1、1The Use of Body Language in English Teaching of Middle Schools中图分类号:G623.31 文献标识码:A 文章编号:1673-0992(2010)06A-0235-01 Abstract: With the continual reform of language teaching and learning methods, teachers are in great demand to organize the classes in English and create English-learning circumstance
2、s. However, with the limitation of students vocabulary, teachers have to simplify their teaching language with the help of facial expressions and body movements. In this article, the possibility and the effect of using body language in listening, speaking, reading and writing will be further discuss
3、ed. Key words: English teaching in middle schools, body language As everyone knows, the classroom teaching is one of the most important ways that the students learn English. As far as the English teaching in the middle schools is concerned, teachers have to arouse the students interest so that they
4、may 2learn better. There are many ways to arouse the students interest and help them to learn better, body language used in English teaching is one of them. Body language is an important media through which people communicate with each other. It refers to the patterns of facial expressions and gestu
5、res that people use to express their feelings in communication. In school education, body language plays a positive role in cultivating the students characters. For, teachers are usually respected, and factually, what or how the teachers say and do will be possibly imitated by the students (sometime
6、s subconsciously). In a word, teachers graceful body language helps to improve the students artistic-appreciation and moral character. If the students develop a wonderful body language, which will possibly leads them to form an optimistic and active feelings, they will surely have a more smooth inte
7、rpersonal relation. The affection of teachers body language on the students is reflected not only by establishing a good example, but also shortening the teacher-student estrangement by which a more harmonious studying atmosphere is created. As a matter of fact, teachers friendly appearance can grea
8、tly encourage the students studying enthusiasm. Furthermore, the characteristics 3of theoretic and abstraction of knowledge also requires the vivid, dramatic and an accessible gestures to make it specific and figurative. As a result, the students interest is motivated and the effect of teaching is g
9、reatly improved. To understand others is a basic purpose in English teaching, and teachers often train the students listening accordingly. In this process, if the body language is used, the effect will be better. When beginning a new lesson, the teacher narrates the story outline in English. The bod
10、y language may help. For example, a teacher can stretch his arms slowly when he says “She is in a very big room“; he can open his eyes widely with mouth opened when he says “She is so beautiful a lady“. As a result, the students will have such an impression: She is very beautiful indeed; a teacher w
11、ho imitates the crying or the movement of the animals under the premise of teaching order will surely achieve a better effect. The spoken language is one of the important ways to communicate, so we should try to develop the students ability of speaking. Factually they are helped to reach the aim in
12、a certain degree by their teachers body language. The first lesson of every unit in Senior English begins with dialogue. The teaching programs require the teachers to organize the 4class to practice English according to the characteristics of dialogue. Generally speaking, the body language can arous
13、e and sustain the students interest of learning and using English. In the English class, the teachers should not only use body languages themselves, but also ask the students to use them according to the different situation. Take it for example, the first lesson in Unit one, Book one is about the ti
14、me when the new students first meet, and they dont know each other. So a teacher can introduce himself first, such as: “Hello, everyone, nice to meet you here. Now Ill introduce myself to you. My name is Arthur. I like playing basketball, for, it makes me much stronger; I like playing chess, for, it
15、 makes me more clever; and I like reading books, for, reading makes one perfect“. During the introduction, the teacher should use the new vocabularies and sentence structures together with a vivid expression and mating gestures as possibly as he can. He smiles when he says hello to the class; he sha
16、kes hands with some students saying “Nice to meet you“; he writes name down on the blackboard; he imitates the action of dribbling and shooting at the basketball, playing chess and turning pages to explain his hobby. After his introduction, the teacher can create a circumstance for the students to p
17、ractice: “Mary and Jack are 5new classmates. They are walking together in the street, and they meet one of Jacks old friends, Yang Pei. Then Yang Pei and Mary are introduced to each other by J ack.“ After the students practice the dialogue is introduced naturally from it. Usually, the application of
18、 body language in different situations will result in an attracting and successful lesson. The purpose of Senior English teaching is to train the students preliminary ability of using spoken and written English. In the senior school, we lay emphasis on the reading ability that serves the students fu
19、rther study. Generally speaking, we use falling tones in declarative and special interrogative sentence, first rising tones and then falling tones in the choosing interrogative sentence. The students in the middle school are not often accustomed to and always confuse them, however, with the help of
20、body language, they can solve the problem much more easily. For example, they use gestures. As they read the choosing interrogative sentence, they raise their hands in rising tones and lower in falling tones. After training for some times, as soon as they read the sentences, they will remind themsel
21、ves of the gestures. As a result, there will be no problems in rightly reading the sentences at all. 6In a word, the vivid gesture together with the fluent English can create a good circumstance of learning, which will surely play an active part in improving the students reading ability.The use of b
22、ody language can not only attract the students attention, but also deepen their impression and imagination. The use of body language is completely up to the standard of audio-visual teaching principle, so teachers should try to teach in English from the beginning to the end, together with the corresponding body language. In the end, the students ability of English will be certainly and greatly improved.
