school students, the relationship between verbal and nonverbal communication and the current situations, that is to say, the economic globalization and world multi-polarity. Moreover, China’s rapid modernization demands that the culture of English-speaking countries should be involved in English teaching, so, the teaching of culture-related body language must be involved, too.

In brief, it is very necessary to adopt body language in the appropriate way in primary English teaching. Also, we should be careful of the intercultural differences between body languages and make sure there is no mistakes in using body language.

Key word: body language;primary school students;English teaching 

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One-6

1.1 The importance of body language in classroom communication-6

1.2 The potential problem of body language studies-7

1.3 The organization of the thesis-8

Chapter Two Overview of body language-8

2.1 Definitions of body language-8

2.2 Characters and functions of body language-9

2.2.1 Characters of body language-9

2.2.2 Functions of body language-10

2.2.2.1 Substituting-10

2.2.2.2 Complementing-10

2.2.2.3 Reinforcing-10

2.2.2.4 Regulating-10

2.2.2.5 Feedback-11

2.3 The substance of body language-11

2.3.1 Facial expression-11

2.3.2 Eye contact-11

2.3.3 Gesture-12

2.3.4 Posture-13

2.3.5 Touching-13

Chapter Three The application of body language in primary school English teaching-14

3.1 The practicality of body language in teaching-14

3.1.1 Characteristics of primary school students-14

3.1.2 The necessity of using body language in primary school English teaching.-15

3.2 The relationship between body language and primary school English teaching.-15

3.2.1 The relationship between body language and the basic concept of English teaching.-15

3.2.2 The relationship between body language and the instructional objectives of primary school English teaching.-16

3.3 The application skills of using body language in English teaching-16

3.3.1 The application of facial expression-16

3.3.2 The application of eye contact-17

3.3.3 The application of gesture-18

3.3.4 The application of posture-19

3.3.5 The application of touching-20

Chapter Four Suggestion of using body language in primary school English teaching-20

4.1 Principles of using body language in English teaching-20

4.2 Avoid using negative body language in English classroom-21

4.3 Suggestions about body language using in classroom teaching-22

Conclusion-23

Bibliography-24

Aknowledgements 26