TOPIC 2: COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN MODERN LANGUAGE SESSION:

LINGUISTIC AND NON-LINGUIST COMMUNICATION. REACTIONS TO

NONVERBAL MESSAGES IN DlFFERENT CONTEXT.
1. INTRODUCTION.
2. COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS:
2.1. COMMUNICATIVE FEATURES
2.2. THE ORDER OF ADQUISITION
2.3.
COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS. VERBAL
AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CURRICULUM.
2.4. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
3. VERBAL COMMUNICATION
3.1.
DEFINITION OF THE VERBAL COMMUNICATION
3.2.
LISTEN ING & SPEAKING
4. NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
4.1.
DEFINITION OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
4.2.
FUNCTIONS OF THE NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
4.3.
TYPES OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION
4.4.
PROSODIC AND PARALINGUIST FEATURE5
5. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES
5.1.
NONVERBAL REACTION TO MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT CONTEXT
5.2.
TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
5.3.
ACTIVITIES THAT USE EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES
6. CONCLUSION
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION:
Communication is used in everyday Iife situations. There are many
different types of communication involving our lives.
We use language mainly to communicate with people. Therefore, we
could say that communication is a key word for us as English
teachers. Not only it is the essence of human interaction, but also it
is the centre of language learning.
Chomsky was one of the first linguists to try to explain why a child
learns a language. He believed that the infants begin to produce
language by a process of deduction using the input received and with
natural resources construct an internal grammar.
Hymes notes that a child does not just know a set of rules. Children
also know how, when and when to use it when a native speaker
speaks.
Hymes distinguished four aspects of Communicative competence:
Systematic potential: systematic potential means that the native
speaker possesses a system that has a potential for creating a lot of
language. This is similar to Chomskys competence. We study if an
utterance is possible according to the forms of expression available.
Appropriacy: Appropriacy means that the native speaker knows what
language is appropriate a given situation. An utterance will be
appropriate in relation to a context.

Occurrence: Occurrence means that the native speaker knows how

often something is said in the language and act accordingly. This
means that an utterance should not only be 1 possible form from a
grammatical point of view. It should also be actually performed.
Feasibility: Feasibility means that the native speaker knows whether
something is possible in the language.
Halliday: considered that language is learned in a functional context
of use.
Canale & Swain: developed the idea of communicative competence,
a design taken on by MEC as the basis for objectives in the curricular
design and as a guide for the teaching methodology:
Grammatical
Competence,
discourse
Competence,
sociolinguistic Competence, strategic competence and sociocultural Competence.

This communicative competence seeks to help children to

provide opportunities for gaining real language in real use.

In this topic we are going to justify the importance of

communication and the implication of Verbal and Non-verbal
communication in the English language classroom.
2. COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS:
We are going to explain the psychological features that influence in
communication. Thos influences are applied in the foreign language
class.
2.1.
COMMUNICATIVE FEATURES:
Desire to communicate: the main motivation in language learning is
the desire to communicate. Children want to communicate and we, as
teachers, need to design the content and methodology according to
the students interests. For very young learners their central interest
is themselves and their immediate surroundings.
We, as teachers, can exploit this interest by personalizing many of
the class activities. As they get older their area of interest gets
extended and more varied.
We should always encourage communication at any age and it is in
our hands to plan accordingly.
Expression: it is a good idea to let students to express freely and
avoid correcting them too often, so we will not discourage them.
We need to promote self-confidence to communicate without any
kind of embarrassment.
Personality factors: personality affects the way the children learn and
also communicate. Most talkative and extrovert students tend to
learn faster than the quiet.
We also need to plan according to their personalities. This fact
encourages the taciturn, reserve and shy children to participate.

Activities in groups and pairs of mix ability personality children work

well for shy children as they gain self-confidence.
Classroom language: it is important to use the language in every
lesson to encourage communication.
It is also crucial to use the body language and intonation to help
students to understand what it has been said.
2.2.
THE ORDER OF ACQUISITION:
Listening, speaking, reading and writing
Pupils need a lot of practice in comprehension (listening) in order
to hold a conversation in English.
Both skills (listening & speaking) are linked in the learning
process, since people need to absorb the elements of a message if
they are going to contribute in a conversation.
Process used by the learner in listening comprehension:
Firstly the student hears a series of noises but cannot ten the
differences between them. After sometime, he/she realizes that
the sounds are in some sort of order.
As they learn some simple expressions, they begin to see that
they are recurring sounds and they associate them with the
meaning. Later, students start to recognize familiar elements but
not the relationship between them.
As they become more familiar with language, they recognize
different elements but do not remember what they recognize. This
is because they recognize single elements and not the whole
message. The mind eliminates certain information that cannot
take and goes to the short-term memory.
The receptive system in the brain, then take these into the longterm memory. But only a small part of the message can be
remembered. This is the reason why repetition and short phrases
and sounds are extremely important.
Finally, once they are able to understand certain expressions in
speaking & listening we can let them to read some interesting
materials and writing become the last skill to develop.
2.3.
COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASS. VERBAL
AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CURRICULUM:
The official curriculum of the Valencian Community pinpoints the
necessity to include the language as vehicle of communication
(Decree 108/2014, July 4th that establishes the curriculum and
specifies e general Order for primary education for the Valencian
Government). We cannot forget that communication does not only
take place by means of oral signs. Here we have to use a nonverbal communication, as well. In the primary Education
Curriculum, we can observe some objectives dedicated to verbal
and non-verbal communication, for example:
The action-oriented approach adopted in the curriculum includes
learning and training for active use of the foreign language in

communication both inside and outside the classroom, and

throughout life. This is the ability to act by using the language to
produce and understand texts in real contexts. The syntacticdiscursive structures that are handled in this primary stage are
common: no work isolation and have to promote a communicative
purpose,
The first block of contents from the LOMCE contained the oral
understanding, understood as the ass for learning every language.
Throughout this primary stage, students acquire the skills to
understand the teachers, introducing songs or resources of various
kinds that will have progressively less strategic support for
understanding,
The second block includes oral production, and develops both,
oral expression and planned interaction. Both are part of
communicative situations, among others, routines, memorized
structures and supported by gestures (non-verbal communication)
that allow the exchange of information within a functional and
meaningful context based on the interests of each age.
Within the block, strategies for the preparation of oral productions
that have been transferred to the rest of languages and have to be
considered as their own to use them in the routines to expand
competition in learning to learn.
The third block, understanding written texts, the exhibition
includes documents of students to various formats, often with
simple structures and vocabulary presented in a way of increasing
complexity, graduating the interests, the cognitive possibilities
and the contexts across the stage.
Students must develop a range of strategies: to decode texts,
linking fetters and sounds, to formulate hypotheses about what
they read, to reflect on the information, to categorize and to value
it and enjoy
In the Fourth block of production and interaction of written texts it
is very important the gradual support of the teacher, over the
stage, it is also relevant to vary the type of methodological
intervention in order to achieve that students perform the
processes autonomously and collaboratively.
The contents of the four blocks encourage creativity and the use
of different resources in different formats and media, taking
advantage that we provide the information technology and
communication. Furthermore, the treatment of the error as a
positive element that serves to learn and encourages cross values
related to self-confidence, self-control, self-evaluation and
frustration tolerance.
Therefore, the learning situations to be raised should enhance
and facilitate individual, cooperative and dialogue with the
teaching staff and peers work. The joint construction of
productions allows expression of reviews, thoughts, opinions and

ideas that enable the processes of reflection, shared responsibility

and leadership.
In the framework of key competencies for the acquisition of
linguistic competence in a foreign language, as well as for the
acquisition in the co-official language, it is essential to work
simultaneously and coordinated from the three areas for the
development of the reading ability and proficiency in writing, thus
laying the foundation for all students to master written and oral
skills simultaneously in all the languages that are object of
learning. Similarly, the planning of tasks in these three areas must
be a set to a systematic design methodology which is aimed at the
gradual acquisition of comprehension, speed and effectiveness in
literacy, vocabulary enrichment in flow activities, and ultimately, a
better use of the language.
2.4.
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE:
Our main objective as foreign language teachers must not be to
teach a language but to teach students to communicate in that
foreign language. This means providing them with a
communicative competence. This concept was first formulated by
Dell Hymes in the mid-sixties, and deeply theorized in On
Communicative Competence (in Pride, J & Holmes, J. (eds.) (1972)
Sociolinguistics: Harmondsworth: Penguin). It refers to the
knowledge and the capacity of language use in a social setting.
Language competence alone (grammar as described by Chomsky
in his book of 1957 Syntactic Structures, is not enough to achieve
the speakers or the receivers communicative aim. As is explained
in the Royal Decree 126/2014 of the Ministry of Education and
Science, and in the Decree 108/2014 of the Valencian Community,
which follow Hymess approach, apart from the grammatical
competence, communicative competence also involves:
The knowledge of how language is organized as discourse
(discourse competence.
The ability to adapt the linguistic performance to the
situation, according to the social rules and habits (sociolinguistic competence)
The knowledge of how to access and use extra-linguistic
resources context interpretation, gestures, etc) to achieve
the communicative objective (strategic competence);

And the knowledge which allows one to interpret the

elements of the social and cultural reality transmitted or
referred to by language (socio-cultural competence).
In other words, communicative competence implies a certain
mastery of the language system and, moreover, the capability to
use and interpret non linguistic communicative resources.
3.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

3.1.
DEFINITION OF THE VERBAL COMMUNICATION: is a system of
communication that uses word s to talk or to write.
3.2.
LISTENING & SPEAKING: Listening is decoding the sound
according to acquire rules (phonology: study of phonemes).
Speaking is the encoding of the acquired sounds deduced by
listening into signals (Phonetics: study of sounds).
4. NON-VERBAL COMUNICATION:
4.1.
DEFINITION OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION: defined as the
body language and paralanguage as the study of how things are
said (perception & interpretation).
4.2.
FUNCIONS OF THE NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION:
To express attitudes to the speaker:
To express positive or negative emotions.
To support the verbal communication message.
To replace verbal communication.
To help manage social encounter.
To assist in control. Influence and submission.
To assist in the presentation of the self.
John Cleese and Skinner stated the following: Most of our attitudes and
characteristics are grounded in our family experience and family
relationships.
Desmond Morris people signal to each other their attitudes, needs, desires
and feelings more powerfully through unconscious body movements than
through word mouth.

4.3. TYPES OF NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Body&. Eye contact.
Proximity
Body orientation
Personal appearance and clothing.
Head movements.
Facial expressions.
Gaze behavior and eye movement
Conventional Gestures.
Incidental Gestures.
Body movements and Posture.
4.4. PROSODIC AND PARALINGUIST FEATURES:

Abercrombie: We speak with our vocal organs, but we converse with our
entire bodies.
Prosodic features:
Intonation and Stress are the principal prosodic features operative in
English.
Paralinguistic features:

Modulation (expression of the speakers desire to convince), punctuation

(emphasizes the units), kinesics (signaling system making use of gestures
and body movements) and proxemics (the way the participants adjust the
posture to the situation).
5. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES:
5.1.
NONVERBAL REACTION TO MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT
CONTEXT:
Extra-linguistic strategies are linked to achieve strategic
competence.
This is the ability to plan and adapt communication, so that the
desired end is achieved.
In different context different strategies are required. Strategies
develop when a need is seen. Children look for extra-linguistic help
when they are interested in communicating.
We should expose children in different situations of verbal
communication and help them to develop non-verbal aids with games
and activities, which link non-verbal elements with the context and
communication needs
This acquisition of language skills and non-verbal strategies requires
an atmosphere of relaxation with non-tension, sense of ridicule or
pressure.
Children should see how language, verbal and non-verbal changes in
different context, ruled by situation, climate, social class, age,
formality and informality.
5.2. TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
It is a language method built around the coordination of speech and
action, it attempts to teach language through physical activity. It was
developed by James Asher (1977): involves listening to commands
said by the teacher and involve physical response on the side of the
students.
In a developmental sense, Asher sees successful second language
learning as a parallel process first language acquisition. He claims
that speech directed to young children consist mainly of commands,
which children respond physically before they are able to produce
verbal responses Asher sees first and second language learning as a
parallel process, so we must reflect the following such as: Simon
says, action songs, finger rhymes, mime use the ,PR technique.
5.3.

ACTIVITIES THAT USE EXTRALINGUIST STRATEGIES:

Gestures to keep the childrens attention
Gestures to clarify instructions make students repeat, correct
or provide extra information
Action songs.
Following instructions.
Mime games:
Flashcards to order a sequence, scenes to order a story,
flashcards to prompt some talking-f

6.

Counting rhymes (10 green bottles hanging on the wall, they

were 10 in the bed )i
Snap.
Finger rhymes (Two Dickie birds sitting on a wail .. )
Following the instruction (listening, colouring, following an
itinerary, picture drawing...)

CONCLUSION:
In this topic we attempted to demonstrate the nature of verbal
communication. The spoken language in each productive and
receptive form depends not only on the understanding of sounds but
also on the creation of these sounds.
The context of this communication includes many elements, which
are aids in the process, and we should be aware of how we can
maximize verbal and non-verbal items to encourage children to infer
meaning and to use all sorts of extra-linguistic strategies to improve
communication.
By means of meaningful motivating activities, which use aspects
such as body-movement and gestures. We can motivate our young
learners of English to believe that communication in English language
is in within their reach.

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Lzaro, F Ciclo de lengua y literatura Ediciones Anaya.

Madrid (1988)

House. S. An introduction to teaching English to children.

Richmond Publishing (1997)
Fernndez F. Historia de la lengua inglesa Gredos (1993)
Hymes, D. On Communicative Competence Penguin (1972)

Brewster, Ellis and Girard The Primary English Teachers

guide Penguin (1992)

Argyle, M The Psychology of Interpersonal behavior (1967)

Desmond M Man Watching (1977) and Body Watching

(1985) .
House,S An introduction to teaching English to children
Richmond Publishing (1997)

Current legislation:

LOMCE 8/2013 December 9th organic Law for the Improvement of the
Quality of Education.
Royal Decree 126/2014 February 28th, which establishes the basic
curriculum for primary education.
Decree of the Valencian Government 108/2014 July 4 th which
establishes the curriculum for primary education.