Body language in an EFL class.

Body language is an important medium through which people communicate with each other. It refers to facial expressions, gestures, tones of voices and body movement, etc. that people use to express their thoughts and feelings in communication. As an important part of language, body language is often used when words fail to express the speaker’s ideas and when the speaker wished to save both time and trouble.

In the English as a Foreign Language classroom, body language plays an even more important role. It helps to cultivate students’ characters and inspire students’ motivation in study. Nowadays classroom teaching is the main form of school education and the teacher plays an active role in classroom teaching. As teachers are usually respected, what they say and do is likely to be imitated by students, sometimes subconsciously. What a teacher says and how he or she acts influences students greatly. In order to improve teaching efficiency, an English teacher can consciously use body language in the classroom to bring the class to life. In the course of a lesson, the use of body language by the teacher to explain things that could otherwise be explained in words help students use their imagination and visualize things. Body language, too, helps to improve the students artistic appreciation and moral character.