UNIT 2: COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS: VERBAL AND NON

VERBAL COMMUNICATION. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON-VERBAL

REACTIONS TO MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS

INDEX

1. Introduction

2. Communication in the foreign language class

2.1 Concept of communication

2.2 The communicative approach to foreign language teaching

2.3 Important factors in a communicative class

3. Verbal communication

3.1 Oral language

3.2 Written language

4. Non-verbal communication

5. Extralinguistic strategies: non-verbal reactions in different contexts

6. Epilogue

6.1 Bibliography

6.2 Webography

6.3 Legislation

6.4 Conclusion
2. COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS

2.1 Concept of communication

The English word ‘communication’ is derived from the Latin communis, which means
common sense. In other words, the transmission and interaction of facts, ideas, opinions,
feelings or attitudes. Communication is the essence of management.

Every communication involves at least one sender, a message and a recipient. This may
sound simple but communication is actually a very complex subject. The transmission of the
message can be affected by our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used, our
location, etc.

We must keep in mind the four types of communication: verbal, non-verbal, visual and
written communication. No matter how we communicate, start by thinking about what the
reader/listener should think, feel and do once they’ve heard or read our message.

Apart from that, these days that technology controls everything that we do, it also manages
the process of communication .Technology has introduced new ways of communicating,
such as email, instant messaging, and video conferencing. It has also entered our schools,
contributing to the improvement of the quality of education, like a revolutionary change. In
this sense, it is important to maintain a healthy balance, and to apply information and
communication technologies to the extent that they will be most useful to students and
professors. As George Courus said, “technology will never replace great teachers, but in the
hands of great teachers, it’s transformational.”

Moreover, communication in foreign language is one of the eight key competences defined
by The European Reference Framework. This competence defines the ability to use different
languages appropriately and effectively for communication. It is based on the ability to
understand, express and interpret concepts, thoughts, feelings, facts and opinions in both
oral and written form in an appropriate way.

That's why all the key competences must be related, as communicative competence, cultural
competence and expression and multilingual competence should be addressed in an
integrated manner.
2.2 The communicative approach to foreign language teaching

The Organic Law 2/2006, 3rd May, of Education (LOE), modified by the Organic Law 3/2020,
29th December (LOMLOE) places Key Competences at the center of the learning curriculum
since they include knowledge, skills, and attitudes that the students need to be able to face
the challenges of the 21st century, such as linguistic and cultural diversity, situation
management, dialogic conflict resolution, and social and personal bonds based on respect
and equality.

Apart from eight Key Competences that we mention, the new Foreign Language curriculum,
specified in Royal Decree 157/2022, 1st March, and more specifically in Decree 106/2022,
5th August, is structured around seven specific competences that constitute the starting
point for learning English. These competences are: multilingualism and interculturality, oral
comprehension, written comprehension, oral expression, written expression, oral and written
interaction, and oral and written mediation.

As teachers, how can we promote the acquisition of communicative competence by our

students? Simple, using the Communicative Approach. The Communicative Approach,
further developed in topic 3, emerged in the 1970s as a reaction to the Audiolingual
Method which paid attention to the structure of language rather than to its function.

The American sociolinguist Dell Hymes established a new concept in language theory which
complemented Halliday’s functional view: the communicative competence. This is defined as
what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech
community. Hymes coined this term in contrast to Chomsky’s theory of competence. For
Chomsky, competence simply implied the knowledge of the language system. A few years
later, the linguists Canale and Swain (1980) expanded the description of Hymes
establishing four dimensions of the communicative competence (grammatical competence,
discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence), being added
later another one: the sociocultural competence.

So, knowing the importance of communicative competence, teachers must carry out
activities in the classroom based on the learning of the specific competences of the foreign
language area established by Royal Decree 157/2022 and these activities must focus on the
message and not on the linguistic features. All this, in the activities there must be an
interaction on the part of the students, with a motivating theme for them and feel comfortable
and close to it, so that the communication process is carried out efficiently.

As this is the only time of exposure to the language in most of the cases, so we need to
favor a similar context to the mother tongue context learning, always promoting real
communicative interactions.That's why we insist that they use English whenever they can.
Speaking in small groups makes them feel more confident and using games such as
dialogues or picture situations and free production games such as role-plays or students
talking about themselves promote the main objective; oral fluency.

Furthermore, it is natural that to enhance the so called communicative competence, we need

to develop the skills and specific competences in an integrated way. In the case of writing it
is because of the absence of feedback from the receiver, so we have to compensate for the
absence of some linguistic and non-linguistic features. In the case of speaking because of
many factors that can produce comprehension breakdowns, for this reason it is vital to
provide different types of presenting the language and of practicing it through learning
situations.

To sum up with this point, it is important to keep in mind the importance of creating a real
communication atmosphere in our classroom, which allows us to acquire the communicative
competence and develop the intercultural awareness, as the Decree 106/2022 establishes.

2.3 Important factors in a communicative class

To have an effective communication in class we can not miss these five factors:

● Input: The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires
a second language .The Input hypothesis is only concerned with 'acquisition', not
'learning'. According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along
the 'natural order' when she receives a second language 'input' that is one step
beyond his or her current stage of linguistic competence.

● Classroom management: refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that
teachers use to keep students organized, orderly, focused, attentive, on task, and
academically productive during a class. So if as teachers do effective classroom
management like routines and learning stations, we are going to create a positive
learning environment with good communication between the students and teacher.

● Students’ groupings: cooperative learning is a method of instruction that brings

students together to work in groups. As Laura Smith and Christina Krantz support
“work in groups provide students an opportunity to practice much needed
social-emotional learning skills”. It can help students develop a host of skills that are
increasingly important in the professional world.

● Materials: to promote communicative language use, the materials used in class

must be varied and always according to the learners’ interests. This way our students
will increase their motivation and the communicative act will be successful. As I once
read, no one can learn anything and even less in a boring way, unless what he is
going to learn awakens his curiosity and consequently his motivation.
 ● The role of the teacher and students: while the teacher should adopt different roles
and be able to design activities that enable children to solve problems and to apply
the acquired knowledge in a practical way, the students should play an active role to
let them get involved in their learning process and increase their motivation. In
addition, to encourage our students to use English we can make use of a great
resource that we have in our autonomous community, called Language Assistant
according to the resolution February 5th of the General Director of Educational
Innovation and Planning with the Ministry of Education for the 23/24 academic year.
This resource, besides helping us to motivate our students to speak English with, can
help them to understand the different regional features and analyze the new customs
of the country of origin of the language assistant and learn the language related to
the culture, which is English.

To conclude, teachers should keep in mind that the classroom is a child’s second home and
therefore, we should make efforts to make students feel as comfortable as possible. It can
help to improve attention, reduce anxiety, support emotional feelings, regulate behavior and
create a perfect feedback between students and teachers.

3. VERBAL COMMUNICATION

3.1 Oral language

Oral communication can be described as a two-way process between the speaker and the
listener. The addresser initiates a conversation and the addressee listens and responds. As
both of them are continuously changing roles following the pattern
“speak-listen-respond-listen”, teachers must ensure to teach both skills, listening and
speaking, in an integrated way as the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages states.

But this is not that simple. Students must practice until they are capable of producing oral
language. But, how can they do it?

Task based learning (TBL) is a different way to teach languages. It can help students by
placing them in real-life situations, where oral communication is essential for doing a specific
task. Task based learning has the advantage of getting students to use their skills at their
current level, developing language through its use. For example, if the topic is travel, a
typical task could be organizing travel dates with a friend, finding out information from a
travel agent, or checking in at the airport.
It is usually composed of the following phases: Pre-task, Task and Post-task.

- The pre-task phase of a TBL lesson is the moment when the teacher sets the task,
contextualizes the topic of the lesson, raises students’ interest and prepares learners
to perform the task. For example, if we do a road trip activity, the first thing is to ask
each group what information they need from you in order to plan the perfect trip.

- In the task stage, learners perform the task proposed. They are supposed to perform
the task in small groups or pairs, and use their existing knowledge of language to
express themselves in a spontaneous way.The teacher is not supposed to carry out
extensive error correction at this stage, but should monitor and provide support.
Continuing with the road trip activity, at this stage we will give each one a map and it
is time to plan the trip.

- The post-task stage is when students evaluate their performance. It involves

feedback provided by the teacher and subsequent practice of language items that
emerged from the task. This makes the role of the teacher as a monitor extremely
important in TBL. And as the last stage in the activity, when they are done, have
them present their trip to the entire class. Students can decide to include pictures or
authentic videos to showcase their trip.

Nowadays, the use of some Apps like ‘Voice Thread”’ allows you to create and share
dynamic conversations about images, diagrams and videos. Kids upload content already
saved to a device and then create audio / video comments reacting to each.

To finish with this part, we need to mention that oral language encompasses both speaking
and listening. Oral language skills include learning how spoken words sound, what words
and sentences mean, and how to communicate ideas. Nurturing oral language skills
provides a strong foundation for learning to read. As James Britton said “Reading rests on
a sea of spoken language”.

3.2 Written language

Written language is mainly characterized by its precision because the written form takes
more time for its preparation given that it contains more structures expressions and
sentences, clarity because the written language has to be clear enough for the reader to
understand if we want to create feedback, the use of unique graphic features such as
punctuation or spelling and its formal language to provide a standard valued by society.

Besides, writing words helps retain them. This is why in class, it is important to practice
spelling, once students identify a word and know how the word sounds out. Written language
is mainly characterized by its precision, clarity, the use of unique graphic features and its
formal form. The next paragraphs we are going to deepen in these aspects.

Precision refers to the structured content of expressions, sentences and paragraphs, which
must have internal cohesion. Clarity must be present so that the reader understands the
message and, therefore, there is feedback between writer and reader. Therefore, in the
classroom, we must adapt our written language to the reader's needs and level. Handwriting
always contains different unique graphics, such as calligraphy, punctuation, spelling… And
the last is the formal language, which provides a standard valued by society.

As we mention, the development of new communication and ICT have an enormous impact
on the development of the language system, including the written discourse. Moreover,
students love writing using new technologies such as creating a Canva or Genially (change)
presentation or replying to their pen friend’s emails. This type of activity improves the
learner’s English writing without even noticing they are..

To finish, the language is not the unique way of communicating, as we will see in this unit
we also use some techniques for developing non-verbal communication. Despite not using
the oral language we are able to achieve our communicative intention. When we use a
language we make a mental image of the world, according to Bruner, “the reality is coded in
the use of the language.” We can conclude with this idea that learning a language allows us
to have a view of reality and that when we learn a second or even a third language we can
analyze the same reality through different aspects.

4. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

First of all we should pay attention to what we consider non-verbal communication. When
we refer to nonverbal communication we should think about ways of communication where
we do not use oral or written language. These situations will be where we use gestures,
mimicry, traffic symbolism, sign language used by deaf or blind people or musical signs.

We should include this type of communication in our classroom in order to support the
learning of our students when they have a low level in the foreign language. It is a way of
making them feel confident enough to practice and use other ways of communication such
as oral language. As an example, mimicry will be one of the best non-verbal ways of
communication that we can include in our teaching activities to guess vocabulary.

Some studies have revealed that, in standard interaction, 65% of the information comes from
nonverbal communication. In other words, what you say is not nearly as important as how
you say it!

To use in class a good non-verbal language we need to keep in mind the gestures and body
language that includes facial expressions, postures, eye contact and hand movement. This
transmits the attitude and the emotions that the speaker has to the receiver involved in the
communication act. The next is the physical movements, where we found a method called
Total Physical Response developed by the psychology professor James Asher, based on the
theory that a child acquires language by listening and executing commands from adults such
as “sit down”. The use of these movements develops comprehension abilities.

Then we have the intonation, which is characterized in general terms by the rising and falling
of voice during speech, depending on the type of utterance we may produce. The last is the
visual aids, a very effective tool to call the interest of the students and help them to
understand the message that we are communicating. This is why, in an English class,
hanging up posters, using flash-cards or looking for vocabulary pictures in scholar Google
will always help students to understand messages and retain vocabulary.

In relation to non-verbal reactions to messages in different contexts we can also include the
use of some games in the classroom, such as bingo games, Simon says, Who is who (from
mimicry to oral response), Graphic order( draw a house, a dinosaur) or a silent role play
(somebody makes gestures and the rest verbalizes them).

Other non-verbal languages such as physical characteristics, tactile conduct or surrounding

factors that help the message be transmitted and understood are also crucial especially at
beginner levels where learners have little or no communication competence. This is closely
related to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles promoted by the LOMLOE,
since one of them is to provide multiple means of representation in order to serve students
from an inclusive perspective, as stated in Decree 104/2018, 27th July, reinforced by Order
20/2019, 30th April.

4. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES:NON-VERBAL REACTIONS IN DIFFERENT

CONTEXTS.

Nonverbal and verbal communication is normally inseparable, and, therefore, both need to
be taught and practiced situationally, in the right contexts, and with plenty of cultural input
and awareness.

An important aspect in the use of non-verbal codes within the EFL classrooms is that they
have to be shared by teachers and learners. Non-verbal strategies fairly used by EFL
teachers respond to what is generally accepted as classroom language. They constitute an
efficient and quick system of gestures to deal with aspects of classroom management.

Moreover, there are two pedagogical reasons to use extralinguistic strategies in class:

1. Oral understanding precedes oral production. How many times have we understood
someone talking in a foreign language but we haven’t been able to answer in their
language? This happens in class too. Learners understand more than they can express and
that’s why even though they understand, they still answer in their mother tongue until they
feel confident enough to do it in the target language.

2. Non-verbal answers reduce anxiety. Answering in the target language produces

anxiety and stress in some learners. Non-verbal communication is the best choice for them
to keep participating in class without having to utter a verbal response. According to the
psychology professor James Asher, a fundamental requirement for learning is the absence
of stress. If the child does not feel pressure to produce an oral answer, he/she will feel
relaxed and thus, will concentrate more on learning.

In spite of non-verbal communication being an indivisible element of oral language, the

teaching of a foreign language must promote the acquisition of the communicative
competence in verbal communication, in its oral and written forms. Therefore, learners will
progressively be led to make use of their linguistic resources, as body language and
non-verbal communication do not domain human interaction, except in specific cases such
as in the language of signs among deaf- mute people. Teachers should also be aware that
target cultural aspects are a part of the communicative competence in a language, and the
transferability or not of those culture-bound features need to be raised and taught.
6. EPILOGUE

6.1 Bibliography

- Krashen, Stephen and Tracy D. Terrell The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition
in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon, 1983.

- Willian Littlewood (1981)“Communicative language teaching”

- Stern, H.H. Foreign Languages in Primary Education. UNESCO Institute for

Education. Hamburg, 1963.

- Harmer, J. (2007). “The Practice of English Language Teaching”. Longman. London

6.2 Webgraphy

- https://education.ec.europa.eu the importance about key competencies and

communication act in class

- https://www.schooleducationgateway.eu I extracted ideas about the importance

of communicating in foreign languages.

- https://www.edweek.org information about strategies to work in groups.

- https://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash-english.html I extract ideas and information

about Krashen input.

6.3 Legislation

- Organic Law 2/2006, 3rd May, of Education (LOE), modified by the Organic Law
3/2020, 29th December (LOMLOE).

- Royal Decree 157/2022, 1st March, which establishes the curriculum for Primary
Education. - Decree 106/2022, 5th August, which establishes the curriculum for
Primary Education in the Valencian Community.
- Decree 104/2018, 27th July, by which the principles of inclusion and equity are
established.

- Order 20/2019, 30th April, which regulates the organization of the educational
response for inclusion.

- Resolution June 27th 2023, which approves instructions for organization and
operation of schools during 2023-2024 school year.