A Study Of Effects Of Teachers’ Nonverbal Behaviors On College English Classroom Climate

Nonverbal behaviors refer to the means adopted by speakers to convey some information to influence listeners by means of posture, facial expressions, eyes, etc. Teachers’ nonverbal behaviors are regarded as nonverbal symbols used by teachers in the specific environment of classroom instruction, which could influence classroom climate directly. Some researches have proved that the total English classroom climate = 30% speech acts + 70% nonverbal behaviors. It can be inferred from this formula that nonverbal behaviors play a greater role in classroom climate than verbal behaviors. Thus the proper use of teachers’ nonverbal behaviors will efficiently improve classroom climate and then promote the students’ learning proficiency. In the context of economic globalization, the demand for professional and technical persons of a higher English level increases, and college English course plays an important role in fostering such talents. However, due to the influence of traditional teaching concepts, exam pressure and other aspects of the education system, many college English teachers and students pay more attention to the knowledge from textbook, ignoring the need of communication with each other. And they do not realize the importance of teachers’ nonverbal behaviors in establishing harmonious classroom climate, where students will learn better. Therefore it is necessary to do researches on college English teachers’ nonverbal behaviors and the impact of these nonverbal behaviors on classroom climate.The author chooses four classes with 209 students and four teachers who are teaching English to these students in Chengdu University of Technology as subjects in this study. Two questionnaires for students and one questionnaire for teachers are used in this investigation. The first questionnaire for students investigates students’ evaluation on their teachers’ nonverbal behaviors in the English classroom. The second questionnaire for students aims to find out the impact of teachers’ nonverbal behaviors on college English classroom climate. The questionnaire for teachers is to learn about teachers’ awareness of their own nonverbal behaviors in foreign language classroom. The following questions will be mainly focused on in this research. 1) Whether teachers and students are fully aware of the importance of teachers’ nonverbal behaviors in classroom? 2) Do teachers’ nonverbal behaviors affect college English classroom climate? If they do, what are the specific effects? 3) Among the three dimensions of classroom climate, which one is affected by teachers’ nonverbal behaviors more greatly? And among the five categories of teachers’ nonverbal behaviors, which one affects college English classroom climate more greatly?After collecting the relevant experimental data, the author analyzes them with assistance of the statistical software SPSS. The findings are as follows. 1) Both teachers and students are fully aware of the importance of teachers’ nonverbal behaviors in college English classroom. 2) College English teachers’ nonverbal behaviors do affect the classroom climate to a large extent. Teachers’ nonverbal behaviors affect classroom climate in the form of Student Involvement, Teacher Leadership, as well as Teacher Support. 3) Teacher Support is mostly affected by teachers’ nonverbal behaviors and teachers’ physical attractiveness and artifacts affect college English classroom climate mostly.Finally, the author makes some suggestions for building up a positive classroom climate according to the findings of the study. Teachers should take responsibility to create a harmonious classroom climate through improving their abilities to use nonverbal behaviors to manage the class effectively, support students strongly and encourage students to participate in classroom activities actively.