Empirical Research On The Effect Of Non-verbal Communication In English Teaching For Pre-school Children

With the development of reform and open policy and globalization, more and more people in China are beginning to learn English, and the phenomenon of pre-school children (under the age of seven) learning English has never been so common in the past. In the study of English language teaching, scholars and teachers have found that non-verbal communication has its role to play. But most of the research in the use of non-verbal communication as a teaching method has been conducted on colleges students, middle school students and primary school students. The present thesis introduces the author's tentativ research on the use of non-verbal communication in the teaching of English to very young learners.The research is an empirical research in nature, exploring the feasibility of application of non-verbal communication as a teaching method to preschool children's classroom English teaching. The data are collected from tests of listening and the author's own systemic observation in the every day teaching. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data, the author has got the following findings. First, use of non-verbal communication in the English teaching classroom helps the learners'memory and makes the learners more interested in English learning.Second, use of non-verbal communication is effective for teaching'difficult words', that is, long words that are difficult to pronounce or remember.Third, use of non-verbal communication can help to create a lively environment in which preschool children feel relaxed and are better motivated to learn English. Very often, the learners are too young to understand completely what the teacher says or teaches in class. With non-verbal communication in English teaching classroom, both the learning and teaching processes will be enjoyable and exciting, thus making the young learners more active in learning. On the other hand, traditional teaching methods are likely to make the children bored and unable to concentrate on what they are learning.It is the author's hope that the findings of this research will shed light on the research of the foreign language learning process of young children, help the English language teachers better understand the developmental characteristics of cognition and language of preschool learners, and encourage them to make use of non-verbal communication in their teaching so that the teachers like to teach and learners like to learn.