Nonverbal Communication Skills: The Power of Body Language What is nonverbal communication and body language? When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive wordless signals. All of our nonverbal behaviors—the gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make—send strong messages. These messages don't stop when you stop speaking either. Even when you're silent, you're still communicating nonverbally. Oftentimes, what comes out of our mouths and what we communicate through our body language are two totally different things. Why nonverbal communication matters The way you listen, look, move, and react tells the other person whether or not you care, if you’re being truthful, and how well you’re listening. If you want to become a better communicator, it’s important to become more sensitive not only to the body language and nonverbal cues of others, but also to your own. Nonverbal communication cues can play five roles: Types of nonverbal communication and body language Touch
Nonverbal communication Understanding each other; seen in a street near the bell tower of Xi'an, China. Nonverbal communication is the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) cues between people. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as body language (kinesics), but nonverbal communication encompasses much more, such as use of voice (paralanguage), touch (haptics), distance (proxemics), and physical environments/appearance.[1] Typically overlooked in nonverbal communication are proxemics, or the informal space around the body and chronemics: the use of time. Not only considered eye contact, oculesics comprises the actions of looking while talking and listening, frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation, and blink rate. This subject is diverse in meaning, relative to culture and not limited to these definitions specifically. Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Importance[edit] History[edit] First impression[edit] [edit]
Using Word Clouds in EFL ESL I've just discovered Wordle, which is a really useful site for creating word clouds. The word clouds are created by entering either a text, URL or del.icio.us user name into a field. The site then generates a word cloud based on the frequency of key words in the text or webpage. Here's what a word cloud based on the URL of this blog looks like. The word clouds are really easy to create and can be printed up for classroom use or saved to a gallery on line. How to use this with EFL ESL studentsThis is a wonderful flexible tool to use with students.Revision of texts - You can paste in short texts that your students have studied recently. Learner training - This is a good tool for students to use regularly to help themselves. Related links: Activities for students:Best Nik Peachey
Great websites for ELT "Can anyone suggest ideas on how to teach...?" Post-course, it's probably the most frequently asked question we get from trainees on our support group. Whether it's ideas on teaching tenses or business English or young learners - or literally anything else you care to name - there are several ELT sites I always head to. Searching around them often produces results. In alphabetical order BBC Language Assistants site Although it's intended for language assistants, not fully-qualified teachers, but there's a lot of interest there to anyone new to teaching. Other sites Business English sites (IH Barcelona) Many CELTA course trainees find themselves teaching Business English in one form or another, often either 1-2-1 or in-company. See also
Online language practice community by Rosetta Stone