Positive Nonverbal Communication

Performance Learning PLUS is a monthly e-newsletter by Performance Learning Systems (PLS), a comprehensive educational services company that has provided a full spectrum of programs, products, and consulting services for educators and business professionals since 1971.

What kind of nonverbal messages are you giving your students? What do your body language and tone of voice convey? In this issue, read strategies for practicing positive nonverbal communication in the classroom.

Tips

As a teacher, you may spend more time thinking about what you say rather than your nonverbal communication. When speaking to students, make sure your nonverbal messages support your verbal messages. In the words of nonverbals expert Patrick W. Miller, "If there is incongruity between the verbal and the nonverbal, the nonverbal will win hands down."

Positive teacher nonverbal communication helps create an environment in which students feel safe and are motivated to learn. Use the acronym SOFTEN to remind yourself to soften your nonverbal communication with students, while at the same time being positive and enthusiastic.

(S) Smile

Keep the joy of learning alive with many smiles, accompanied by smiling or sparkling eyes. Research shows that the face is the primary mode of communicating a person's feelings, and the eyes convey a large percentage of that feeling.

(O) Open Gestures

Be open and fluid in your gestures, stance, position, and movement in the classroom. Limit the amount of time you spend folding your arms or putting your hands on your hips (folded arms communicate distance, while hands-on-hips can be a threatening gesture). Make broad hand and arm gestures instead of tight, close-to-the-body gestures. Avoid pointing your finger at students — instead, gesture to a student with an open, upturned palm. When stressing a point, stop moving and stand still to make your point, then continue moving (movement upstages words).

(F) Forward Lean

Lean toward your students when speaking to them. Leaning toward a student in a nonthreatening way communicates that you are concentrating on that student, inviting him or her to communicate back. Leaning away communicates distance or disinterest.

(T) Tone of Voice and Touch

Using warm, positive intonation is a valuable nonverbal way to boost your students' motivation and sense of safety. Subtle variations in pitch, volume, rate of speech, inflection, enunciation, and rhythm can convey vastly different emotions, attitudes, and meanings.

Touch is a sensitive issue. As a result, some teachers avoid touching students altogether. Teacher approaches will vary depending on grade level, school policy, and individual personalities of teacher and students. Brief, appropriate touching can validate students' efforts and help them feel welcome in your classroom. For example, you can greet your students at the door with a warm handshake.

(E) Eye Contact

Maintain eye contact when communicating with your students. Looking in the eyes of students who are speaking communicates to them that you are interested in what they are saying and that you are listening. Culturally, some children may be taught to look down when spoken to by others. But even those children will check from time to time to see if you are still looking at them.

It is equally important to make eye contact with each and every one of your students when you are speaking. When you pause to think, it is natural to look away for a moment. Then return to your students' eyes to close the psychological distance between you.

(N) Nod

Nod your head slowly to encourage students who speak up in class. If you nod in the middle of a student statement, it indicates, "I'm with you. Continue." If you nod when a student finishes speaking, it indicates "I agree with you."

Take care to avoid speeding up your nods. Rapid head nods may communicate to a student that you are impatient and that you want him or her to hurry up and finish speaking. If a student is having difficulties articulating a thought, offer a couple slow-paced head nods with warm eye contact to help the student feel safe enough to fully express his or her thought.

When honing your communication skills, use SOFTEN as a reminder to keep the "hard edge" out of your nonverbal messages. Positive nonverbal communication paves the way to a safe, positive learning environment.

Source: The above concepts are based on the PLS graduate course PRIDE: Professional Refinements in Developing Effectiveness™.

References: