UNIT 2

TOPIC 2
COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: VERBAL AND NON-
VERBAL COMMUNICATION.
EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL RESPONSES TO MESSAGES IN
DIFFERENT CONTEXTS.

0. INTRODUCTION

1. COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM.

The nature of communication.

The communicative competence.
Communication in the foreign language classroom.
Teacher´s role.
Pupils´ role

2. VERBAL COMMUNICATION.

3. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION.

4. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL RESPONSES TO MESSAGES IN

DIFFERENT CONTEXTS.

5. CONCLUSION.
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0. INTRODUCTION
Human beings are able to communicate in a variety of ways besides the use of words. This type
of communication is referred to as non-verbal communication.
To develop the current educational law, the LOMCE, the Autonomous Community of Madrid has
approved the Decree 89/2014, 24th of July, in it, the administration sets as one of the objectives
of the Primary stage, the acquisition in, at least, one foreign language, the basic communicative
competence which allows children to express and understand simple messages and to deal with
daily situations.
This communicative competence involves not only the components of the language, that is to
say, lexis, grammar, segmental and suprasegmental phonetic, but also the four communicative
skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Communication is the key word for us as
English teachers. Not only it is the essence of human interaction, it is the centre of language
learning.
Learning a foreign language involves directly the development of the linguistic competence, one
of the seven basic competences set by the LOMCE, but according to the Order ECD/65/2015,
21st January, we must incorporate the teaching and learning competencial to our area. Every
area must contribute in the development of different competences, and, at the same time, every
basic competence will be acquired as a consequence of the work of several areas or subjects. It
is a team work, so that teachers must cooperate with each others.

1. COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

The ability to communicate plays a decisive role in the language programme. From a functional
point of view, we can say that communication is the primary function of language. There are two
different kinds of language:
- The inner one (by means of it we communicate ourselves)
- The outer one (by means of it we communicate each other)
The nature of communication.
When two people are talking they are doing so for some reasons: they want to say something,
they have some communicative purpose and they select from their language store. Some
generalizations can also be made from the point of view of the reader and the listener: they want
to read or listen to something.
These generalizations are applicable to written communication although the difference is that the
writer is not in immediate contact with the reader.
When organizing communicative activities, teachers must ensure that the activities which stu-
dents are involved in share the process we have described:
 The students should have a desire to communicate
 They should have a communicative purpose
 They should deal with a variety of language.
The communicative competence.
Dell Hymes established a new concept in language theory: the communicative competence. It is
defined as what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech
community.
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For Chomsky, competence simply implies the knowledge of the language system. Hymes main-
tained that Chomsky´s theory was incomplete, and that communicative and cultural dimension
should be incorporated.
Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes establishing four dimensions of
the communicative competence (Subcompetences):
1. Grammatical competence
2. Discursive competence
3. Sociolinguistic competence
4. Strategic competence
These four skills are complemented by socio-cultural competence, which implies the knowledge
of certain cultural facts to understand the message completely.
Through the influence of communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that
communicative competence should be the goal of language education, central to good classroom
practice. This is in contrast to previous views in which grammatical competence was commonly
given top priority.
The pedagogical implications derived from it has been said above are:
 Teacher should aim at effectiveness in the fours skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing)
 Present new items of the language in a specific context to help understanding.
 Communicative purpose is encouraged from the very beginning, through verbal and non-
verbal language.
 The teacher should let students know about traditions, social conventions an the ways of
life of the people who speak the target language.
To achieve this communicative competence we must develop our student's verbal and non-
verbal skills. During the early stages of the foreign language learning, special attention should be
paid to student's non-verbal communications. During these stages children go through a period
called “Silent Period” in which the child is exposed to the language but in which there is not oral
production..
In this period the child receives and stores large amounts of information, so it is not a passive
period. The information gathered will be the basis of the posterior learning. So, during this stage
it is fundamental to help our students to develop their gesticulating capacities.
According to R.D. 126/2014, February 28th, we have to bear in mind Socio – cultural Aspects
and Intercultural conscience in learning a foreign language; this makes reference to the ability to
use the Ianguage in accordance with the rules of the society among others.
Communicative activities.
In order to make our students be competent in a language, activities in FLT must be
communicative, they should make students have a real communicative purpose and should
focus more on the message rather than on the language itself. This theory is based on the first
language natural acquisition, children learn their mother tongue without knowing the grammar.
Communicative activities must follow the next principles: Authentic language must be used;
activities that involve two or more people; there must be a need for communicating (information
gap) and activities must be set within a context.
Characteristics of communicative activities: Have a communicative purpose, follow student-
centered principle, they are meaningful, include variety of language, use materials to develop
creativity and focus on developing Communicative competence.
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Examples of activities are:

 Information gap: Someone gets a piece of information which he/she does not know.
 Task dependency: The pupil uses the information that he/she has got, and does a task
which must be linked with his/her real life.
 Jigsaw principle: 0ur pupils have different pieces of information; they make a story.
According to Littlewood, there are two types of activities so that children learn to communicate:
 Pre-communicative activities: focused on the form and on the accuracy of the language.
Such as: fill-in activities.
 Communicative activities: focused on the meaning and on the message transmission.
Such as: find the differences between two pictures.
As teacher, we have to use all the available resources in order to increase our student's learning.
We ought to use all types of activities, all of them have their own potential that we can benefit of.
Teacher ´ s role
The teacher has got two main roles in Communicative language teaching: to facilitate the
communication between all participants in the classroom; to be involved as a participant within
the group; to be analyst, counselor, group process manager and organizer of resources.
Pupil ´s role
The pupil is the center of the communicative process. Characteristics of good learners are: want
to speak in English; do not mind making mistakes; analyze their own learning process.

2. VERBAL COMMUNICATION
The basis of communication is the interaction between people. Verbal communication is one way
for people to communicate. Some of the key components of verbal communication are sound,
words, speaking, writing and language.
Oral communication is a two-way process between the speaker and the listener. Speakers and
listeners are constantly changing roles.
In the classroom, teachers will need to ensure that the two skills (speaking and listening) are
integrated through situations that allow and encourage authentic communication. Teacher will
have to take the students form the stage in which they are mainly imitating a model of the
language to the point in which they can use language more freely.
Verbal communication means in the English class a learning environment. The lessons must
takes place in a real social context, where children will acquire language skills that can be
transferred to any other social situation.
This process is equivalent to mother tongue acquisition, because children firstly develop their
knowledge at home, which is a reduced environment, and afterwards they manage to transfer it
to different contexts. That is why we ought to develop the whole class in the foreign language.
Although in Primary Education oral is the priority, we cannot forget the written language as part
of the verbal communication. Learning to write is necessary in order to have a good mastery of
both the oral and written form. Children will need it in real life and it also reinforces the learning of
oral communication.
Written English is not easy to learn due to there is not a clear relation between the sounds and
the letters. For this reason writing skill appears after speaking.
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3. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
To communicate, we don’t only use words but also gestures. We use verbal and non-verbal
strategies in order to communicate.
In the English class, verbal communication is as important as non-verbal communication. It
would be very difficult to teach a language only using verbal communication, and without any
extralinguistic support. The class is an artificial setting where the teacher tries to recreate the real
world. He/she has to use expressions, drawings, movements, etc., to help in the transmission of
the message.
Non-verbal communication helps us to express and to understand messages when the
communicative competence is not very high. It also favours the learning of social and cultural
conventions (the sociolinguistic competence). It is an attractive, motivating, efficient tool for
children in foreign language learning.
In the English class we can use the following non-verbal language:
Gestures and body Language: it includes facial expressions, posture, eye and hand
movements... It is the unspoken communication that goes on in every face-to-face encounter
with another person. Between 60-80% of our message is communicated through our Body
Language. It transmits verbal messages, attitudes and emotions. It is also useful to check the
degree of understanding of our message (feedback).
It is important for teachers to understand how their unconscious gestures may be misunderstood,
for example, form a circle with fingers means “OK” in the U.S. but in Brazil and Germany this
gesture is obscene; and in Japan, it means “money”.
Physical movements: There is a theory in teaching languages called “Total Physical
Response” (TPR) developed by James Asher, who affirms that children learn easily the new
vocabulary if they can associate it with movements, songs, etc..
Total Physical Response is a language learning method based on the coordination of speech
and action. Second language learning is parallel to first language learning and should reflect the
same naturalistic processes:
1. Listening should develop before speaking.
2. Children respond physically to spoken language, and adult learners learn better if they do
that too.
3. Once listening comprehension has been developed, speech develops naturally and
effortlessly.
4. Delaying speech reduces stress.
5. Teaching oral proficiency at a beginning level.
6. Using comprehension as a means to speaking.
7. Using action-based drills in the imperative form.
Accent and intonation: They are aspects of language which accompany the words we
pronounce. Intonation is the melody of the sentence that is raised or lowered according to the
question, explanation or statement that is uttered.
Visual aids: They have two functions: to shorten the gap between the real world and the
classroom; and to foster the transmission of the contents of language.
The visual support of pictures, drawings, flash-cards, posters, etc., help to understand the
messages. Images help to retain what is being learnt.
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Auditory aids: such as sounds, noises, musical melodies and rhythms. They are communicative
because they have meaning (sound of the telephone). They help to retain what is being learnt.

4. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL RESPONSES TO MESSAGES IN

DIFFERENT CONTEXTS
Everything we communicate which is not related to the formal aspects of language is
extralinguistic. One of the aspects of communicative competence is strategic competence, the
student's capacity to use verbal and non-verbal strategies in order to communicate.
The pedagogical reasons to use extralinguistic strategies in the class are:
- Oral understanding precedes oral production.
- Non-verbal answers reduce anxiety, and children are concentrate more on the learning.
- Greater independence in the communicative process. If children use communicative
strategies, they will have less limitations when understanding and being understood in English.
Non-verbal reactions in different contexts
There are many possibilities to talk about, here we have a selection of a few non-verbal reactions
that can take place in different situations:
Physical responses to commands: based on the Total Physical Responds already mentioned.
Physical response to the lyrics of songs: Students can mime songs.
Responding to instructions in order to build something: Students carry out instructions they heard
or read to make handicrafts.
Pointing out: Students point out objects, people, numbers... that the teacher commands.
Miming a story: using gestures, body language and sounds.
Sequencing: Students order the sequence of a story they are listening.
Responding with proper expressions or intonation: Students should learn how to use the correct
facial expression (e.g. showing kindness when tanking, greeting with courtesy, etc.).
Predicting strategies: There are many activities predictable helpful in understanding the
message. Students can react to a message using their previous knowledge.

5. CONCLUSION
Communication is the exchange of ideas and information between two or more people. To
communicate, we don’t only use words but also gestures. We use verbal and non-verbal
strategies in order to communicate, teachers have to make students conscious of the use of
these strategies in order to improve their communicative competence, what is the final aim of
teaching a foreign, for this we have to Transfer communication to the FLT classrooms.
As teacher we must to take into account that we have to create real communicative situations in
our lesson and we cannot forget how important and useful the ICTs are nowadays, new
technologies bring the real world into the classroom and promote real communicative situation.
Webpages, blogs or videoconferes are some examples. For this reason, it is one of the common
elements that the LOMCE has set. As teachers we have to help our students to make a good use
of it and understand that it is necessary to take care when using them. If we are able to make
them understand this, it can be a very motivating and useful tool to use in our lessons whenever
is possible.