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Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014
191
ROLE OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOUR IN DIDACTIC COMMUNICATION
Mirela SAMFIRA
1 , Mirela FĂRĂGĂU-DRAGOȘ
2
1 Banat s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine King Michael I of Romania
from Timisoara 2 University ofAgricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca
Abstract. Didactic communication is an instrumental type of communication with direct
implications in the educational process. The main goal is to produce a change among students in the
process of teaching-learning, as a model of moulding communicative skills. Verbal communication plays
an essential role in cognitive development and school success but what really makes success is proper
nonverbal communication. The way teachers convey information to their students is an affective
component: criticism has often pointed to the nonverbal aspect of the issue.
Keywords: communication, didactic communication, nonverbal behaviour, teaching-learning
process
1.INTRODUCTION
Humans develop through communication their personality and their relationships with
other humans sharing their own experience with a view to build up and convey human
experiences. Communication thus becomes a main element of social life: it is a product of
social life, not a feature.
The role of communication has been analysed from several perspectives. Thus,
according to CASTELLS (2009), its role is “to mould public mentality”; according to PUTNAM
AND NICOTERA (209), it is to make up organisations. Within a student group, communication is
essential in dynamics maintenance and functioning, which is influenced by several factors: the
number of people sharing common goals is the most important of these factors.
1.1.DIDACTIC COMMUNICATION
Didactic communication is considered, by certain authors (SĂLĂVĂSTRU, 2004: 190),
“one of the most used paideic relationships between two individuals” and a key-element in the
teacher-student relationship given that message exchange is essential in the process of
teaching-learning-evaluation. What is essential in didactic communication is represented by the
intent to change the receiver of the message and by the fact that it takes place within an
organisation, within a specialised institution that is later on evaluated (STĂNCULESCU, 2013).
The way in which the information is conveyed plays a particular role: we all know there is no
boring or difficult subject but rather teachers who do not know how to convey information,
how to support through nonverbal behaviour what they convey through verbal behaviour.
Group activities help improving interpersonal relationships and increase awareness of the
mutual influences of the individuals within a group, of the group on each of its individuals, and
of the society on the group and vice versa.
After a period dominated by the theories of learning followed by an excess of the
cognitive revolution, there is a revival of the interest in emotions: the role and impact of
emotions on the life of individuals, in general, and on the teacher-student relationship, in
particular. The interest in emotions increased considerably: it points out the importance of
nonverbal behaviour during emotional episodes, which resulted in 489 articles between 1960
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192
and 1981. According to Online Psych Info, over 3,000 articles on emotions have been
published since 1982 (HARRIGAN, ROSENTHAL AND SCHERER, 2008).
2.NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
The field of nonverbal behaviour is subdivided into facial actions, vocalizations, eye
contact, body movement, and perception of interpersonal space. This type of communication
has the advantage that it does not appeal to strict rules: decoding is done based on common
sense and much quicker than in verbal communication. Response to nonverbal and para-verbal
indices of a message is five times higher than in verbal indices (ARGYLE et al., 1971). The
congruence between verbal and nonverbal communication was first studied by BOOMER (1963)
(in HARRIGAN, 2008) who showed the roles of hand and head movements, of pauses in speech
and of prosody in a discourse in both verbal and nonverbal correlations and in the synchrony
between speaker and listener. In educational activities, teachers focus more often on thinking,
teaching, cognitive development and learning and less on affections and emotions. They have
used, to study nonverbal communication, Microteaching ever since 1960, a method adopted for
teacher training programmes. Though no longer as successful as it used to be, this method was
tried at least once by all the teachers who tried to improve his/her nonverbal behaviour. The
risk is that experimental results differ from real-life ones when the teacher is no longer in front
of a camera (which generates self-control of certain behaviours) (BABAD, 2008).
2.1.FACIAL ACTIONS
Of all nonverbal behaviours, face actions are the most complicated and confusion-
generating ones: they play the role of a commander, are always visible, convey information
continuously through the five senses, and ask for attention (as a symbol of the self) (COHN AND
EKMAN, 2008). BRUCE AND YOUNG (1998) claim that the face conveys clear information about
personality traits, psychopathology, and intelligence. In such a complex relationship as that
between teacher and student, the face conveys a lot of information which, if properly decoded
by the students, make it positive and constructive. “Teacher immediacy” and “teacher
enthusiasm” generate satisfaction, morality, and school success (BABAD, 2008). Social
relationships in a class can diminish facial display of emotions (EKMAN AND FRIESEN, 2003): it
is known that, when we are alone, we express our emotions in a different way from the case
when we are not alone. The feed-back to the messages conveyed through nonverbal behaviour
plays a particular role in the establishment of a course and in the way classes are given.
Interactions within a class are of the “face-to-face” type: they generate concern for what we
convey through looks, gestures, posture or voice – because, in most cases, nonverbal
communication brings about decisive supplementary information that influence the way we
judge the others.
One of the questions that has haunted the researchers in the field is if a group can
function without face-to-face relationships (thus removing the nonverbal component of
communication) and if a group can be effective through technology alone (HARGIE AND
DICKSON, 2004). Smiling and looking into somebody else’s eyes is an important nonverbal
component of social interaction.
When a speaker intends to have our attention, he should also take into account
weather conditions because nonverbal behaviour associated with social contacts are strongly
influenced by the weather (GUÉGUEN, 2013). Thus, it is in the interest of the entire group to
take into account the negative impact if cloudy days on the nonverbal behaviour of both
teachers and students.
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193
2.2.VOICE
Voice conveys information on the people’s sex, age (HUMMERT et al., 1999), origin,
health state, social status, affective state (irritation, anxiety, joy) (JUSLIN AND SCHERER, 2008).
Social interaction in a class needs training to develop the skill of making inferences about the
intention and the behaviour of the others, while remaining sensitive about the messages
received (it is well-known that humans can listen for longer periods to voices than to any other
sound (BELIN et al., 2002). One of the main issues in children is to name the emotional
expressions that affect the voice particularly in the teacher-student relationship that supposes a
number of emotional responses on both sides. The most used names for vocal expressions of
emotions pointed out by 104 studies in the field (JUSLIN AND LAUKKA, 2003) are anger (85
occurrences), fear and upset (65 occurrences), happiness (44 occurrences), and joy (31
occurrences). The different types of messages conveyed by words and nonverbal behaviour
elements have been made well-known by BUGENTAL (1974, in JUSLIN AND SCHERER, 2008);
CAFFI AND JANNEY (1994) claim that philosophers and linguists maintain that the meaning of a
discourse lies mainly in verbal content.
Teachers and students that are self-confident tend to speak quicker and louder
(KIMBLE AND SEIDE, 1991); prosodic elements also adapt depending on the students’ age:
speakers have a clear intuition of the emotional and linguistic needs of their listeners
(BURNHAM et al. 2002). As for the leader role of a teacher in class, KLOFSTAD et al. (2012)
found out that lower voices, no matter the sex, is associated with a good leader.
Starting from the influence of a teacher’s voice on students’ behaviour, WOOD (1998)
described the features of an “enthusiastic teacher” as one who speaks in an expressive way,
who shows intonation and volume variations, who smiles and laughs, makes gestures with both
his/her hands and arms, appeals to facial actions, maintains visual contact, and has the sense of
humour (BABAD, 2008). Studies concerning “teacher immediacy” show there are flexible,
democratic, warm, clear, task-oriented, and active/energetic leaders (MCCROSKEY et al., 1996).
Trans-cultural researches have confirmed that humans express their emotions crying,
shouting, speaking in a trembling voice or in a monotonous, low voice (WALLBOTT et al.
1986); voice is, according to SUNDBERG (1998, in JUSLIN AND SCHERER, 2008), “the mirror of
our soul”. We can also talk of the effects of loud voice or shouts on students: the effect is a
negative one and it troubles learning and evaluation. The context in which appears a certain
emotional expression is an important indicator of our judgement (PLANALp, 1998). This
informational background helps establishing relationships within the class since proper
interpretation of emotional expressions support correct inferences. In multicultural classes,
there can occur problems because of the differences in coding and decoding messages and also
in the different meanings associated to the message: sometimes, teachers cannot be sure a
message has been properly understood (BABAD, 2008).
2.3.KINESICS
Kinesics refers to body, head, and limb movements and to the way they are coded and
decoded by the individuals.
2.3.1.BODY POSTURE
People, no matter their relationships with other people they communicate with,
display a wide range of actions, gestures and body postures that change at a quicker or slower
pace depending on what they wish to communicate. Though, compared to the face, the body is
much larger, it has a smaller number of parts that can be moved (limb movements) but the
latter are of interest for social relationships, in general, and for the didactic relationships, in
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particular. The body parts most involved in nonverbal communication are the head and hands:
their simple movements do not always have a meaning, but they can convey information
concerning the intensity of a certain emotion (DITTMAN, 1987) – first the face and the voice. It
is important, in the teacher-student relationship, to know what movement needs to be coded
and how we intend t do it to get the expected response. These aspects are valid when there is
intentionality; but there are also movements that we do purposeless or with the least
intentionality that transmit what we think at the time. Among nonverbal behaviour a teacher
uses when talking in class, gestures come first, followed by pitch, look, smile (to the entire
class or to certain students), movement, posture, and varied vocal expression (BABAD, 2008).
We need to mention the cultural aspect of movement interpretation because all cultures do not
decode a movement in the same way (a teacher might fold her arms across his/her chest it is
not necessary to indicate a “lack of approachability”, but rather to warm her body in a cool
place or because of having no pockets to put her hands) (HARRIGAN, 2008).
Head movements – nodding, shaking, and tilting – hold a particular place in kinesics.
Nodding is associated with the feed-back of the listener, indicating he/she listens to the speech
(DUNCAN AND FISKE, 1977; MATARAZZO AND WIENS, 1972; ROSENFELD, 1978, IN
HARRINGTON, 2008). In evaluation, head movements can confirm the correctness of an answer,
which makes students go on. In conflicts, intrusions, and social anxiety, nodding rate
decreases.
2.3.2. PROXEMICS
Research in the field focus on the structuring, use, and perception of the space because
they reflect the relationships between individuals (no matter if they are members of a larger
group or of a dyad) and if these relationships are intentional or random. HALL (1963, IN
HARRIGAN (2008) was a pioneer in proxemics. He divided our spatial world into intimate,
personal, social, and public space. Given the topic of our paper, the most effective teacher-
student relationship is the one that is most important: distance between the partners involved in
communication (student-student, teacher-student), frontal body orientation, touch, and gaze.
Each of these components support open communication and encourage or discourage
indifference messages, the lack of the wish to establish close or cooperation relationships.
Another phenomenon influencing didactic communication frequently is “agglomeration” that
reflects the physical space between individuals and the space for each individual in a given
environment. We know the negative effect of a crowded class on the state of all the members
involved in communication that can generate a certain state of discomfort particularly towards
intruders (HAYDUK, 1981, IN HARRIGAN (2008).
2.3.3. GAZE
Literature includes eye contact, looking, glancing and visual attention, VON CRANACH
(1971) considering gaze as part of a general orientation behaviour. Gaze is a unique component
of nonverbal behaviour because it both receives and sends messages. Gaze is, in didactic
communication, a main component of the teaching activity because it conveys clear
information on attention, interest, motivation, and intention in students; this can generate
frustration if the teacher cannot control the class or manage the energy of the class
(WEINSTEIN, 2002).
3. CONCLUSIONS
The study of nonverbal behaviour in didactic communication is an element that is
almost as important as verbal communication. If we know the components that generate
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195
positive results in students in bot learning and behaviour, we can ask ourselves why so much
school failure, why so many school dropouts, and why so much frustration on both sides.
Teachers who cannot motivate students or capture students’ attention should try and apply the
information presented in the studies about nonverbal communication.
The field of nonverbal communication is so vast that we could not reach all its
elements. We intend to pursue our research focusing on Microteaching within the Teaching
Staff Training Department of the Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Romania, and on the evaluation of the
nonverbal behaviour of the teachers that are most appreciated by our students.
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