Optimizing Language Learners Nonverbal Behavior: From Tenet to Technique 9781783097371

Table of contents :
Contents
Notes for Readers
Foreword
Preface
Part 1: Introduction
Introduction
Background on Nonverbal Behavior, its Teachability and General Training Recommendations
Part 2: Codes
Gesture
Posture
Facial Expression
Eye Behavior
Space and Touch
Prosody
Part 3: Activities
Communicative Techniques
Affective Techniques
Cognitive Techniques
Conclusion – Nonverbal Positive Communication
References
Author Index
Subject Index

Citation preview

Optimizing Language Learners’ Nonverbal Behavior

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Series Editors: Professor David Singleton, University of Pannonia, Hungary and Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and Dr Simone E. Pfenninger, University of Salzburg, Austria This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of language acquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than the native language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadest possible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, on the one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, some degree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoretical stance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective – sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. – deemed out of place. The intended readership of the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second language acquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisition research, and researchers, teachers and policy-makers in general whose interests include a second language acquisition component. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: 112

Optimizing Language Learners’ Nonverbal Behavior From Tenet to Technique

Tammy Gregersen and Peter D. MacIntyre

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Gregersen, Tammy, editor. | MacIntyre, Peter D., 1965- editor. Title: Optimizing Language Learners' Nonverbal Behavior: From Tenet to Technique/Tammy Gregersen and Peter D. MacIntyre. Description: Bristol: Multilingual Matters, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016046331| ISBN 9781783097364 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783097357 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783097371 (Pdf) | ISBN 9781783097388 (Epub) | ISBN 9781783097395 (Kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Nonverbal communication—Psychological aspects. | Gesture—Psychological aspects. | Human behavior—Psychological aspects. | Communication models (General) Classification: LCC P99.5 .O68 2017 | DDC 302.2/22—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046331 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-736-4 (hbk) ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-735-7 (pbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA. Website: www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2017 Tammy Gregersen and Peter D. MacIntyre. Cover Photographer and Videographer: Blake Lybbert Music on the video portion of this project written and performed by The John June Year Band and Amelia and Melina All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Nova Techset Private Limited, Bengaluru and Chennai, India. Printed and bound in the UK by Short Run Press Ltd. Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc.

From Tammy To my father, F. Neal Gregersen, who, had it not been for his characteristic silence, I would never have understood the awesome power of nonverbal communication. I love you, Dad. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent and discerning if they hold their tongues (Proverbs 17:28) AND To my husband, Mario, who probably wishes that I had inherited my father’s communicative behavior. I love you, Poppy. Me gustas cuando callas porque estas como ausente, y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca. Parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado y parece que un beso te cerrara la boca. (Pablo Neruda).

From Peter This book is dedicated to my teachers. To my first teacher, my mother Dona MacIntyre who passed away in 1997 and who I think about every day. To those who have been my educators over many years, and in dedicating this book, I want to express my appreciation in particular for the formative influence of Dr. Mary Lynch and Dr. Judith Rolls who taught me so much about nonverbal communication, and about teaching as well. To my students and academic colleagues from whom I learn continuously. Finally, to my wife Anne whose incredible sensitivity to everyone around her is proof positive that we academics have much to learn about how people communicate with each other, especially in appreciating how to say what cannot be said with words.

Contents

Notes for Readers Foreword Preface

xiii xv xix

Part 1: Introduction Introduction Background on Nonverbal Behavior, its Teachability and General Training Recommendations

3 7

Part 2: Codes Gesture Posture Facial Expression Eye Behavior Space and Touch Prosody

25 66 83 107 123 143

Part 3: Activities Communicative Techniques CM 1: Confounding Cultural Contexts CM 2: Emblematic Problematic CM 3: Enigmatic Emblems CM 4: Allow Me to Explicitly Explain… CM 5: Thinking for Speaking: How My Language Influences My Gestures CM 6: Roles and Regulations CM 7: Facial Emblems of the Rich and Famous CM 8: Too Fast and Forward CM 9: Do I Raise My Gaze or Lessen My Look? CM 10: Postural Priorities by Culture CM 11: Contrasting Contact vii

169 169 170 171 173 174 174 176 177 178 180 181

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CM 12: Attuned Touch CM 13: Popping Bubbles CM 14: Turn-taking Talk CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Disruptions CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators CM 17: Mediating Memories; Negotiating Dreams CM 18: The Cure for Communication Hiccups: 3Cs and an A CM 19: Embodied Completions for Mutual Elaboration CM 20: Recipients Redefine by Design CM 21: An Assassin Among Us CM 22: Group Ten Count CM 23: Silence is Not Golden CM 24: Elucidating Linguistic Limitations through Compensation Cues CM 25: Optimal Input/Masking Shortcomings CM 26: Breaking the News: Complement or Qualify? CM 27: Illustrator Improvisations CM 28: Listening Unleashed CM 29: Speak-Eazy CM 30: Gestures to Jest By … CM 31: The Sculptor and his Lump of Clay: Positioning by Pointing CM 32: Ready … Set … Action! CM 33: Storytelling Signals CM 34: Redoubling Redundancy CM 35: With Only One Finger! – Reducing Listening Ambiguity CM 36: Better to Beat It! CM 37: Practicing Syntactic Displays through Readers’ Theater CM 38: Emblematic Faces CM 39: Grammar Gapping CM 40: Take Pause CM 41: Pausing to Persuade CM 42: Practicing Pauses; Pause to Practice CM 43: Halting Hesitation CM 44: Under-a-Minute Pause-in-Interaction Role Plays CM 45: Practicing Pitch Patterns CM 46: Intonation Idioms: Music to the Ears CM 47: Stressing Stress CM 48: Connecting with Connected Speech

183 185 186 187 188 189 190 192 193 194 195 196 197 199 200 202 203 204 206 207 208 210 211 212 213 215 216 217 219 221 223 226 227 228 229 231 232

Content s

Affective Techniques AF 1: Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall … AF 2: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Blabbery AF 3: Halt! Improvising Zones of Proximal Development (ZPDs) AF 4: Emotional Illustrations AF 5: Display your Dismay AF 6: Becoming Attuned: Notice, Associate, Respond AF 7: Deceit Detectives: Affect Cues as Clues AF 8: Tracking Tell-Tale Truths AF 9: The Gesture Police AF 10: Fractions of Facial Factions AF 11: Feeling Frenzy AF 12: Walk the Talk AF 13: Urge and Surge AF 14: Grin and Bear it! AF 15: Smile: Does the World Smile with Me? AF 16: Infectious Expressions AF 17: Anxious Al Meets Nervous Nelly AF 18: Avoiding the Resting Witch Face and Improving Initial Impressions AF 19: Everyone Emotes AF 20: Facial Freedom? No Such Luck AF 21: Display Dilemmas: With Whom and Where? AF 22: Mingling with Masks AF 23: Seeing Eye to Eye AF 24: An Eye toward Interaction AF 25: Gaze Away the Gray AF 26: I Dare You Not to Laugh AF 27: Playing with Persuasion AF 28: Gaze your Way to Status, Power and Control AF 29: Believe Me! AF 30: Dealing with Dissonance AF 31: Peek a Boo You Two: Your Posture Speaks Volumes AF 32: Energize Yourself through Posture AF 33: ‘Dissing’ with Distance AF 34: Chameleon Challenge AF 35: Windows to Openness AF 36: Striking the Assertiveness Balance AF 37: On the Hunt for Confidence, Likeability and Power AF 38: Plotting Personal Places AF 39: Space Invasion AF 40: Finding Affiliation or Protecting Privacy?

ix

235 235 236 236 238 239 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 249 250 251 253 254 256 258 260 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 272 273 274 275 276 278 280 281 284 286 287 288

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AF 41: Touch-Type Scavenger Hunt AF 42: Touch Tones AF 43: Stroke, Squeeze, Shake – Emotion You Can’t Fake AF 44: Defusing Dilemmas and Accenting Affect through Touch AF 45: Trialing Touch for Compliance AF 46: Daily Touch Diary AF 47: Hypothesizing Contexts of Touch AF 48: Identical Words, Distinct Meanings AF 49: Laugh and the World Laughs with You AF 50: Your Voice is Music in my Ears! AF 51: Voice Cues Bingo AF 52: Self-monitoring My Inner and Outer Voices AF 53: I’m Going to Paris! Whooopeee! AF 54: Personality Parade Cognitive Techniques CG 1: Grounding Names in Action: I Dub Thee ‘Peculiar Peter’ CG 2: ‘Vividifying’ Mental Visions CG 3 (Part 1 of 2 Techniques): Squishy Squashy Strong and Sturdy CG 4 (Part 2 of 2 Techniques): Squishy Sponges and Strong Steel CG 5: Foreigner Talk CG 6: Act First; Ask Questions Later CG 7: Say it with your Hands! CG 8: Conceptual Information with Visuospatial Components CG 9: Mimemic Iconic Gestures CG 10: Rap it up!! CG 11: Rappin’ Freestyle CG 12: Memory in Motion Mayhem CG 13: Enacted Action Stories CG 14: Experimenting with Arbitrary Embodiment CG 15: Uncluttering Our Working Memories CG 16: Mission Invisible CG 17: Trying on Language through Drama CG 18: Up-right Posture: Up-surged Confidence CG 19: Run the Risk CG 20: Nod Your Way to Self-Satisfaction CG 21: Keep It Moving! CG 22: Watch What I Am Saying!

290 291 292 294 294 297 298 300 301 302 304 305 307 309 310 310 311 312 313 314 316 317 319 321 322 324 325 326 327 329 330 332 332 333 334 336 337

Content s

CG 23: Your Eyes Don’t Lie! CG 24: Eyeball Escapades for Better Brain Behavior CG 25: The Eyes Have It CG 26: Minus the Monotone CG 27: Locating Learners’ Sweet Spot Conclusion – Nonverbal Positive Communication References Author Index Subject Index

xi

338 340 342 343 345 346 351 366 371

Notes for Readers

Direction to specific activities can be found in textboxes throughout the book. The activities are found in Part 3: Activities. The activities are divided into different categories and are labelled as follows: Communicative Techniques (CM); Affective Techniques (AF); Cognitive Techniques (CG)

 This icon denotes an accompanying video. All videos can be found at http://www.multilingual-matters.com/OLLNB.asp

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Foreword

We are at an interesting and promising crossroads in regards to what language teaching/learning is and will become. In the not-too-distant past, students of a foreign or second language were subjected to a curriculum that viewed language teaching/learning from a structural perspective. The present tense needed to be taught before the past tense, nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions, and the syntactic order of each needed to be understood in sequence and practiced. Although a knowledge of grammatical forms and grammar is of course critical to understanding how a language functions as a linguistic system, particularly in relation to advanced instruction, this approach does not suffice in-and-of itself, methodologically, as a means of promoting second language development. To rectify the decontextualization of structural approaches and those that followed, which emphasized ‘brain-based learning’ through providing linguistic ‘input’ (listening and reading), and eventually taking into account ‘output’ (speaking and writing), came recognition that classroom language teaching/ learning involves more than the sum of the linguistic parts of a language and the attendant cognitive processes, leading, after a number of years of confusion, to a pedagogical focus on language for communication. To implement this approach, communicative and task-based syllabi emphasized student-tostudent interaction. However, as we all know, human interaction is in fact multidimensional, infused with any number of semiotic elements, and as such, not simply the passing back and forth of information, an underlying assumption of such methods. A more comprehensive, ‘integrationist’ perspective of language as situated within communication ensued in the study of applied linguistics, but at this point in time most second and foreign language classrooms have yet to take into consideration the pedagogical implications of adopting this point of view. In addition to expanding the study of what communication entails, there is growing influence in applied linguistics for those perspectives that focus on the social and cultural forces that have shaped and continue to shape the particulars of the ‘who, what, where, when and why’ of language use. Indeed, from a sociocultural view, for example, it would appear that only formal logic uses language to express abstract, disembodied representations: the phenomenon of xv

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‘no one speaking to no one,’ as with Descartes’ famous dictum, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Instead, there is always an addressee, even in the case of private speech for intrapersonal functions; that is, consulting ourselves in connection to problem solving, planning, reflecting on a past event, emoting privately in connection to thoughts, and so on. And, since we are culturally as well as physically embodied, both how we talk to others and ourselves includes nonverbal communicative forms that display idiosyncratic dispositions as well as our affiliation to social groups. As discussed in the current book, language is not restricted to spoken and written modalities: it is part and parcel of the larger semiosphere, which includes not only words and how they are spoken (e.g. intonation, pitch, rhythm, tone of voice), but the use of nonverbal forms of communication as well: gesture, facial expression, posture, proxemics, touch, gaze and additional forms of embodied meaning as revealed, for example, through heightened muscular tension in the articulation of a facial expression. Moreover, all of these features and forms of communication are never isolated from the overall moment-to-moment contexts of interaction: speaking with a stranger, friend, student or family member; conversing in a classroom, at home, an amusement park; feeling bored, happy, confused, ready to take a risk. All of these are dimensions of interpretation that form and surround language and communication as it unfolds, and as such deserve attention in the language classroom. Also, as it turns out, not only does embodiment relate to how we communicate, but learning itself. The idea that we are constituted as human beings largely through cognitive processing offers little in the way of explaining the full complexity of human consciousness. So, psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and researchers in related disciplines started to research what has become known as ‘embodied cognition,’ coming to an awareness of just how critical to our thinking/feeling, learning/memory, having a body really is. A key consideration for language teaching/learning in relation to embodied cognition is gesture. First of all, gestures and gesturing are connected to meaning-making, complementing the verbal channel through the addition of imagistic and motoric representation, the two channels (speech and gesture) integrating in real time to form a richer, more accurate, balanced, holistic rendering to thought, although of course such elaboration is not always necessary. Furthermore, and in relation to learning, studies have shown that, for example: when both adults and children use gesture to clarify their own thinking, they remember those thoughts better at a later date than if they do not gesture; if people gesture during a conversation, it is better remembered than if no gesture occurred; and simply observing someone gesture adds to the ability to better recall information. If you consider the implications for teaching/learning for even just these few research findings, it becomes apparent why embodiment is essential to learning in all classrooms, in addition to the special affordances it offers language learners.

Foreword

xvii

There is, then, every reason to believe that students of a second or foreign language will benefit from activities and pedagogical practices that focus on nonverbal interaction, activities which should include the observation and study of video recordings, explicitly attending to how speakers show emotions, create empathy and intersubjectivity, display trust and so on. Students also need to imitate nonverbal forms, to see how they ‘feel’ when they do so, to experience, in a second-hand way, if you will, what communication is really like in the language. The goal of dramatic forms of practice is not for students to necessarily adopt the nonverbal forms, although this does happen, but instead to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the contexts of interactive meaning-making, to enter that world more fully as a seminal aspect of language development. Steven McCafferty University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Education USA

Preface

Our primary audience for this book is the sojourners whose roads pass through unfamiliar cultures, who will navigate the language and nonverbal communication cues that are found in their interactions along the route. Beyond the learners, diaspora and visitors emerges a second audience: the hosts of the sojourners who want to understand their new acquaintances and embrace what makes them different. Whether the sojourners are temporary guests or permanent co-inhabitants, they will need interactants who understand that intercultural communication is a two-way process and that nonverbal behaviors are a part of the reciprocal giving and taking that characterize the effective interpretation of each other’s communicative intentions. For this reason, readers will find throughout the text that we use terminology such as ‘interactants’ to include both parties in the responsibility to negotiate intelligibility. Although it has been said that variety is the spice of life, intercultural interactions are laden with the potential for misinterpretations. We hope that as they progress through our text, teachers and learners – in both foreign and second language contexts – participate in conversations concerning each individual’s ability and/or willingness to question his or her own cultural norms and beliefs. Active discussions of mutual respect for different cultural backgrounds, conversations about learners’ changing identities, and recognizing the complex mixture of desires, motivations and sociopolitical contexts for language use will enlighten both private and public discourse. Both within groups and within individuals, people will differ in their approach and willingness to adapt to the target language culture. Therefore, because our focus is on ways in which nonverbal communication helps to recreate meaning, when we use terms such as ‘effective’ or ‘successful’ communication, we are talking about messages that are sent and/or received that are interpreted much as the interactants intended. In the weave of our chapters, one of the common threads is that differences exist among cultures, and we hope that these are celebrated. Of course there will be differences in what is deemed appropriate or even comfortable in any situation – on both sides of the classroom door. With this in mind, we want to emphasize the need for teachers to pick and choose from the array of activities we present keeping the specific cultural milieu and learners’ xix

xx Opt imiz ing L anguage Lear ners’ Nonverbal Behav ior

comfort at the forefront of their minds. There might be occasions where different cultural norms are liberating, fascinating, comical or possibly uncomfortable. If approached with mutual respect, we trust that even discomfort can lead to teachable moments. Although much of the research we cite and many of the examples we provide are from English-speaking contexts, nonverbal communication transcends language as it is present whether interactants use Arabic, Japanese, Portuguese or any other. We hope that no matter what language a person speaks at any given time, they will be able to take away important ideas about the nonverbal behavior that accompanies it. It is for this reason that in the introduction and the tenet section that we talk generally about target languages, but throughout the technique section, we provide research and pedagogical examples that use the English language. That said, adventurous and creative teachers of languages other than English who want to raise their learners’ awareness of the importance of nonverbal communication in their target language interactions may begin inventing their own language examples. Let’s take for example, Technique CM 3: Enigmatic Emblems, found on page 171 whose objective is to enhance interactants’ sociolinguistic competency by heightening their awareness that gestures that mean one thing in one culture can mean something very different in another. To prepare for this activity, teachers are asked to put the terms that represent gestures that vary from one culture to another on slips of paper and place them in a hat or box from which learners can draw. For example, for teachers of English, these consist of phrases such as ‘You are crazy!’ and ‘I swear!,’ among others. For a teacher of Spanish to use this technique, she would need to do nothing more than to translate the list of phrases into Spanish, so instead she would prepare slips of paper that say, ‘Estas loco’ and ‘Te juro!.’ In writing this book, we encountered a serious dilemma as authors: How can we communicate effectively about nonverbal communication with just the printed word and maybe a handful of still photos? Imagine our frustration in attempting to lay out the instructions for an activity that emphasizes body movement, facial expression and vocal cues when all we had were words on a page! To mitigate this problem, we created video clips that accompany many of the activities throughout the book. If you are reading this in eBook format, and your e-reader supports it, you will be able to read the descriptions and watch a video demonstration of the content. By no means are these vignettes meant to represent prototypical behavior across cultures and contexts. The videos are meant to help readers visualize some of the elements we discuss in the chapters. They were created with a limited budget, an amazingly creative videographer named Blake Lybbert and a group of dedicated student volunteers who have hearts for global consciousness and a desire to pay it forward. We want to thank the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Northern Iowa for financially supporting the work of

Pref ace

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creating the videos, we want to thank Blake for putting in more hours than we could ever pay him for and also our students who made this entire process so much fun. Thank you also to the publishers at Multilingual Matters for working out the technology bugs to allow this innovative presentation. Technologies change quickly and we can only hope that future readers will still have seamless access to the videos. We hope that readers (as viewers) enjoy our videos as much as we did making them!

Part 1 Introduction

Introduction

One night while in Spain reporting on the news of the Civil War, French writer and journalist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, found himself with numerous pistol barrels shoved forcefully into his belly. Beneath the cloak of darkness, insurgent rebels had crept up and captured him only later to be saved by the miracle of a simple smile. The soldiers and their captive descended into the poorly lit bowels of a basement where other militia were dozing with their guns propped up between their legs. Saint-Exupéry was searched and thrown into a cell. Although he did not speak Spanish, he understood sufficient Catalan to realize that his captors were demanding his identification. He attempted to communicate that his documents were at his hotel and that he was a journalist, but they merely handed around his camera, without expression. Following a tortuous interim of observing his abductors, Saint-Exupéry grew increasingly desperate. What occurred next in that place was driven by the simplest, most profound form of shared humanity. As the Frenchman had no cigarettes and one of his Spanish guards was smoking, Saint-Exupéry requested through the use of gesture and ‘showing the vestige of a smile,’ if the guard would be willing to share one. His captor stretched, deliberately wiped his hand across his brow, raised his eyes to meet Saint-Exupéry’s, and, to his profound astonishment, the guard attempted to return his smile. For the journalist, ‘it was like the dawning of the day’: This miracle did not conclude the tragedy, it removed it altogether, as light does shadow. There had been no tragedy. This miracle altered nothing visible. The feeble oil lamp, the table scattered with papers, the men propped against the wall, the colors, the smell, everything remained unchanged. Yet everything was transformed in its very substance. That smile saved me. It was a sign just as final, as obvious in its future consequences, as unchangeable as the rising of the sun. It marked the beginning of a new era … And I was aware of a connection. 3

4

Par t 1: Introduc t ion

Nothing had been spoken, yet everything was resolved. Saint-Exupéry concludes his account with thoughtful insight into the celebrated universality and invigorating power of that one simple gesture, the human smile: Care granted to the sick, welcome offered to the banished, forgiveness itself are worth nothing without a smile enlightening the deed. We communicate in a smile beyond languages, classes and parties. We are faithful members of the same church, you with your customs, I with mine. Saint-Exupéry’s account of this incident that rendered a smile as the difference between life and death demonstrates how hard it would be to overstate the importance of nonverbal communication in human interaction. This story reveals that the nonverbal often supersedes language and brings human communication to a deeper, more meaningful level – in every facet of interpersonal interaction. In this particular example, our protagonists did not share the same language, yet they connected through a smile. They communicated. Our purpose in this book is to bring the realization of the importance of nonverbal communication to teachers and learners alike as they work together in cultivating greater communicative, affective and cognitive competence in a target language (TL). Our concern for nonverbal communication in its many forms emerges in part from our prior work on emotions in second language communication. The specific emotion that has been studied most extensively is language anxiety and we have written about it elsewhere (Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014). Our thinking often is shaped by the experiences of anxious learners and speakers who are having difficulty in getting their message across. Some readers may get the impression that the disproportionate number of discussions about anxiety reflects the notion that all learners must be anxious. Of course there are those who do not experience much anxiety at all. But we hasten to note that, even among confident individuals, when anxiety does arise it is an emotion that can be difficult to ignore – it demands attention! As discussions of language anxiety appear throughout the text, consider it as an example or representation of an emotion that can be expressed nonverbally.

The Verbal-Nonverbal Link ‘If verbal communication is the pen which spells out details, nonverbal communication provides the surface on which the words are written and against which they must be interpreted.’ When Stevick (1982: 163) bestowed such importance on nonverbal communication he seemed to be warning that a disregard of nonlinguistic channels in favor of a focalized interest on language alone would cause a huge part of the communication process to go unnoticed. Unheeded would go the very signals that enhance the meaning

Introduc t ion

5

of learners’ TL utterances, promote positive affect and enrich learning. In effect, the inextricable and highly complex relationship between the verbal and nonverbal dimensions of behavior operates communicatively, emotionally and cognitively. The multifunctional nature of nonverbal behavior facilitates interpersonal meaning-making, conveys feelings and attitudes, and enhances thinking and learning – and sometimes all at the same time. In a split second, we can travel the entire ‘inter-’ to ‘intra-’ personal communication continuum as our body movements and voices externalize our private understanding of an idea for another person, aid us in developing this understanding, and simultaneously transmit how we feel about it. Vygotsky (1997: 114) once said that contemplating the body apart from the mind is like attempting to ‘separate the heat from the sun,’ and although this simile is full of wisdom, it is missing a key piece. We would like to attach the addendum: Consider the heart as well, for those are the rays that emanate from the sun and carry the heat. Our purpose in this book is two-fold: to highlight for teachers the pivotal role that nonverbal behavior plays in TL communication by presenting research tenets on nonverbal behavior that will inform their classroom decisions; and to offer specific techniques that will allow language learners to capitalize on all of the bodily, vocal and spatial means at their disposal while deliberating on their own personal identities and the degree to which they desire to participate in the TL culture. As Wylie (1977: vii) said, ‘We communicate not only with our voices but our entire bodies and the space around them.’ In this book, we consider how language learners – of any language – can enhance their communicative, affective and cognitive competence by tapping into the power of their kinesic behavior (including gesture, posture, facial expression and eye behavior), prosody (e.g. vocal cues) and proxemics (e.g. the use of space). The book is divided into three parts. The first provides background information on nonverbal behavior, its role in TL communicative, affective and cognitive competencies, and considers the challenges and successes inherent in attempting to guide TL learners on their journeys be more effective nonverbal communicators. Such challenges lie not only in the cultural specificity of nonverbal cues, but also because of their unintentional, ambiguous, continuous and multi-channeled nature. We also include in this section some general pedagogical guidelines to increase learners’ encoding and decoding skill in any of the codes that teachers might want to consider. In Part 2, we present each of the selected nonverbal codes (gesture, posture, facial expression, eye behavior, prosody and proxemics) broken down into their communicative, affective and cognitive functions. We chose these particular codes because they influence TL communication and contain elements over which teachers might have some control and exert some influence. For example, teachers might explicitly instruct learners on gesture so to enhance their TL communication by reducing ambiguity, raise their affect

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by increasing interlocutors’ intersubjectivity and improve their cognition by engaging more senses. However, we left out a few nonverbal codes that some researchers consider important to the overall communication process, such as physical attractiveness and body artifacts, because we found them of less value for our language learning and teaching purposes. This does not mean, however, that they are not important in the communication process, but that they are not as amenable to change in the classroom context. At the conclusion of each research tenet, we provide the number(s) of the corresponding technique(s) that tap into the information in the tenet and which are found in the last section. Part 3 contains the classroom techniques from among which teachers may choose. They are categorized by the competency they seek to enhance: communicative, affective and cognitive. Because more than one code is typically involved in improving a particular competency, this organization allows us to tap into various codes and show how they work together toward the same purpose. For example, to increase learners’ communicative discourse competency via improved turn-taking mechanisms, we might capitalize on a combination of codes including gesture, posture, facial expression, eye behavior and vocal cues which function in tandem to maintain, deny, yield or request a speaking turn. One important element to keep in mind is that, although nonverbal communication influences all human interaction, it may in some cases be even more essential in TL interactions: ‘The fact that at least one communicator is working in a second language means the verbal content may not be as clear as it would be in an intracultural interaction. Consequently, the reliance on nonverbal communication may be even greater than normal’ (Singelis, 1994: 275). With this increased need in mind, we turn our attention to definitions of nonverbal communication, its communicative, affective and cognitive TL functions, the challenges of teaching it, and some general guidelines for improving learners’ decoding and encoding skills.

Background on Nonverbal Behavior, its Teachability and General Training Recommendations

This section begins with a broad definition of what we mean when we say, ‘nonverbal communication.’ We provide explanations concerning how nonverbal behavior impacts communication, affect and cognition. Next, we address the complexities of training learners in capitalizing on their bodies and voices for increased TL competence – including the complications that socio-cultural elements engender. Finally, we end this section by providing several general guidelines for preparing learners for the activities that we present in Part 3.

Definitions ‘Nonverbal behavior is any of a wide variety of human behaviors that also have the potential for forming communicative messages. Such nonverbal behavior becomes communication if another person interprets it as a message and attributes meaning’ (Richmond et al., 2012: 6). It is possible that a specific action might be communicative in one context and not in another. If a language learner extends his arm above his head in a stretching motion to symbolize his willingness to volunteer, it would be considered nonverbal communication. If that same motion was performed to relieve himself of a muscle cramp, this behavior is not communicative because there is no meaning being communicated to another person. Although many nonverbal experts limit their definitions to that which involves an exchange between people, we propose widening those parameters to include the intrapersonal function of nonverbal behavior. In this scenario, the nonverbal behavior accompanying an individual’s ‘private speech’ or ‘self-talk’ would be considered communication, albeit self-directed. For 7

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example, language learners might add a kinesics element, such as a gesture, to accompany hearing, seeing and writing a new vocabulary word to enhance their retention and later retrieval of the lexical item. Our comprehensive definition allows us to discuss the full array of communicative, affective and cognitive functions of nonlinguistic and paralinguistic codes, such as kinesics (including gesture, posture, facial expression and eye behavior), prosodic vocal features and space that language teachers and learners can capitalize on to increase communicative, affective and cognitive competence.

Nonverbal Behavior and Communicative Competence At one time, successful language learning was defined by how accurately learners could formulate their utterances and how fully they could comprehend the messages of others. The main goal was grammaticality; the focus was on form. With the advent of more communicative approaches to language pedagogy, teachers and researchers understood that the ability to say the right thing at the proper time to the appropriate people was just as important as placing words in their correct syntactic order, conjugating verbs well and pronouncing correct phonemes. With additional dimensions of success now considered, ideas of achievement or successful learning shifted from a focus on grammaticality toward incorporating sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse competencies. In judging success, communication and meaning did not supplant accuracy, but rather were added to it. Today, this broader notion of communicative competency inspires teachers to cultivate their learners’ conversational management, cultural appropriateness and self-regulated approaches to learning as well as to facilitate learners’ accurate knowledge and use of TL linguistic codes (Canale, 1983; Canale & Swain, 1980). Some of the potential benefits of an expanded framework can be summarized as follows: • • • •

Self-regulated and strategic learners who purposefully and proactively take control of their learning maximize their outcomes and are more autonomous. Conversationally savvy learners who seamlessly exchange roles and organize cohesive discourse keep the stream of conversation flowing and create a wide range of meanings. Culturally competent learners who vary their speech and behavior in accordance with the social and cultural context interact effectively with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Grammatically proficient learners who understand and use the linguistic codes of their TL accurately have fewer communication breakdowns than their less accurate counterparts (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992).

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Communicatively speaking, in a social framework, nonverbal and verbal channels are inextricably linked. Although we might differentiate nonverbal communication from verbal, during face-to-face interaction the various channels are seamlessly connected and exquisitely well coordinated in time. When we communicate, we do not separate meaning into channels very often; a big red mental flag is raised when we find different meaning in verbal and nonverbal communication. Most often, the verbal and the nonverbal messages interact to become integrated into one communicative event (DeVito & Hecht, 1990). For example, when a teacher corrects Angelina’s error in her ESL class, Angela will probably not separate the teacher’s smile and encouraging voice from her words, ‘Did you mean to say, “I walk to school” or “I walks to school?”’ Voice, smile and words should act in harmony to create an overall positive impression. According to Arndt and Janney (1987: 92), ‘the idea that there are clear boundaries between verbal and nonverbal communication and that it is possible to distinguish sharply between linguistic and nonlinguistic features of conversational events is rooted more in our own logical and methodological assumptions than in the psychological realities of face-to-face communication.’ The authors suggest that people create meaning from the entirety of the communicative event, including the verbal, paraverbal (vocal behavior) and nonverbal, rather than adding them up as isolated signs. Knapp and Hall (2010) discuss several ways that nonverbal messages function in conjunction with the verbal ones. Nonverbal behavior can substitute for, complement, accent, regulate and sometimes contradict the spoken message. Substitution of a nonverbal message occurs when we use a nonverbal cue instead of a verbal one as when a language teacher gives the thumbs up signal to a student for using the correct verb tense. A nonverbal message complements the spoken word when it completes or supplements it as is the case when the words, ‘good job’ are accompanied by the teacher’s smile in praising students’ group work. Accenting occurs when the speaker stresses a specific word in the message. Extending the arms and moving the hands toward each other helps place emphasis on the word small in the sentence, ‘Please put yourselves into small groups for the next language activity,’ and indicates to the learners that their current groupings are too large. Nonverbal messages also regulate conversational flow as is the case with the teacher who nods her head as a student is speaking to encourage more talk. Lastly, nonverbal cues might contradict spoken messages when the verbal and nonverbal interpretation of the message are at odds with each other. On such occasions, the nonverbal channel undermines the verbal, as with the language learner who says, ‘I love grammar!’ but whose rolling eyes and exaggerated intonation on the word ‘love’ makes the teacher believe grammar is the last thing this learner wants to work on. In sum, a ‘silent partnership’ exists among nonverbal behavior, speech and language that systematically conveys key information-saturated features in communicative exchanges. The interaction among verbal and nonverbal

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channels may diminish or enhance the meaning of a message. Also, as many nonverbal communicative elements are regularly enacted in unison with the spoken word, they can be recognized as discrete meaning-carrying units and consequently be employed to decipher speech. Because TL learners need this information, savvy teachers take a principled approach to including exercises that teach nonverbal communication in their language teaching pedagogy (Harris, 2003).

Nonverbal Behavior and Affective Competence Affectively speaking, nonverbal messages are the primary way we communicate our feelings and attitudes. Mehrabian (1972) concluded that we communicate as much as 93% of the emotional meaning of our messages nonverbally. When there is a conflict in meaning between verbal and nonverbal channels, it is the nonverbal cues that take precedence over the spoken word in transmitting emotion and guiding the recipient’s interpretation. As a general rule, verbal messages usually carry a content or cognitive orientation, whereas nonverbal ones serve primarily an affective, relational or emotional function (Richmond et al., 2012). One reason why the nonverbal channel is so effective in conveying feelings and emotions is that, whereas verbal messages need to be learned, emotional nonverbal displays may possess meaning that is more instinctively inferred. Also, relative to verbal messages, nonverbal ones are more spontaneous and difficult to consciously control and are therefore viewed as more authentic and less prone to deception. When verbal and nonverbal messages are at odds with each other, receivers are more likely to accept the nonverbal ones as more accurate reflections of true feelings (Berko et al., 1997). The close interrelationship between the nonverbal and the verbal suggests that the most accurate communication transpires when the two systems function in tandem to reach consistent meanings. Furthermore, when communication cues are transmitted simultaneously, they together create a compensatory and additive effect (Leather & Eaves, 2008). Nonverbal communication plays a pivotal role in interpersonal relationships, helping people respond and adapt to others (Beebe et al., 2014). Upon meeting a stranger, we immediately, spontaneously start forming judgments based on nonverbal information. Within the first milliseconds of an exchange (Willis & Todorov, 2006), we draw conclusions about our interlocutors that form our first impressions. However, the importance of nonverbal cues goes beyond the initiation of a relationship as they also serve to maintain and develop mature relationships and to signal changes in the level of our relational satisfaction. In fact, the more intimate the relationship, the more people use and understand the subtle nonverbal cues of their partners. Furthermore, we are more likely to convey negative messages nonverbally than to overtly declare our dislike of something or someone (DeVito, 2014).

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Nonverbal Behavior and Cognitive Competence Cognitively speaking, nonverbal behavior in language learning performs a private, ‘self-directed’ function. Teachers might notice a language learner who is searching for a word making what seems to be an unconscious series of wrist rotations. This is usually an unintentional intrapersonal action with the potential to become an important strategic communication and learning tool; the nonverbal cue assists the language learner to comprehend and produce language. Hence, whether learners are speaking or listening, their nonverbal behavior is closely tied to their sophisticated internal practices and performs a critical role in linguistic processing (Gullberg, 2008). Research provides evidence that nonverbal behavior enhances learning, improves general recall, increases working memory, internalizes prosodic structure and develops self-regulation, among other things (Gullberg, 2008). These outcomes can be traced to a variety of factors such as the inclusion of more senses in the learning process (Hostetter & Alibali, 2004), elaboration of ideas through visual means, enactment or embodiment (Negueruela et al., 2004), activation of concrete representation (McCafferty, 2006), decreasing ambiguity (Gullberg, 2003; McCafferty, 2004), evoking mental images (Riseborough, 1981), providing a means to map out discourse and intentionality (Kida, 2008; McCafferty, 2004) or lightening the cognitive load of the working memory (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2001; Goldin-Meadow, 2005).

Six Challenges to Teaching Nonverbal Behavior The effective use of nonverbal features in a TL classroom is thought to improve learners’ communicative competency, create a positive atmosphere and enhance the likelihood of comprehension (Allen, 2000; Barnett, 1983; Sime, 2006). Considering these potential outcomes, we advocate throughout this text for the explicit training of language learners to improve their ability to express and interpret TL messages through an assortment of nonverbal codes. Although we are cognizant of the existence of unresolved questions concerning whether spontaneous TL nonverbal cues are teachable or even should be taught, there is a body of evidence that suggests that awarenessraising is indeed productive. Lantolf (2010) advocates for programs whereby learners are coached to use nonverbal cues in systematic ways in order to mediate their own learning. He proposes the possibility that through instruction, learners can develop not only an awareness of nonverbal cues to regulate their own learning, but that training may also effectively enhance learning itself and compensate for problems with working memory and its processing of linguistic input. Although we are optimistic that enhancing learners’ awareness of the power of nonverbal cues will result in greater communicative, affective and

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cognitive competence, this undertaking presents some serious challenges, including cultural specificity, intentionality, ambiguity, continuity, multidimensionality and learners’ agency.

The challenge of culture-specificity Arguably, one of the greatest challenges in teaching language learners how to use nonverbal cues more effectively lies in the fact that each culture has its own norms governing them. Cultural particularities carry so many potential complications that the first several tenets in every code discussed in this book begin with information regarding how teachers can proactively sensitize learners to the influence of socially defined (mostly) unwritten rules of nonverbal behavior. We can talk about interactions being ‘situational’ in micro environments such as the classroom, but we can also define them on the macro level of culture. In North America, for example, it is important to maintain eye contact with the speaker – whether in the classroom, in the hallway, or in the cafeteria. Eye contact conveys respect and demonstrates that listeners are giving the speakers their full attention. However, eye contact that is too fixed or prolonged can be perceived as offensive, rude or even a form of harassment. Eye contact norms differ in Latin American countries where children are taught to avert their eyes rather than make contact when interacting with their elders as direct eye contact is considered impertinent. Furthermore, each culture has unique taboos on the use of certain nonverbal acts in public. For example, in North America, haircombing and teeth-picking are seen as ill-mannered; the more formal the situation, the greater the perception of impoliteness. In Arab cultures, showing the bottom of one’s shoes is perceived as an overt demonstration of disrespect. Because a large portion of nonverbal communication is unconscious, adapting it takes some determination. The acquisition of another language carries with it elements of culture that are inextricably linked to language. When speakers of one language and culture interact with speakers of another, it is vital that they – both sojourners and hosts – develop different mental frameworks concerning the way individuals might think and feel in specific circumstances, the significance of their behavior, and what is the most appropriate response to that behavior. When nonverbal incongruences exist between speakers and their frames of reference, misinterpretations and miscommunication are most likely to occur – adding complexity to the linguistic demands of TL exchanges. Intercultural communicators who do not know how to assess the intent and motivation of their interlocutors’ nonverbal behavior will run into difficulties in interpreting the intended words and actions. One of the hurdles in TL communication is that the decoding skills

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that individuals have spent a lifetime cultivating might be inapplicable or inadequate in intercultural scenarios (DeCapua & Wintergerst, 2010). Subtle variations exist in nonverbal behavior among individuals with different languages and cultures which might inspire some interactants to take the time to capture the nuances in the nonlinguistic and paralinguistic cues of their interlocutors. One might be tempted to ask, ‘If so many challenges exist for sending and receiving nonverbal messages in one’s first language, and it can only get more complex in TL interactions, why bother?’ This question was answered best by Pennycook (1985: 277): Teachers who are aware of paralanguage, of the multi-channeled nature of communication – kinesics, proxemics and paraverbal features – should be better teachers: They will increase their skills as directors of classroom behavior; they will be better equipped to interpret student messages, which is especially significant when those students come from different cultural backgrounds; they will help their students become more culturally aware; and they will be more able to facilitate the acquisition of C2 [second culture] in their students.

The challenge of relative awareness Knapp and Hall (2010: 6) discuss nonverbal behavior and communication as being separated by ‘varying degrees of awareness and control’ – for both encoding and decoding. On occasion we have time to plan and execute our verbal and nonverbal messages in a deliberate fashion. However, there are many times in which we must respond quickly and are either oblivious to or only marginally cognizant of the reasons as to why we communicated as we did. When we use a gesture to replace a word or raise our hand to answer a question in class we usually do so with some degree of control. Conversely, nervous tics and mirroring our interlocutor’s posture are often enacted outside our consciousness. Between full awareness and complete oblivion are a continuum of automatic verbal and nonverbal behaviors that we draw upon, enacting them almost unconsciously on some occasions but with a great deal of control on others. For example, we may unintentionally display defensiveness in our vocal cues when corrected by a teacher, but intentionally use intonation persuasively in a speech to other students. Decoders also apply varying degrees of awareness. For example, a person with an accent might automatically trigger his or her interactant to use speech that is both louder and simplified. Feedback on the accuracy or efficacy of an automatic process could result in modifying or eliminating it. We also learn many nonverbal behaviors through unconscious feedback – via others’ reactions we learn how to send and receive nonverbal

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signals. However, this development is not necessarily through conscious feedback – it may be through the imitation and modeling of others and adjusting our behavior to their responses and guidance. That is to say, the lifelong continuous feedback we receive is often a subtle response to our behavior and is not necessarily overtly mentioned. For example, feedback may take the form of a fellow language classmate saying, ‘Wow, you look nervous,’ or even without saying anything, that same peer may reach out and touch your shoulder in solidarity before you do a role play – treating you like you are anxious without saying a word. Through feedback we enhance our awareness of ourselves and others. We not only acquire an understanding of the behaviors to enact but also ‘how they are performed, with whom, when, where and with what consequences’ (Knapp & Hall, 2010: 65).

The challenge of ambiguity If the meaning of verbal messages can be vague at times, nonverbal messages can be even more ambiguous by several orders of magnitude. The meaning of nonverbal messages may be known only to the person displaying them, and perhaps even more confusing, that person may not intend for the behavior to have any meaning at all. Furthermore, a great deal of individual variability exists in emotional expressiveness: while one person has a frozen facial expression and a monotone voice, another wildly gestures and smiles continually. The ambiguity found in nonverbal behavior can make it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about another person’s behavior, even if you know him or her quite well (Beebe et al., 2014).

The challenge of continuous flow Whereas words are discrete entities with a beginning and an end, nonverbal cues are produced continuously and might not be as readily dissected. It is easy to identify the beginning and end of a hand clap, for example, but more often nonverbal behavior unfolds without visibly defined starting and ending points. Gestures, facial expression and eye contact flow from one communicative situation to the next with seamless ease, making their expression and interpretation problematic (Beebe et al., 2014).

The challenge of multiple channels and codes The multi-channeled nature of nonverbal cues also complicates their precise encoding and decoding. Nonverbal cues come at us simultaneously from a variety of sources and often the codes are sending contradictory messages. That is to say, our smile may communicate one thing, while our tone of voice signals another. When different nonverbal codes send conflicting messages

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that can be construed as either negative or positive, Argyle (1988) suspects that negative nonverbal messages such as frowns and grimaces command attention before positive messages when the two compete. Likewise, the nonverbal and verbal channels can send conflicting messages where neither words nor cues can be interpreted easily. This interconnected dynamism among codes and channels keeps interpretations fluctuating from moment to moment.

The challenge of protecting learners’ agency Communication is not merely an issue of learners’ linguistic proficiency, but also the communicative and intercultural awareness of persons with whom they interact. Language learners’ identities are composed of an intricate amalgam of wants, impetuses and contexts that inter-relate to construct an individual’s language use and desire to associate with diverse groups of interactants. Learners often have very specific goals in learning another language. Their nonverbal communication is a part of their individual identities, and as individuals they must have the agency to decide how much they want to adapt to the TL culture. If we envision a continuum, at one end learners who want to affirm their heritage and at the other end those who want to assimilate to the target culture, there are a great many positions in-between. It would be difficult to list all of the sociocultural and personal factors that play into the decisions about positioning one’s self, and an individual’s position on the continuum may change from one situation to the next. Although there are inherent challenges for accurate interpretation and expression of nonverbal cues, the ability to accurately interpret the nonverbal expressions of others and to embody coherent messages of one’s own is both a natural talent and a skill that can be enhanced. Even if an intrinsic talent for encoding and decoding nonverbal cues is not within an interactant’s communication repertoire, with training and practice in research-based strategies, sensitivity to and accuracy in sending and receiving nonverbal messages can be improved. Perhaps the most general skill that applies to both receiving and sending is to become mindful of nonverbal messages – those of others as well as one’s own. Communicators who are taught to evaluate their interlocutors for particularly effective or ineffective nonverbal behavior are taking the first step toward greater nonverbal acuity. Going beyond mere observation, interactants can regularly practice encoding and decoding nonverbal messages, and they can improve with consistent, correct feedback. When participants in the communication process, in our case learner-peers and teachers, provide feedback to each other about whether their nonverbal judgments are effective or not, they are aiding in the process of refining nonverbal dexterity (Knapp & Hall, 2010).

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Teaching Strategies for More Effective Nonverbal Communication Table 1 is an amalgam of 18 strategies that combine ideas from Beebe et al. (2014) and DeVito (2014) for becoming more effective nonverbal decoders and encoders. Table 1 Eighteen strategies for increased efficacy in nonverbal communication Decoding strategies

Encoding strategies

Context: Pay attention to it Clusters: Watch out for them Consider: Previous experience Compare: Expectations with reality Calculate: Personal nonverbal skill Confirm: Your perceptions with others Contagious: Emotions are infectious Caution: Exercise it in your conclusions Choices: Seek alternative options Construct: A big picture

Awareness: Of your own signals Avoid: Contradictory signals Analyze: Others’ nonverbal cues Ask: For input from interlocutors Attempt: Plenty of practice Alternatives: Contemplate options Avert: Extremes and monotony Adapt: Message to specific circumstances

Decoding strategies Context: Pay attention to it. Intercultural interactants will want to take into account the communicative context and surrounding environment. With or without words, there are consequences to inferring meaning out of context. Attempting to infer meaning from an interlocutor’s lone nonverbal cue or snatch of behavior may lead language learners to the same misinterpretations as those encountered when quoting a person’s words out of context. For example, the learner who interprets her classmate’s drooping eyelids as a signal of disinterest in what the learner is saying may have overlooked the fact that the classmate stayed up all night studying for the grammar test. Clusters: Watch out for them. Rather than focus on one particular cue, effective communicators search for collections of corroborating cues that provide a more accurate interpretation about the significance of a behavior. Let’s consider the scenario of two classmates who, at least to those outside the interaction, seem to be shouting unintelligibly at each other in the hallway. By focusing on their vocal cues alone, we might conclude that they are angry. However, if we consider their smiling faces and the way they are slapping each other on the back, it seems more logical that they might be talking about last night’s soccer game. We need to consider nonverbal

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behaviors in conjunction with other nonverbal cues, the environment and the person’s verbal message. Consider: Previous experience. Effective nonverbal communicators reflect upon prior interactions when decoding nonverbal cues. Familiarity with another person increases the ability to interpret his or her nonverbal behavior. Members of the same culture can interpret one another’s nonverbal cues more accurately than those from outside, and even more so if they are members of the same family. Knowing someone over a period of time increases sensitivity to unique glances, silences, movements and vocal cues that might be overlooked or misunderstood by others. With experience in a specific teacher’s class, a nonverbally aware language learner knows the devilish smile that precedes the teacher calling upon the classmate who is not paying attention. Compare: Expectations with reality. Messages are often interpreted based upon how people are expected to behave in a specific situation. Comparing what one expects to see with what is actually seen and heard enhances observation skills. Expectancy violation theory (Burgoon et al. 1995) suggests that when entering interactions with others, we have certain pre-conceived expectations about how our partners will behave. Our expectations are based on our life experiences and our culture. For example, most learners from Western countries would expect that when meeting another classmate for the first time, that person will smile, maybe extend a hand, say, ‘hello, I’m …’ and then supply his or her name. If, instead, the classmate clasps their hands together and bows without uttering a word, the nonverbal behavior might not have been expected. This violation of expectations raises the perplexing problem of what the classmate meant by bowing instead of offering his or her hand. Violated expectations may be negative or positive and provide an opportunity to expand our own experience and adapt our behavior to an ‘other-orientedness’ – and maybe even try out a new bow! Increased nonverbal communicative competence means being mindful enough to make observations and compare what is expected with what actually transpires and consequently adapting our behavior. Calculate: Personal nonverbal skill. Self-assessing expertise in interpreting nonverbal messages will supply helpful information concerning where change needs to begin. Some communicators simply have a better knack for interpreting nonverbal cues than others. Through self-reflection, learners can gauge whether heightened awareness of the unspoken messages of others is necessary. Confirm: Your perceptions with others. Intercultural communicators can go beyond self-assessment by actively verifying whether what they have interpreted matches what the sender intended. Perception checking is a three-part process. First, nonverbal cues need to be scrutinized, taking into consideration codes such as eye behavior, posture, gestures, facial expression

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and vocal cues. Next, interpretations concerning what the interlocutor was expressing through his or her nonverbal behavior are required. Finally, communicators can check their perceptions against their interlocutors’ intentions by directly asking them about the accuracy of their construal. On a cautionary note, checking and re-checking nonverbal cues would be cumbersome and irritating if overused, in part because it disrupts the flow of communication. However, if a learner is uncertain about how someone feels and it is important to know, a perception check may be in order. For example, a learner who firmly and unequivocally states his opinion to his classmate and immediately notices an abrupt change in his interlocutor’s facial expression may want to consider following up with, ‘Did that sound too bossy?’ Inquiring about a particular nonverbal cue could help in future behavioral interpretations. Contagious: Emotions are infectious. Thoughtful TL communicators are attentive to the notion that emotions and their nonverbal expression are highly susceptible to being spread. During interpersonal interactions, individuals often exhibit emotions that match those that a communication partner is displaying. Emotional contagion theory suggests that people tend to ‘catch’ the emotions of others (Hatfield et al., 1994). Observing the nonverbal emotional displays of two TL interlocutors during interaction will often reveal either both of them smiling or both of them frowning, particularly when there is an affinity between them. Caution: Exercise it in your conclusions. In other words, TL communicators might want to consider interpretations of nonverbal signals as tentative, resisting the temptation to draw conclusions too soon. Instead, interlocutors might prefer to develop hypotheses about what is going on. With more evidence, they can confirm the validity of their guesses. Choices: Seek alternative options. In making judgments, TL communicators with nonverbal sensitivity explicitly seek alternative ideas to the original ones as these provide an effective way to test whether the first judgment was wrong. When a communicator’s conversation partner creates a larger than normal distance between them, he or she may think this cue is signaling that the partner is annoyed, but on second thought it could also mean that the partner needs some space to concentrate on the next activity. Construct: A big picture. Noticing that messages come from a variety of different channels and taking them all into consideration, allows people to experience the various elements working together in actual communication situations and stay open-minded about how they have interpreted a cue or clusters of cues. Also while decoding, communicators need to consider not only the multitude of channels and codes but also the factors that can influence how people behave nonverbally – ranging from their physical conditions to their personalities and the particular situations. For example, heartburn, rather than an interpersonal quagmire, may be more influential in the unpleasant expression on a language learner’s face and a low grade on a

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grammar quiz may make the normally pleasant classmate scowl and grumble. Without considering these factors, an accurate judgment is hard to make. So far we have focused on interpretative strategies concerning how to more accurately make meaning of nonverbal cues, but that is only part of the interactive process. There also are techniques to help TL communicators use nonverbal cues to more effectively express their messages. Moving from reception to production of nonverbal behavior, Beebe et al. (2014) and DeVito (2014) propose that communicators be consciously aware of the messages they are sending, ascertain that there is congruency between the spoken and unspoken, observe the responses of partners in the communicative process, ask others their opinions, playfully practice, consider a variety of options, avoid extremes and incorporate variation and consider the context.

Encoding strategies Awareness: Of your own signals. Being mindful of our nonverbal behavior begins with the recognition that ‘we cannot not communicate.’ In other words, we communicate something even when we say nothing at all. That being the case, we have a direct question for our readers: Are you aware of your nonverbal behavior at this moment? What is your facial expression communicating to anyone watching you read? Is your brow furrowed in concentration? Are your eyes intently focused as you read these words or do you look up often? Even if you may not be overtly aware of your level of concentration, your nonverbal behaviors may be sending the message that you are not to be bothered. Being aware of our nonverbal behavior is the first step in improving our skill in expressing our intentions to others. Most people ‘leak’ nonverbal cues – we cannot entirely regulate every element of our nonverbal behavior, such as the constriction of our eye pupils or aspects of our facial expressions. However, there are many aspects of how we present ourselves to others that we can control. Avoid: Contradictory signals. As we noted earlier, if there is a mismatch between the nonverbal and verbal messages, it is the nonverbal message that will convey the most significance in terms of influencing the meaning of the overall message. When a TL interactant’s communication goal is to express an emotion, compensate for verbal limitations, or give up the floor in turn-taking, checking that their nonverbal message is expressing the sentiment that they convey verbally will provide more effective communication. Verbal messages are undermined with an out-of-sync or contradictory nonverbal message, and if we say one thing and do another, our credibility might be questioned. Analyze: Others’ nonverbal cues. The efficacy of a TL communicators’ nonverbal encoding can also be enhanced by encouraging them to observe others’ reactions to their nonverbal behavior. Through keen observation of how others respond to them, they can foster a deeper understanding

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concerning how their behavior impacts others. For example, a learner may be feeling positive about her oral participation in class, but if others do not seem to be reacting positively to her upbeat feelings, she might consider taking note of the reactions she is receiving, asking herself whether she is doing something to trigger a negative reaction in others or whether something else is going on with the audience. To do so she could note the amount and duration of eye contact and the facial expressions she is receiving from others with whom she is interacting. Tuning into the openness of her classmates’ body postures will also provide clues to how other people are responding to her messages. It could be, of course, that their responses are the result of something she has said rather than on her nonverbal behavior, or it could be something totally out of her control, so it is especially useful for TL communicators to monitor how their interlocutors are reacting when they are listening and not speaking. Ask: For input from others. Questioning others about our nonverbal behavior provides another way of becoming more astute nonverbal message senders. An effective strategy may be for a language learner to approach trusted classmates who can provide honest feedback about the impressions one’s nonverbal are generating. Just as a person might ask a confidant to give his reaction to what she is wearing, learners can also ask peers they trust for an honest critique about their nonverbal behavior. They can ask things such as whether their actions fit their words and whether the feeling or message they want to communicate is what they are actually conveying nonverbally. Requesting others’ input concerning their perceptions of our nonverbal behavior – inviting perception checking – can help in nonverbal self-evaluation. Attempt: Plenty of practice. Finally, TL communicators can practice specific nonverbal behavior as a way to become more effective encoders. Undoubtedly, language learners have experience in practicing their oral performances to improve their speech deliveries – some may have even videotaped their speeches, rehearsed in front of a mirror, or watched themselves on their smartphones to check their verbal performances. To some degree, nonverbal behavior can be altered by deliberate practice. We are not suggesting that TL communicators rehearse every detail of an interpersonal conversation as that would result in stilted, artificial and inauthentic exchanges. But those who observe themselves on video might acquire a sense of how others perceive them. If learners need to polish their nonverbal social skills, having them practice greeting others or expressing both positive and negative emotions may help them project themselves more accurately. Again, TL communicators need not create a script or memorize their messages, but using their smartphones, a video camera or a mirror to practice facial expressions and informal gestures and to observe their posture can provide insight into how to enhance their nonverbal persona. As a caveat, we highly recommend that teachers approach the practicing of nonverbal behavior in their

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classrooms with a sense of play rather than as an assignment. Devoting practice time in and out of class to experimenting with how learners express themselves nonverbally can increase their awareness of how others see them. Alternatives: Contemplate options. TL communicators can begin to consider their choices for nonverbal communication just as they do for their verbal messages. For TL speakers, who in many cases exert much more awareness and energy than first language speakers in their consideration of their verbal choices, this is a tall order. It is possible to become more mindful about the choices one has available for self-expression – both verbal and nonverbal. They can also monitor their nonverbal messages with care, as they do with their verbal messages. For example, if it is inappropriate to say, This grammar teacher is terrible!, then it is also not appropriate to have a sour expression when she says hello at the classroom door. Avert: Extremes and monotony. TL learners might want to consider how to moderate and vary their nonverbal communication. They could potentially receive a negative response if they use too little or too much nonverbal communication. Similarly, repetitive use of the same nonverbal message – like the language learner who incessantly smiles and nods his head when listening to his interlocutor’s narrative of a sad story – could possibly be seen as insincere. Adapt: Message to specific circumstances. Effective nonverbal communicators take the context into consideration because every communicative interaction is situational. To achieve nonverbal communicative competence, TL communicators need to adapt their nonverbal messages to the specific circumstances of the exchange. Nonverbal behavior appropriate in one situation may be completely inappropriate in another. For example, it would be entirely acceptable for TL communicators playfully participating in a game to spontaneously raise their voices without being called upon, but this same impulsivity and increase in vocal volume would be perceived as unacceptable in a whole group discussion about next week’s assignment when the teacher is in the middle of explaining.

A Note on the Challenge of Change Before ending this introductory chapter, we want to address the challenge of making changes to nonverbal behavior – it’s not easy. Earlier we mentioned that when verbal and nonverbal signals conflict, the nonverbal is more often trusted. It is more difficult to ‘fake’ a nonverbal message because they are most often performed automatically with no thought whatsoever. Automaticity makes nonverbal communication resistant to change. Many forms of nonverbal communication are described in the pages of this book and we hope that the information will give readers a sense of the density of nonverbal communication that happens continuously. However, making

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specific nonverbal behavior conscious and deliberately trying to control it can be a difficult process. One of the reasons to write about these topics is to help facilitate the development of nonverbal skills, but readers should recognize that it can be challenging to make changes in this area. All the more reason for everyone involved to cooperate and work on situational meeting of the minds. In summary, language is but one means of many that people use to communicate, and frequently, the most significant facet of communication is understanding that which is not spoken. Saint-Exupéry recognized this through the miracle of a smile. Words and nonverbal cues function together to communicate more powerfully than either does alone – particularly for a TL communicator who struggles with using words to make meaning. Throughout this text, we hope that the research ideas and activities that we provide lead to a fuller understanding of the value of nonverbal cues and through this awareness, becoming more effective TL communicators.

Part 2 Codes

Gesture

The old proverb says that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it might be that a gesture is sometimes worth more than a thousand pictures. To defend this position, we offer several extraordinary moments in history where a solitary hand gesture caught on camera tells the whole story: It is July 19, 1941, when Prime Minister Winston Churchill celebrates ‘V for Victory’ in his speech and from that moment onward he goes out of his way to use the V hand gesture. As a cigar user, he often gestured with his palm facing in rather than out – an adaptation that meant something completely different (and vulgar) to members of other cultures. It is July 24, 1963, in the White House Rose Garden when US President John F. Kennedy addresses a group of youth leaders attending a conference in Washington, DC. One of the young men that JFK shook hands with that day was 16-year-old Bill Clinton who later becomes another occupant of the White House. Clinton singles out this momentous occasion as an inspiration to enter public service, and the photo of that handshake becomes one of the iconic images of Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. It is October 16, 1968, during the Olympic Games. US sprinter, Tommie Smith, wins the 200-meter race in a world record time of 19.83 seconds, and his fellow African-American team mate, John Carlos, completes it in 20.10, taking third place. During the medal ceremony, they raise a blackgloved fist, facing the American flag, and keep it raised until the anthem finishes. The gesture, known as the Black Power Salute, is remembered as an overtly political endorsement of human rights. These enduring, memorable examples of gesture encapsulate meaning that goes well beyond the simple movement of a hand. As emblematic gestures, these visuals are socially constructed and they replace words. There are also gestures that accompany speech and function together with verbal messages to add meaning. In this chapter, we consider the functions of gesture, including unintentional actions that unconsciously convey emotion. This means gestures are 25

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defined so as to include cues displayed with and without intent. Gestures are often described as ‘symbolic movements related to ongoing talk or to the speaker’s expressive intention’ (Gullberg, 2008). Although this definition provides an avenue to consider both speech-related gestures (‘related to ongoing talk’) as well as those that substitute for speech in the form of emblems or conventionalized gestures (conveying the ‘speaker’s expressive intention’), it limits the full functionality of gestures to those that are purposefully performed. Thus, to this definition we add the following: ‘or which have communicative inter- or intra-personal relevance.’ In addition to the level of awareness or intention, gestures vary in other ways as well (Kendon, 1988). They can also be distinguished by their: (1) ‘language-likeness’ or how closely the gesture represents its verbal counterpart, for example, forming the shape of a ball with the fingers when describing a ball; (2) conventionalization or ‘lexicalization,’ which represents the extent to which the gesture expresses its own meaning, for example, extending the arm and waving hello with the hand; (3) dependence upon accompanying speech which reflects the degree to which meaning can be made without also being expressed in the verbal channel, for example waving hello without saying anything. This variety of continua, coupled with gesture’s multifunctionality, yield the complex form–function relationships that have resulted in the creation of numerous classification schemes. For our purposes, we combine two of the most widely recognized taxonomies (Ekman & Freisen, 1969; McNeill, 2005) into a hybrid classification scheme. This approach permits us to delve more deeply into the nuances of speech-related gestures and those that work relatively independent of verbal utterances. Communicatively speaking, gestures function inter-personally to substitute for speech, regulate the flow and rhythm between and among interlocutors, maintain listeners’ attention, add emphasis or clarity to the message, illustrate and highlight the content of the utterance, and/or forecast messages to come (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Affectively speaking, gestures display a communicator’s emotional reaction to what is going on and the strength of those reactions. They also are means through which we demonstrate our negative feelings toward ourselves or others, satisfy a personal need, or adapt to our surroundings (Beebe et al., 2014; Richmond et al., 2012). Cognitively speaking, gestures help speakers access and formulate speech, enriching listening comprehension. Moreover, this means they function intra-personally to enhance general learning (Stam & McCafferty, 2008). Overarching the discussion of gestures is a classification scheme introduced by Ekman and Freisen (1969) who define four types of gestural cues that are important for effective communication: illustrators, regulators, emblems and affect displays.

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Illustrators Cues that complement or accentuate the verbal message are called illustrators. They convey the same meaning as speech, and function to complete or supplement spoken words. McNeill (2005) subdivides speech-related illustrator gestures into: • • • •

iconic gestures; metaphoric gestures; deictic gestures; and beats.

An iconic gesture resembles its referent in some way. It presents an image of a concrete entity and/or shows action, like a language learner who extends his arms wide when he exclaims, ‘It was a gigantic bear!’ The gesture, as a referential symbol, functions via its formal and structural resemblance to the event or objects. Thus as the learner gestures, he is symbolically recreating the bear. Metaphoric gestures represent an abstract idea rather than a concrete object or action, like using a twirling finger at one’s temple to signify that the ‘wheels of thought’ are turning. Deictic gestures are those that pick out or point to something in the environment or indicate a stable location rather than referring to a referent symbolically. Pointing with an index finger is probably the most frequent realization of a deictic gesture. Beats, on the other hand, are typically repetitive hand motions with no symbolic referent and often serve to stress a particular point that the speaker is making. They are so called because the hand appears to be beating with time. This rhythmicity has made beats seem solely speech-related; however, they also have discourse functionality, signaling the temporal locus of something the speaker feels to be significant with respect to the larger context. McNeill (2005) likes us to think of a beat as a gestural equivalent of a ‘yellow highlighter.’

Regulators Along with speech-related gestures are cues known as regulators that serve to control turn-taking and other procedural aspects of interpersonal communication. As turn-taking is one of the fundamental organizers of conversation and interaction patterns, regulators play a key role in the process through which participants interpret each other’s meanings and intentions. Every conversation requires determining who speaks when, and this is usually done unconsciously and quite smoothly when interlocutors share the same culture because regulators such as the termination of a gesture are mutually understood cues between the speaker and listener that indicate the speaking turn is up for grabs (Duncan, 1972, 1974).

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Emblems Emblems, also referred to as conventional gestures by McNeill (2005) are nonverbal behaviors that can be translated into words that are used intentionally to transmit a message. Because these lexicalized gestures can substitute for words, their meaning is widely understood within a culture. However, the meaning of emblems can be quite different to members of another culture (Knapp & Hall, 2010). For example, when counting with fingers from one to five, German and Spanish speakers, among others, typically refer to the number one by showing their thumb, whereas North American English speakers are more likely to begin with their index finger (cf. McNeill, 1998). Another illustration is the ‘thumbs up’ gesture which is an emblematic way in North America to say, ‘Good job!’ but is offensive to Iranians.

Affect displays Finally, affect displays are behaviors that express emotion. They demonstrate our emotional reaction to what is going on and also show the strength of those reactions (Richmond et al., 2012). These cues are said to be very difficult to control as they are usually outside of the conscious manipulation of the user. A learner tapping his palm against his forehead in frustration at not remembering a vocabulary word is an example. The following table provides an ‘at-a-glance’ summary of our hybrid gesture taxonomy. Table G1 Summary of hybrid ‘gesture taxonomy’ (based on Ekman & Freisen, 1969; McNeill, 1992) Illustrators (speech-related): compliment or accentuate verbal message 1. Iconic: resemble referent 2. Metaphoric: represent an abstract idea rather than a concrete object or action 3. Deictic: Pick out or point to 4. Beats: repetitive hand motions with no symbolic referent, often to stress a point Regulators: control turn-taking Emblems (aka, conventional gestures): substitute words to intentionally transmit a message Affect displays: demonstrate emotional reaction; often unconscious

Throughout the next sections, we explore the communicative, emotional and cognitive functions of our hands and provide some suggestions on how language learners might capitalize on their use. For organizational purposes, we first examine emblems, illustrators (including all of McNeill’s subcategories) and regulators. These three types of gesture are primarily dedicated to communicative functions that increase sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic and grammatical competence. Following this, we demonstrate how illustrators, affective displays and adaptors predominantly carry out the affective and emotional functions of gestures. In our discussion on the cognitive

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domain, we show how iconic gestures, deictic gestures and beats play an important role in our thinking and learning processes. We delve into possibilities concerning how language learners’ cognition might be enriched through heightened awareness of how these nonverbal cues positively influence comprehension and recall. Throughout this section and with emphasis in our concluding comments, we infuse our conversation with the importance of using and interpreting gestures through a sociocultural lens. Table G2 gives readers an at-a-glance view of what the chapter holds. Table G2 Gesture’s influence Communicative

Affective

Cognitive

Influenced by culture

Foster encouraging atmosphere Increase intersubjectivity Create zones of proximal development Add emotional meaning

Aid thinking for speaking

Understood socially Subjected to language it co-expresses Modified by context Regulate turn-taking Aid in negotiation of interaction Embody completions Create optimal input Compensate for linguistic gaps Mask shortcomings Improve comprehension Reduce ambiguity Aid comprehension (beats) Convey communicative intention Express size, shape and speed Position people, objects and events in space Need explicit exposure

Indicate strength of emotion Convey negative mental states

Engage more senses Elaborate context and deepen processing Provide ways to explore, select, order and verbalize Improve recall via embodied cognition/enactment Enact the abstract Provide tools for thinking and learning Offer methods of materialization Accompany private speech Orchestrate speech Incorporate benefits of foreigner talk Provide imagery Access linguistic information Provide mimesis and identity-building opportunity Help achieve self-regulation Lightens cognitive load of working memory Map intentionality Become less explicit with proficiency

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Gesture Influences TL Communication We begin with a focus on the communicative realm, and more specifically, on sociolinguistic competence as we explore the cultural, social and situational creation of gestural repertoires, including the culturally specific nature of emblems. Following this foray into sociolinguistic issues, we turn our attention to discourse competencies where we examine interactional features of the role of gesture in turn-taking, negotiation and construction of interaction, mutual elaboration and gauging the TL abilities of interlocutors with the intention of providing optimal input. Next, we provide evidence of the significant role that gesture plays in strategic competence with a particular emphasis on compensation strategies for overcoming and masking linguistic limitations. We then shift the spotlight from speaker–encoders and their interactional role in the production of gestures to focusing specifically on listener–decoders and the optimization of gesture for increased comprehension. This section concludes with research tenets that target learners’ development of grammatical competencies through the use of gestures that convey communicative intention; visualize size, speed and shape; anchor elements when language is not sufficient; and carry meaning without words.

Gesture and sociolinguistic communicative competency The role of culture Culture exerts a powerful influence on an individual’s gestural repertoire. To improve learners’ sociolinguistic use of gesture, it is important that they know that, even though gestures are subject to individual variation, there is also uniformity in gesturing within groups. Individuals might differ concerning the frequency with which they gesture, but speakers within a speech community and culture are remarkably uniform in when and how they gesture when communicative intentions and context are maintained constant (Alibali, 2005). Characteristics of both language and culture influence gestural repertoires. Differences based upon cultural norms stem from: • • • •

how often speakers gesture (Schmitt, 1991); the physical space they use to perform their gestures (Muller, 1994); pointing conventions; and the form and frequency with which listeners provide feedback and backchannel signals such as head-nodding and shaking (Kendon, 2002).

Using different gestural norms may demonstrate that a language learner is communicating in a culture that is not his or her own. According to von Raffler-Engel (1980: 227), ‘a target language spoken with the body motions

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of the source language manifests a “foreign accent” in more ways than simply its inadequate gesticulation.’ The technique we provide uses role play to stretch learners’ understanding concerning how culture impacts gesture use. CM 1: Confounding Cultural Contexts The misuse of emblematic gestures, for example, frequently works like a nonverbal ‘foreign accent.’ Emblems (aka, conventionalized gestures) are socially learned and assigned arbitrary meanings, much like verbal languages, which make their use a sociolinguistic challenge for many TL learners. They are speech-independent gestures, meaning that they are nonverbal acts that have a direct verbal translation or well-known definition and can in many cases, substitute for the spoken word. Of all gesture types, emblems are the least dependent on speech for their meaning and most commonly occur as a single gesture (Knapp & Hall, 2010). For example, Iranians, Chileans and North Americans all have a different emblem for ‘I swear!’ (Photos 1, 2 & 3). A communicator’s awareness of emblematic gestures is similar to that of word choice. Emblems can be used when verbal channels are blocked or fail, but they can also be used during verbal interaction. Even though emblems can communicate messages without attendant speech, their meanings still are influenced by context. For example, giving someone the thumbs up sign can offer

Photo 1 Many gestures, one meaning; I swear (North American)

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Photo 2 Many gestures, one meaning; I swear! (Chilean)

Photo 3 Many gestures; one meaning I swear (Iranian)

sincere congratulations or be given sarcastically depending on what is happening in the relevant situation, who sends it, who receives it and the other behaviors that accompany it. Slight changes in the gesture can modify its meaning considerably. For example, extending the index finger and holding it against (or very near) the lips would signal to a North American to ‘be quiet’ but this same

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index finger held up in the same manner but at a short distance from the body would signal ‘wait a minute’ (Knapp & Hall, 2010). (Photos 4 & 5).

Photo 4 With just a small modification, ‘Be quiet’ becomes

Photo 5 ‘Wait a minute’

Ekman’s (1977) identified emblematic gestures across cultures, noting the following functions: • • • • • •

greeting and leave-taking; responding; interpersonal control; insulting or appraising another’s actions or appearance; responding to an individual’s physical or affective state; or declaring an individual’s current condition.

The technique we provide offers learners an opportunity to experiment with emblems that carry out all of these functions. CM 2: Emblematic Problematic Gestures that are comparable in form but whose meanings differ among cultures have the potential to produce some quite embarrassing situations for unaware intercultural communicators! For example, although North

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Photo 6 One gesture, many meanings

Americans will most likely perceive the thumbs-up sign as a positive gesture, it may be deemed insulting by Thais, Iranians and Afghans. In Thailand, it is regarded as a childish gesture, likened to sticking one’s tongue out. In Iran, Afghanistan and locations in Greece, people understand it as more of an obscene gesture, similar to the meaning found in displaying the middle finger in other cultures (Knapp & Hall, 2010) (Photo 6). Our technique for this idea increases intercultural interactants’ awareness that a gesture that means one thing in one culture can mean something totally different in another. CM 3: Enigmatic Emblems Because emblems replace words, when TL communicators express or interpret them incorrectly it can potentially affect an observer’s judgment of their linguistic competency. In early studies on the acquisition of emblems, researchers examined whether learners could acquire these gestures through exposure to the second language (L2) in naturalistic contexts. Given that gestures often serve as visual equivalents of words or phrases, it seems reasonable that emblems might be implicitly acquired while living in a country where specific emblems are used on a daily basis. However, it was discovered that although L2 pre-school children exposed to English in naturalistic contexts comprehended the English emblems tested, they did not do so to the same degree as Englishas-a-first-language (L1), age-matched children (Mohan & Helmer, 1988). In another study using a high-frequency Japanese refusal emblem, Jungheim

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(2006) assessed whether L2 adults studying Japanese in Japan naturalistically comprehended the gesture. Similar to the Mohan and Helmer study, the L1 speakers were able to interpret the gesture significantly better than the L2 learners. Jungheim (1991) concluded that learners who receive explicit instruction about a specific emblematic gesture and use it during class can recognize it better than those who were implicitly exposed. These results reveal that simple exposure may not be adequate for acquiring a gesture, but that overt attention to both form and meaning could potentially enhance its learning. Published lists of emblems from around the world are available. In Kendon’s (1981) examination of over 800 emblematic gestures, he compiled three broad categories of gestural meaning accounting for 80% of the emblems found: interpersonal regulation, declaration of one’s present condition and an appraisal reaction to the behavior or appearance of another. The technique we provide offers explicit instruction in some of the culturally specific emblematic gestures on Kendon’s list. CM 4: Allow Me to Explicitly Explain

The role of one’s specific language Systematic differences between and consistency within our gestural repertoires may also be motivated by the language they accompany. When we speak, our gestures may be influenced more by what we say than what we do. That is to say, the information structure (syntax) and lexical choices (semantics) of a language are revealed in the gestures that accompany them (Gullberg, 2008). Numerous investigations have demonstrated that gestures frequently co-occur with new information or important words (Levy & McNeill, 1992; McNeill et al., 1993). Variations across languages in the ways information is organized, presented and emphasized help to create language-specific gesture patterns (McNeill & Duncan, 1998). For example, French speakers focus on action, whereas the Japanese are more interested in locations and setting; therefore, Francophone gestural patterns tend to align with verbal elements and Japanese gestures emphasize nominal elements (Gullberg, 2003, 2006a; Yoshioka, 2005; Yoshioka & Kellerman, 2006). Patterns of the language are also evident in patterns of gestures as they incorporate the semantic and temporal coordination between speech and gesture (Duncan, 1994; McNeill & Duncan, 1998; Muller, 1994). Taking into account communicative intent (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), shared knowledge (Clark, 1996) and the categories that are habitually used to express events, speakers continually decide what aspect of reality to talk about and how to both talk and gesture about it. The patterns that show up as differences in gesture among languages might reflect patterns in the deeper thought processes. Many bilingual speakers claim to engage in different forms of thinking when they shift

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languages. This experience of entering different thought patterns can be explained with the hypothesis that languages induce different forms of ‘thinking-for-speaking’ (TFS) – thinking generated, as Slobin (1987) says, because of the requirements of a linguistic code. ‘Thinking for speaking’ involves picking those characteristics that (a) fit some conceptualization of the event, and (b) are readily encodable in the language’ (p. 435). That languages differ in their TFS demands originates in the linguistic relativity hypothesis, the suggestion that language impacts thought and that specific languages affect thought in diverse ways (McNeill & Duncan, 1998). TFS captures the idea that linguistic categories guide our attention to particular kinds of information that are then chosen for expression (Slobin, 1996). With this sequence, language-specific rhetorical styles arise that influence the way we gesture (Slobin, 2004). Numerous investigations using native languages have explored the idea that the way input is encoded through TFS also influences the way gestures are produced (Gullberg & McCafferty, 2008). Because meaning in speech and gesture is so closely affiliated, differences among and between languages concerning how meaning is conveyed influences the form of gestures, their temporal position vis-à-vis speech, and perhaps the dissemination of the message across modalities. Our technique for this tenet gives learners experience with TFS. CM 5: Thinking for Speaking: How my Language Influences My Gestures

The role of context and situation Although gestures are influenced by culture and language, other contextual factors also contribute to forming our gestural repertoires (Gullberg, 2008). Among the situational forces that affect gestures are: • • • • • •

degree of formality and familiarity with the interlocutor; level of education; mood; topic; genre; and didactic intent.

The almost infinite combinations of subtle differences in context and situation, along with the fluid nature of communication creates an element of idiosyncrasy in TL communication and creates dynamic conditions that virtually guarantee that one communicative event is never exactly the same as another. Mixing in the influence of culture and language sometimes leaves interactants in a guessing game. The technique we offer uses role play for learners to match their nonverbal behavior to different social contexts.

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CM 6: Roles and Regulations

Gesture and discourse communicative competency Gesture in turn-taking We now turn our attention toward gestures that help manage interaction in the form of turn regulation – a very important skill for learners to increase their discourse communicative competence (Kendon, 2004; Kita, 2003; McNeill, 1992, 2005). Not nearly as intentional as emblems and illustrators, regulators help to control the interactive exchanges between speakers and listeners during verbal exchanges, helping to enable a fluid exchange of roles between the sender and receiver. Regulatory hand and body movements can be accompanied with signals from the eyes and voice. As an essential part of our sociolinguistic development, regulators are learned gradually and become automatized. That is to say, seldom are we aware of the cues we perform to control and regulate our conversations with others (Richmond et al., 2012). Our technique stresses that TL interactants use a variety of nonverbal codes to appropriately manage their conversational turns. CM 14: Turn-taking Talk Turn-taking cues can be classified as those that the speaker uses to maintain or yield the talking turn and that the listener uses to request or decline an invitation to talk (Duncan, 1972, 1974). Speakers perform turn-yielding cues when they want to stop talking and provide someone else with the chance to speak. These cues may comprise direct body positioning, leaning forward, a summoning hand or head gesture that says ‘ok, I’m listening now.’ On the other hand, speakers who wish to maintain the floor can use turn-maintaining cues to prevent or delay interruptions. The use of halting gestures (hand held up with palm facing out) or speaking more loudly can be used in turn-maintenance, indicating that a speaker still has more to say (Richmond et al., 2012). Listeners use turn-requesting regulators to indicate that they would like an opportunity to speak. Among the cues they use are raising the hand or index finger, shifting postural position, or any other attention-seeking behaviors directed at the speaker. Such regulators can also be used to hasten the speaker along with cues such as a rolling hand gesture that essentially says, ‘Yeah, get a move on!’ (Richmond et al., 2012). On the contrary, listeners use turn-denying cues to nonverbally communicate to the speaker that they do not want to take the floor and that the speaker should continue. To encourage the speaker to keep talking, listeners silently maintain a relaxed posture and nod their heads deliberately and repeatedly (Richmond et al., 2012).

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To sum up, we use regulators for interaction management and smooth communicative flow between ourselves and others. To show our eagerness to speak, we open our mouth, put up an index finger and/or slightly lean forward. In the classroom, learners may raise their hand to visibly indicate their desire to talk. However, on those occasions when we do not want to verbally interact in the exchange, we tend to use the opposite patterns: we may cross our arms and/or position our bodies back in our seat to get as far away as possible from the conversation (Beebe et al., 2014). The technique we provide offers TL interactants further experimentation with fluidly shifting listener and speaker roles in conversation. CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Disruptions Because interaction is managed differently interculturally, interactants frequently encounter interlocutors who speak on top of one another and/or others who misunderstand regulator cues and thus provoke uncomfortably long pauses in conversation. Learners who are afforded intercultural opportunities to explore interaction management techniques and practice regulating conversation from both speaker and listener perspectives will improve the seamless transitions that are necessary to be competent discourse communicators. With this in mind, we provide yet another technique focusing learners’ attention on smooth transitions between interactants. CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators

Gesture in the negotiation, construction and elaboration of interaction Akin to the unconscious gestures that regulate discourse turn-taking are those that interactants use to negotiate, construct and elaborate their interaction. Communicatively competent TL interactants use gestures to negotiate glitches in communication by eliciting feedback, requesting help, asking for clarification or using other communication strategies that keep the conversation moving. Through this process, TL interactants are said to improve their discourse and grammatical proficiency. The most valuable way through which input is made comprehensible is negotiating meaning, wherein problematic utterances are checked, repeated, clarified or modified in some way (Long, 1985). Negotiation occurs when a listener signals to the speaker that the speaker’s message is not clear and the speaker and listener work together to resolve the linguistic quandary (Pica, 1992), essentially signaling that there is a problem which needs explicit resolution (Ellis & Fotos, 1999). Interaction researchers concerned with TL meaning negotiation cite these problems as linguistic but do not necessarily assume that the signals interlocutors use to mark the problem are verbal. In fact, Foster and Ohta (2005)

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observed very few instances of overtly signaled (spoken) communication breakdowns in their study using discourse analysis on interactional adjustments between TL interlocutors. They saw little evidence of interactants interrupting the flow of their conversations even though they observed them repairing and rewarding their own utterances, and assisting each other to both find the right form and to express meaning. This could be because of what gesture researchers such as Gullberg (1998) have observed. In her study, Gullberg noticed TL learners successfully using gestures in conversational narratives to elicit words from their conversation partners, cope with co-reference difficulties, and indicate metalinguistically that they were experiencing a linguistic dilemma such as an ongoing word search or disfluency. Other researchers (Kendon, 2004; Kita, 2003; McNeill, 1992, 2005) have evidenced successful use of negotiation gestures to mark agreement and direct interlocutors’ attention via pointing. Our technique provides opportunities to practice using gestures and vocal cues to negotiate meaning in TL interactions. CM 17: Mediating Memories; Negotiating Dreams Gesture not only acts as a mediator for the negotiation of interaction, but it also aids in the construction of it. Speech and its co-expressing gestures are components of one combined process of meaning-making in which different thinking approaches are fused. Information about speakers’ thoughts is displayed in the gestures that accompany their verbal utterances. Such gestures are adjusted to the listener in the same way as words – a notion verified by the fact that speakers take action to make sure their addressees see their gestures (Streeck, 1994). Speakers tend to position their posture and direct their gaze at their own hands so that their interlocutors’ attention is drawn to the gesture. Through instruction in the intentional use of gesture in negotiating and constructing interaction, nonverbally savvy teachers can prepare learners for those sticky moments that might occur when they need to overcome their linguistic limitations and do their part to keep the conversation moving. Speakers who are sensitive to their listeners, whether learning a language or speaking it natively, guarantee that their gesture and speech are both accessible while attentive listeners acknowledge their comprehension (Sime, 2006). Our technique allows TL interactants to do just that. CM 18: The Cure for Communication Hiccups: 3Cs and an A Gesture also encourages mutual elaboration between TL interactants and provides opportunities for them to accommodate each other’s linguistic abilities. Conversations that occur in social situations often use ‘embodied

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completions,’ which include using gesture or other embodied representations to finish a verbal utterance. According to Mori and Hayshi (2006), a learner may begin a sentence and then finish it with a gesture or other nonverbal behaviors. In this way, the conversation that precedes a TL learner’s embodied completion reveals the processes he or she used to evaluate, discover and establish shared linguistic and nonlinguistic resources in pursuing intersubjectivity. The action sequences that follow the embodied completion provide a supplementary, conversationally-driven chance for one interlocutor to reformulate what the other has said. In defense of the benefits of using embodied completions as a way to maintain fluid conversation instead of the negative position that they are used to avoid certain language or language forms, Olsher (2004: 243) states: The use of partial turns followed by embodied action demonstrates a degree of interactional prowess in the understanding and deployment of units of talk that allows recipients to project the course of sequential action. Speakers demonstrate their ability to judge how much talk, and in what form is enough to provide an understandable frame for subsequent embodied action. In the technique that connects to this notion, we provide practice opportunities in using action gestures to finish verbal messages. CM 19: Embodied Completions for Mutual Elaboration According to Olsher’s (2004) study, TL learners who practice the use of embodied completions participate in greater mutual elaboration or ‘recipient design’ – meaning that they adapt their communicative behavior to their addressee and as a consequence display sensitivity and an othersorientation. Recipient design implicates perspective-taking where interactants make behavioral decisions based on their suppositions about the beliefs and knowledge of their communication partner (Blokpoel et al., 2012). For example, imagine a newcomer to an English class approaching a long-standing member and asking about the amount of homework that the teacher assigns. The old timer’s response may subtlety hinge on numerous cues such as whether the newcomer asks ‘Many homework here?’ or ‘Hi there! Do you know how much homework this teacher assigns?’ The first utterance would likely produce a response with more simplified speech and clearer articulation than the second. Research demonstrates that interactants use nonverbal cues along with verbal elements to accommodate their communication as they consider their partners’ proficiency. Similarly, Mori and Hayashi (2006) suggest that interactants adapt their nonverbal communicative behavior to accommodate actual or

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perceived comprehension difficulties in their addressees while keeping in mind their partners’ TL abilities. As a consequence, interactants provide input that is more comprehensible. However, Kida (2008) cautions that multiple gestural interventions are sometimes needed for TL learners to understand the discourse. Our technique exposes TL interactants to activities that require embodied completions and recipient design so that they can be prepared to cater their communicative nonverbal action to each other. Through this process, interactants demonstrate their competencies, knowledge and situational awareness (Sacks et al., 1974).

CM 20: Recipients Redefine by Design

Gesture and strategic communicative competency Strategic use of gesture compensates for linguistic limitations Moving beyond the use of gesture for improved TL discourse competency, we now turn our attention to performing gestures for strategic purposes. Anecdotally teachers may intuit that lexical compensation is the primary motivator behind gesturing in a TL; that is, it seems plausible that learners use gesture to substitute for speech. Yet the overall findings of research to date suggest that comparatively, TL learners do gesture more when speaking their TL than their L1 (Gullberg, 1998; Hadar et al., 2001; Jungheim, 1995; Nobe, 1993; Stam, 2006; Zhao, 2006) – but, it is not true that gestures usually substitute for speech. Instead, they more frequently accompany speech (Gullberg, 1998). Below are five of the most common ways that gestures work in tandem with speech to overcome linguistic limitations. (1) To solve lexical dilemmas: Contrary to popular belief, language learners’ gestures that target problems with word retrieval do not replace speech but typically co-occur with it – often accompanying a spoken strategy such as an approximation or circumlocution (Gullberg, 2008). (2) To elicit lexical help: Whether struggling with lexical issues that are concrete or abstract, gestural solutions that solicit assistance from the listener are equally effective for learners since abstract concepts are presented with concrete properties in representational gestures (Gullberg, 1998, 2008; McCafferty, 1998). (3) To overcome grammatical difficulties: Problems surrounding co-reference, tense and temporality may be solved by mapping time onto space metaphorically. Using this communicative strategy, learners can gesturally refer to physical spatial time to establish fairly precise associations, even

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when learners do not have adequate temporal morphology in speech like the -ed past tense suffix in English (Gullberg, 1999, 2008). (4) To resolve the troublesome interaction that results from accumulated difficulties and nonfluencies: Metapragmatic gestures (such as the circling movement of the wrist or wriggling fingers) can signal that the speaker is involved in a lexical search. These gestures are frequently performed during communicative breakdowns and signal an ongoing word search, but do not make reference to the content. Meanwhile, they are an effective resource for holding the interactant’s turn and soliciting clarification or confirmation (Duncan, 1972; Schegloff, 1984; Streeck & Hartege, 1992). In native/nonnative conversation, these metapragmatic actions are the ‘interactional glue’ that uphold and inspire positive exchanges (Bavelas et al., 1992; Gullberg, 2008; McCafferty, 2002). (5) To move on without resolution: Sometimes it’s best just to give up. Throw in the towel. When learners come up against a linguistic or communicative challenge that is far beyond their means, it is much easier to gesture, ‘I give up’ than to say outright, ‘I quit.’ We provide scenarios with a variety of different types of communication breakdowns in our technique for this tenet so TL interactants can experiment with strategies to fill the gap. CM 24: Elucidating Linguistic Limitations through Compensation Cues

Gesture engenders optimal input and masks linguistic shortcomings Furthermore, strategic TL learners spur on their conversant to provide more comprehensible input through ‘mismatches’ or the use of nonverbal gestures that convey additional or redundant information that is not found in verbal utterances (Alibali & Goldin-Meadow, 1993; Goldin-Meadow, 2005). In many cases, TL learners talking about new material or attempting poorly mastered linguistic forms profit from discrepancies between their speech and gesture since these mismatches often indicate transitional knowledge states, readiness to learn and the probability of benefiting from instruction (Church & Goldin-Meadow, 1986; Goldin-Meadow, 2005). Strategic TL learners can also mask their linguistic shortcomings and promote higher ratings of their overall TL proficiency since nonverbal competence plays a role in how learners’ overall communicative competency is assessed. When language learners implement their strategic competence to effectively use their body movements, including their facial expressions, and hand and arm movements, they are perceived as more communicatively competent. They can ‘stretch’ their linguistic competence, mask their verbal shortcomings and make their interlocutors believe they are more proficient than they really are by effectively using nonverbal behavior (Lazaraton, 2004). Although such

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cover strategies have to be used with caution so that learners are not overwhelmed with more incomprehensible input, the benefit of using them lies in the continued input that will be directed at the learner. Teachers who are able to see the significant strategic role gestures can play in their learners’ communicative competence are in a position to provide opportunities for TL interactants to use nonverbal cues that are important in conversational performance, aid in discourse management and boost interlocutor appraisal. The technique we provide is meant to enhance learners’ strategic ability to give the impression that their linguistic proficiency is higher than it really is. CM 25: Optimal Input/Masking Shortcomings

Gesture and grammatical communicative competency Gesture conveys communicative intention Gestures can also be used to enhance grammatical competency in that speech-related gestures may convey the sense of communicative intention more adequately than the ‘lexical affiliate’ (i.e. the word or phrase accompanying the gesture and seems related to its meaning) (Schegloff, 1984). Research in communication studies shows that illustrative gestures are most evident when a concept is difficult to put into words. In Graham and Argyle’s (1975) study, English and Italian encoders were required to verbally describe abstract shapes of high and low codability (e.g. easy or difficult to describe in words) to decoders in their L1 with and without gestures. Gestures were not only found to improve the accuracy of the shapes being described, but the percentage of improvement was significantly greater for low-codability material. They concluded (p. 66): ‘One reason why hand movements are used in conversation is to supplement speech by illustrating appropriate material of low codability.’ Furthermore, these researchers found that when gestures were inhibited, the content of speech was affected: more words were used to describe spatial relationships, and there were fewer demonstratives. Morrel-Samuels and Krauss (1992) suggested that size, velocity and shape are concepts that appear to lend themselves to accurate gestural equivalents. In the first of two related experiments, they established that videotaped segments of illustrative gestures could be related to the correct lexical affiliate. In the second experiment, which involved 36 undergraduates interpreting videotaped clips of gestures alongside similar and dissimilar lexical affiliates, they found that accuracy in identifying a lexical affiliate was greatest for actions (73%), followed by locations (66%), object names (57%) and descriptions (52%). Our technique for this tenet is aimed at using gestures for lowcodability language, like that which targets size and shape.

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CM 30: Gestures to Jest By Moreover, communicative intention is further enhanced when interactants attempt to reduce their linguistic difficulties and manage their discourse coherence by anchoring entities and events in their gesture space throughout their utterances. The technique we provide offers experience in using deictic (aka, pointing) gestures to spatially position people, objects, or events in discourse to improve accurate decoding of verbal messages (Gullberg, 1998, 2003, 2006b; McCafferty, 2004; Yoshioka & Kellerman, 2006). CM 31: The Sculptor and his Lump of Clay: Positioning by Pointing McCafferty (1998) also sought to validate the view that gestures may reveal the speaker’s communicative intention more clearly than words. Framing his discussion within Vygotsky’s (1986) work on inner speech, he argued that problems in the semantic representation of certain lexical items is compensated for by using gestures, which uncover the underlying ‘psychological predicate’ in the mind of the speaker. He cited the English verb ‘fall’ and the necessity of using concurrent illustrative gesture to bring out the nature of the fall in terms of the perceived speed and distance of the fall. Along these same lines, McCafferty and Ahmed (2000) suggest that TL speakers might use representational gestures to map intentionality onto words and their psychological associations when unsure of their meaning with the purpose of facilitating their interlocutors’ comprehension. Because gesture can be used to express communicative intention, teachers can heighten their TL learners’ grammatical competency by offering opportunities to experiment with material of variable ‘codability’ as well as a variety of verbs so learners can observe the increased meaning potential of their communication when using gestures. Additionally, when teachers create scenarios where learners use spatial anchors to visually track their referents when their verbal language does not provide the resources necessary to do it, learners will experience the extent to which gestures constitute a central part of what they are trying to say (Gullberg, 1998, 2003, 2006b; McCafferty, 2004; Yoshioka & Kellerman, 2006). With those goals in mind, our technique provides an opportunity to explore how gestures can reinforce the nature of action verbs. CM 32: Ready … Set … Action!

Gesture improves listening comprehension Still under the umbrella of using gesture to increase TL grammatical competence, we switch our focus from the speaker–encoder to the listener–decoder.

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To improve listening comprehension, effective interactants pay attention to and utilize information found in gestures. Consequently, gestures that convey speech-related meaning should improve comprehension and potentially learning, too (Harris, 2003; Kellerman, 1992). Listeners process information from gesture that cannot be found anywhere in speech. They appear to synthesize the auditory and visual channels to figure out the meaning of a given situation. Illustrative gestures appear to supply meaning that is not present in the lexical affiliate by supplying more than simply visually replicated meaning of the word they accompany (aka, lexical affiliates). This type of illustrative gesture seems to extend the meaning potential inherent in the spoken word. In these communicative scenarios, the listener’s task is not to confirm an audial message alongside the visual echo, but to construct additional meaning from the sum of the gesture and its lexical affiliate (Harris, 2003). Sueyoshi and Hardison (2005) discovered that when listening to a lecture, the comprehension of low-proficiency L2 English adult learners was higher when the speaker used gestures. Tellier (2006) showed that French children with low English proficiency understood a story’s main events when narrated in English if accompanied by iconic gestures. A caveat, however, is that the positive effect of gestures on learners’ comprehension may be contingent on the type of linguistic units illustrated. That is to say, gesturing may aid vocabulary comprehension more than grammatical elements as different gesture types produce varying effects. Participants in our next technique will have a chance to enhance their listening comprehension by paying attention to iconic gestures (as well as vocal variety) while listening to stories.

CM 33: Storytelling Signals Comprehension might also be facilitated with the increased redundancy that illustrator gestures afford. In face-to-face interaction, listeners’ gestural feedback helps speakers build in redundancy. In return, listeners acquire information from the speakers’ gestures, as well as from clues provided in the context. When there is no visual channel, redundancy must be conveyed verbally through the auditory channel. Von Raffler-Engel (1980) suggests that the fatigue experienced by interactants during foreign language exchanges can be reduced if language is made more accessible by tapping into its full communicative form – using all the sensory channels – instead of the reduced redundancy found when only the auditory channel is available. ‘Eliminating the visual modality creates an unnatural condition which strains the auditory receptors to capacity’ (p. 235). Divesting listeners of the means to attain comprehension that are available in normal interaction, and thus imposing an overreliance on the auditory channel, reduces their communicative competence (Pennycook, 1985). We will return to a related

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discussion later in this chapter where we tap into gestures as a means of lightening interactants’ cognitive loads, but for now, we provide a technique where listeners can tap into their interactants’ visual feedback in the form of gestural redundancy. CM 34: Redoubling Redundancy to Undergird Understanding Together with vocal cues, gestures help reduce the ambiguity in spoken language and thus improve comprehension. Deictic expressions provide a clear example: pointing gestures disambiguate vague referents in verbal messages (Photo 7). In scenarios deprived of nonverbal cues, meaning-making either obliges the speaker to be verbally over-explicit to clarify ambiguities or allow the ambiguities to persist and leave it up to the listener to sort out meaning as best as he or she can from the context (Kellerman, 1992). Imagine an interactant wanting to say, ‘The cat is there,’ without being able to signal the location that ‘there’ refers to. Without the visual cue, he would have to explain and probably be much less precise. Such verbal explicitness, however, does not prepare interactants for the way that face-to-face interaction typically plays out (Riley, 1981).

Photo 7 Deictic pointing; The book is there

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Kendon (2000: 60) connects a reduction in ambiguity with the context that gesture often provides: ‘gestures, as used in partnership with speech, participate in the construction of the utterance’s meaning … gestures can be used to provide context for spoken expression, thus reducing the ambiguity of the meaning of what is expressed.’ In the technique associated with this tenet, interactants will find themselves in a friendly competition using verbal commands or pointing cues to direct their partners through an obstacle course. CM 35: With Only a Finger: Reducing Listening Ambiguity Iconic and deictic gestures are not the only speech-related gestures that improve listening comprehension and communicative competence. Beat gestures – small, quick cues, abstract in form, which serve as visual markers and rhythmically keep time with speech – also increase grammatical ability. They are particularly important for beginning learners because the physical demonstration that they provide supplements limited TL knowledge (Allen, 2000). Discourse is often organized via beats that tend to co-occur, for example, with extra-narrative clauses which impart contextual material such as setting and introduce new characters in a story. Beats may summarize or predict events and in performing them, the speaker is underscoring the significance of one linguistic item relative to another (McNeill & Levy, 1980; Pedelty & McNeill, 1986). Additionally, Krahmer and Swerts (2007) established that beats enhance the auditory prominence of vocalic stress and pitch patterns during speech production while simultaneously focalizing attention on those prosodic features during speech perception. In support of this discovery, neuroimaging investigations using functional magnetic resonance imaging have demonstrated that low-level auditory brain areas are more active during language comprehension when speech is accompanied by beat gestures than when speech is heard alone (Hubbard et al., 2008). The purpose of this tenet’s technique is to use beat gestures in Jazz Chants (Sakamoto, 2010) to draw listener–viewers’ attention to speech prosody, thus highlighting the phonological elements of speech and making it more comprehensible. CM 36: Better to Beat It! TL interactants who are aware of how illustrator gestures provide nonlinguistic cues and beat gestures serve as listening guides may discover how the use of gesture increases their comprehension through disambiguation.

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Gesture Influences TL Affect In this section, we present research tenets that relate gesture to TL affect. Before we begin with ideas concerning how learners can affectively capitalize on gesture use, we must reiterate the pivotal supportive role that teachers’ gestures can play in the creation of a positive affective classroom environment. According to Chamberlin-Quinlisk (2008: 26), ‘The nonverbal dimension of teacher–student relationships can meaningfully shape classroom experiences.’ In effect, Allen (2000) found a relationship between teachers’ behavior and classroom atmosphere when learners recounted that instructors’ gesture use generated an encouraging atmosphere for learning. Nonverbal behaviors that regulate speech are also used to establish affiliation and dominance (Chamberlin, 2000). Likewise, learners in the study by Moskowitz (1976) described outstanding TL teachers as generally exhibiting a greater frequency of nonverbal behaviors than other lower-rated teachers. And as a behavioral consequence, students tend to be more attentive when language teachers use illustrators and emblems as well as erect posture and direct eye contact than when they do not (Ward & von Raffler-Engel, 1980). In terms of how learners benefit, we offer several advantages. In particular, we highlight instances of gesture use aiding in the development of intersubjectivity and Zones of Proximal Development (ZPDs). We also examine how illustrator gestures, affect displays and adaptors communicate emotion, especially in those unguarded moments when interactants ‘leak’ how they feel.

Gesture for increased learner–learner affect through intersubjectivity and ZPDs Through the use of gesture, interactants can develop intersubjectivity, which transpires between two minds and entails the mediation of activities using both artifacts and shared knowledge. It can frequently be developed when learners imitate and simultaneously mirror a teacher’s or peer’s gestures or become involved in interactional synchrony. This results in the stimulation of higher mental processes through other-, object- and selfregulation (McCafferty, 2002; Parrill & Kimbara, 2006; Platt & Brooks, 2002, 2008), with further ramifications for experiences of sympathy and rapport (Jenkins & Parra, 2003; McCafferty, 2002). For the most part, mirroring instills positive feelings in people (Andersen & Guerrero, 1998) and potentially increases a person’s persuasiveness (Bailenson & Yee, 2005) (Photo 8). Similar to other nonverbal behaviors, mimicry and mirroring usually happen subconsciously – for both the person doing the mimicking as well as the person being mimicked. Such obliviousness makes it difficult for people to articulate that the other interactant’s mirroring is producing the positivity and liking (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). Mirroring and mimicry can be embedded in many codes consisting of, but

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Photo 8 Mirroring

not limited to gestures, prosody, posture, eye behavior, distance between the other person and body orientation. People increase mirroring of another when affiliation goals exist. It is often associated with charisma, persuasiveness, immediacy and being positively influential and can establish rapport with the individual who is being mirrored, as the similarities in nonverbal gestures allow the individual to feel more connected with the person exhibiting the mirrored behavior. As two interactants in the situation express parallel nonverbal cues, they may believe that they share similar attitudes and ideas as well. To practice the kind of rapport-building discussed here, we offer two game-like techniques meant to make interactants comfortable with imitation and mirroring (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). AF 1: Mirror, Mirror On the Wall AF 2: Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Blabbery McCafferty (2002) furthers the idea of rapport-building between and among interactants in his exploration concerning how gesture is a critical element to the creation of ZPDs for TL learning. A ZPD is the metaphorical space between where a learner’s development presently is and the potential he or she can reach. This space is traversed with the help of an accomplished

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peer or teacher. McCafferty suggests that gestures generate positive attitudes between interactants and their addressees, increasing the opportunities for using the TL further and promoting continued output and additional language learning. In a subsequent study, McCafferty (2002) links gesture to speech in the establishment of ZPDs between an adult native speaker and an adult nonnative speaker of English in informal interactions with each other. McCafferty suggests that gestures are implicated in lexical comprehension, illustrations, environmental referents and imitation, and concludes that, not only do gestures promote language learning, but they engender a ‘positive interaction between the two participants, helping create a sense of shared social, symbolic, physical and mental space’ (p. 192). Our technique offers the opportunity to observe and participate in the creation of ZPDs. AF 3: Halt! Improving Zones of Proximal Development Because intersubjectivity and ZPDs have the potential to positively enhance the affect between and among TL interactants, teachers might want to consider ways in which imitation and mirroring among classmates can be encouraged in order to deepen the rapport in TL exchanges.

Gesture adds meaning to affective messages In the following paragraphs, we outline how three types of gestures – illustrators, affect displays and adaptors – all have the potential to influence emotion-laden messages. First, speech-related and intentionally performed illustrators frequently function as carriers of valuable information about an interactant’s mood, self-confidence and power in a given situation (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). For example, if a child slams his book shut to signal his annoyance with his classmate, it communicates much more powerfully than simply asking, ‘Why should I work with you if you didn’t do your homework?’ In the technique we offer that is associated with this tenet, participants both encode and decode messages that are laden with emotion. AF 4: Emotional Illustrations Secondly, like illustrators, affect display gestures also communicate emotion. Although the communication of emotion is primarily conveyed through facial expression, feelings can also be conveyed through gestures and posture, the manner in which one walks, or limb movements, among other actions. Affect displays convey our emotional reactions to what is going on and the strength of those reaction. In other words, although the face is actually a

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more accurate determiner of the kind of emotion we are experiencing, bodily cues are better at gauging the intensity of the emotion being experienced. Furthermore, as far as bodily cues are concerned, posture tends to be more central in communicating emotion than gestures. For example, a strong expression of contempt is often accompanied with a visibly noticeable tilt of the head. Stiff or frozen posture is usually interpreted as a sign of fear or anxiety (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). The rate with which we move our bodies and hands tends to be a more consistent manifestation of general emotional arousal (or lack thereof) than an indicator of a specific emotion (Collier, 1985). In our technique, we offer the chance to strengthen interpretive skills as concerns an interactant’s emotional intensity. AF 5: Display your Dismay While some people can portray an emotion they do not actually feel, others can repress the expression of an emotion they perceive as inappropriate for others to see. That said, behavior that divulges true emotions is usually unintentional, even when we are conscious of it. For example, a teacher who observes a speaker’s hands trembling in fear or anxiety while giving a formal presentation can be quite certain that the speaker cannot control them. Affect displays are used with less awareness and intentionality than other gestures and thus provide personal information about the communicator that he might not be inclined to divulge willingly (Richmond et al., 2012). We provide two techniques for this tenet, both of which offer practice in encoding and decoding deceit – an example of unintentional emotional leakage. AF 7: Deceit Detectives: Affect Cues as Clues AF 8: Tracking Tell-Tale Truths The third emotion-carrying type of gesture – adaptors – seem to have been the target of Freud’s interest when he said, ‘He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore’ (1953: 94). Adaptors are usually performed unintentionally and tend to communicate boredom, stress and undesirable feelings toward oneself and/ or others. As a potentially rich source of unconscious information about the psychological condition of the person who exhibits them, adaptors serve to convey affective information about attitudes, anxiety and self-confidence. Individuals use adaptors unintentionally and are usually unaware that they are using them.

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Adaptors fall into three different types. First, self-adaptors are nonverbal actions in which an individual touches or manipulates his or her own body (i.e. scratching, rubbing and hair twisting) (Photo 9). Second, movements designed to protect the individual from other communication partners, such as folding the arms in protection against verbal or nonverbal attack or unconscious leg movements during conversational exchanges to keep others away, are other-directed adaptors (Photo 10). Finally there are object-focused adaptors. These consist of unconscious manipulations of objects in one’s immediate environment, such as tapping a pen or twisting a ring (Knapp & Hall, 2010) (Photo 11). For example, some teachers are most comfortable talking in front of the class with a piece of chalk twirling in their hand. Gregersen et al. (2009) examined possible connections between TL competency and the frequency and type of gesture use and discovered that proficient speakers use more speech-related, meaning-enhancing gestures than beginning and intermediate speakers who tend to use their hands in less communicatively productive ways by engaging in more self-adapting behaviors. ‘Rather than exploiting the potential afforded by gestures to enhance verbal meaning, learners at beginning and intermediate stages of proficiency habitually adjusted their clothing, touched their faces and other body parts, and generally communicated stress and restlessness’ (p. 203). In the same study, Gregersen et al. provided the following suggestion:

Photo 9 Self adaptor

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Photo 10 Other-directed adaptor

Photo 11 Object-focused adaptor

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The first critical step to improved L2 communication is to free up the hands of beginning language learners so that they can use them for more communicatively productive purposes. Given that foreign language anxiety may be related to the beginning language learners’ adaptive nonverbal behaviors, strategies used to help language-anxious students may also benefit learners who do not use gestures to their best potential. Language learners (whether anxious or not) who successfully free up their hands and learn to use gestures as aids in the communication of meaning rather than anxiety may be able to heighten their communicative effectiveness. (Gregersen et al., 2009: 205) This same conclusion was drawn by Gregersen (2005) when the hands of the anxious participants in her study were most frequently employed in body-focused and object-focused adaptors (e.g. adjusting their clothing, scratching their faces, stroking their hair, touching their stomach and legs, rubbing their hands, playing with pens and notebooks). Alternatively, the arms were folded in front of the body. Such gestures are communicatively unproductive at best and can be distracting or even off-putting at worst. The nonanxious group tended to use more speech-related gestures that illustrated their verbal messages, and if not being used in this capacity, their hands tended to be folded in their laps. Because adaptors generally fly under users’ radar, the purpose of the technique we offer is to heighten speakers’ consciousness of their idiosyncratic, unintentional gestures. AF 9: Gesture Police Gestures communicate emotion: whether positive, neutral or negative; purposeful or unintentional; or meaning-enhancing or distracting. Teachers who use them are perceived as more approachable. Interactants who use them among themselves can build rapport through intersubjectivity and ZPDs. Interactants’ gestures can display type and strength of emotion and can inadvertently convey their adverse feelings towards themselves and others. Because of the significant affective function that certain kinds of gestures perform in TL interactions, it behooves teachers to raise learners’ awareness of what they may unintentionally be communicating and to guide them in using their hands in more meaning-enhancing ways.

Gesture Influences TL Cognition Gesture’s influence on cognition has received substantial attention by applied linguists generating numerous findings that have the potential to improve TL interactants’ thinking and learning. In the remainder of this

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chapter, we present research tenets that reveal the inroads that gestures can make on enhanced cognition including: thinking for speaking, engaging more senses, deepening processing, organizing thought for expression, embodying and enacting, accompanying private speech, orchestrating speech, achieving foreigner talk benefits, providing imagery, accessing the lexicon, identity-building, increasing self-regulation, thinking spatiomotorically, lightening the cognitive load and mapping intentionality.

Gestural input increases comprehension and promotes learning Accounts as to why gestural input is helpful typically suggest that gestures capture attention, provide semantic redundancy and generally engage more senses by grounding speech in the concrete, physical experience (Hostetter & Alibali, 2004). A possible neurocognitive account pertains to mirror neurons, suggesting that the same areas in the motor cortex are activated when observing others’ actions and gestures as when performing them yourself (Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004). Similarly, research on ‘embodied cognition’ (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002) suggests that comprehension is grounded in action. For example, words such as ‘doorknob’ activate knowledge of the hand shape in clenching (Klatzky et al., 1989). We provide a technique based on the notion that seeing gestures might improve comprehension and learning because sensori-motor experience is evoked. CG 1: Grounding Names in Action: I Dub Thee ‘Peculiar Peter’ An increase in the use of iconic and other speech-related gestures to illustrate a verbal message might also enhance comprehension by capitalizing on the underlying representations found in gestural imagery. This use of gesture is often linked with the L2 classroom or teacher-learner interaction (Adams, 1998; Allen, 2000; Barnett, 1983; Henzl, 1979; Lazaraton, 2004; McCafferty, 2002). Overall, TL learner gesture studies suggest that the gestural enhancing of input results in greater comprehension and, possibly, acquisition. Riseborough’s (1981) investigation into the role of physiographic gestures in communication (including iconic – denoting shape and size, or kinetographic – denoting movement), found that such gestures facilitate the decoding of speech. She concluded that physiographic gestures make tasks more vivid by evoking mental images that are stored in memory at the input stage, thus leading to improved recall. Furthermore, since most participants denied awareness of any gestures, she deduced that the information from both the auditory and visual channels is processed together and that both channels contribute to understanding. Our technique is meant to evoke learners’ mental images for increased TL comprehension.

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CG 2: ‘Vividifying’ Mental Images Furthermore, Singer and Goldin-Meadow (2005), demonstrated that the information that gestures carry beyond what is actually verbalized is important to learning. They showed that children learning about mathematical equivalence benefited from their teachers’ gestures, especially when these conveyed more information than speech. In the domain of language, Englishspeaking three-year-olds learned new adjectives such as ‘spongy’ better if they were taught the adjective while shown a descriptive squeezing gesture, than if the adjective was introduced with only a pointing gesture (O’Neill et al., 2002). Input perspectives have also examined measurable effects on comprehension and lexical learning in the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) to French children. Children who received gestural input with vocabulary explanations retained significantly more items than those who did not. Importantly, children who also reproduced the gestures themselves performed even better than children who did not, even if they had gestural input. When reproduced, gestures not only act as a visual modality but also as a motor modality that leave a richer trace in memory and facilitate recall (Tellier, 2006). We offer two related techniques to improve memorization and recall that incorporate descriptive adjectives and tap into both visual and motor modalities.

CG 3: Squishy Squashy Strong and Sturdy CG 4: Squishy Sponges and Strong Steel Researchers suggest that almost all forms of communication with the purpose to instruct or teach implement more representational and rhythmic gestures (Allen, 2000). A number of studies have shown that the simplified registers used by L1 speakers and teachers in foreigner talk (Adams, 1998) and teacher talk (Allen, 2000; Lazaraton, 2004), are not only characterized by an increased use of representational gestures (iconic and deictic gestures), but also more rhythmic, beat-like movements (Allen, 2000; Gullberg, 1998). These speech registers emphasize salient elements of the TL at both the linguistic and discursive levels in an attempt to accommodate a perceived lack of proficiency on the part of TL interlocutors. The technique we provide shows specifically how listeners can overtly attend to the representational and rhythmic gestures provided by speakers who are accommodating for limited linguistic proficiency by providing nonlinguistic context clues that may increase TL comprehension.

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CG 5: Foreigner Talk If we incorporate gesture usage into concept-based approaches to language teaching, we might be able to help learners internalize particular linguistic concepts that have the potential to serve as a mediational device for them when they bump into complications in the TL. Gesture exposes learning as an embodied process where the brain, body and cultural artifacts function together as an integrated system – it is not exclusively a process taking place within the mind of the learner (van Campernolle & Williams, 2011).

Gestural output enhances internalization Gesturing not only aids comprehension in the form of input, but it also helps speakers as they organize thought for expression (Alibali et al., 2000; Hostetter et al., 2007; Kita, 2000). Speakers who are engaged in cognitively complex tasks, such as reasoning or explaining might use gestures to explore ways in which to select, order and verbalize notions that are not readily encoded in speech. Gesture helps internalize new TL knowledge. Scholars working within a sociocultural theory perspective argue that producing gestures helps TL interactants internalize new knowledge related to various domains in the L2 through enactment or processes of embodiment (Negueruela et al., 2004). According to Allen (1995), two cognitive steps are necessary to internalize a TL. Learners first need to link (or bind) the lexical items they hear or read with their meaning. These connections lead to the development of representations concerning how the TL works. Next, learners need to develop a mapping or processing capacity that permits access to the meaning-form connections held in their memories so that they can process them automatically and express them in authentic communicative situations. Thus, the formation of mental representations of TL expressions is affected by how the expressions are originally presented to learners, so it follows that if teachers elaborate in some form at the time of the TL presentation, learners should be able to process and access their mental representations more readily and retain them for longer periods of time. In our technique for this tenet, learners gain experience processing TL material with the purpose of accessing it more quickly and retaining it longer. CG 6: Act First; Ask Questions Later Allen (1995, 2000) experimented with the teaching of vocabulary using emblematic gestures in conjunction with selected lexical items to test the

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depth of processing as measured through retention. Participants in the experimental group were asked to perform 50 emblematic gestures introduced by the instructor, thus adding a kinesic (motor) representation in addition to hearing, seeing and writing the lexical items (what the group with no treatment experienced). A significant difference in retention between the two groups was found favoring the treatment group, leading to the conclusion that gestures can facilitate the binding and mapping processes of internalization, which results in a greater depth of processing and more durable mental representations. According to Allen (1995: 527), ‘Language educators may be well advised to use emblematic gestures when natural and appropriate, to elaborate the presentation of linguistic information.’ The technique we provide improves the internalization of lexical items by adding an emblematic kinesic representation to the vocabulary being learned. CG 7: Say it with your Hands! Iconic gestures demonstrate a tight link to linguistic access for speakers in that they resemble the referents in their messages in some way (e.g. creating the form of a telephone against one’s ear when saying the word, ‘telephone’). Such gestures are especially helpful in gaining access to conceptual or linguistic information that has a visuospatial component (e.g. concrete

Photo 12 Illustrating mental images

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concepts and/or concepts associated with a high degree of imagery), in that creating gestural representations could activate concepts in the speakers’ minds which in turn could activate the word or words related with the concept (Photo 12) (Hadar & Butterworth, 1997; McNeill, 1992). Our activity provides an opportunity to use representational gestures to communicate meaning in a friendly competition between teams. CG 8: Conceptual Information with Visuospatial Components McCafferty (2002) extends the communicative/cognitive potential of iconic gestures to having a possible role in lexical acquisition. Interactions with L1 speakers of the TL in real-life contexts may cause TL learners to resort to the use of mimetic gestures owing to their lack of familiarity with TL words in context. That is to say, the TL learner might know the surface-level definition of a word but not feel completely comfortable with its situational use. ‘Materialization through iconic representation can communicate a person’s understanding of a word to an interlocutor, adding an element of semantic intentionality’ (McCafferty, 2008: 161). TL interactants who are exposed to a language and culture very dissimilar to their own and those with lower proficiency will probably be more apt to rely on iconic gestures for this reason. In this technique, participants will play with idioms which, owing to the presence of both literal and figurative interpretation, can make their situational use quite problematic. CG 9: Mimemic Iconic Gestures Beyond the benefits that iconic gestures might afford, McCafferty (2006) suggests that beat gestures might also offer an avenue for TL interlocutors to gain control over the linguistic forms of the TL in that they can also operate as a form of materialization. In his study, the L2 speaker–participant used beat gestures with each syllable of each word he uttered in up to five word utterances, while simultaneously conversing with the other participant in the study. McCafferty contends that this was an attempt by the speaker to internalize aspects of the prosodic structure of the TL. He concludes, ‘… because we are embodied beings, action is necessarily an underlying aspect of human cognition’ (p. 207). He speculates that gesture in the form of beats that tap out prosodic elements, particularly intonation and syllable structure, is a form of enactment – internalizing the L2 through embodied actions. To practice these ideas, we provide two techniques – both of which will aid in the internalization of the TL by ‘rapping’ and ‘enacting.’

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CG 10: Rap It Up!! CG 11: Rappin’ Freestyle Interactants’ gesture use during awareness-raising tasks provides information on their conscious knowledge about language. Verbal explanations alone are often incomplete but this does not necessarily mean that learners’ understanding of the TL is inadequate (van Compernolle & Williams, 2011). Instead, because speech and gesture form a dialectical unity (McNeill, 2005), each mode of thinking serves to complement the other to create meaning. Therefore, if teachers consider only learners’ verbal explanations without their accompanying gestures, they may misinterpret learners’ conscious knowledge as incomplete. That is to say, if we perceive language as merely verbal and isolate cognition as transpiring solely within our minds, we will miss enormous amounts of information (Lantolf, 2010). This language-gesture link implies important ideas for language pedagogy. Lantolf suggests that language teachers encourage learners’ selfgenerated use of gesture to mediate their own learning – not only spontaneous gestures, but also systematically incorporated gestures that function as learning tools. Imagistic information … is a crucial component of the learning process whereby learners proceed to internalization of the concept through this type of information more readily than they do through purely verbal explications of a given concept … It should be possible through instruction to help students develop not only an awareness of gestures for regulating their own learning, but also a way to use gestures to effectively enhance the learning process itself. (Lantolf, 2010: 147) The technique we provide offers the opportunity to self-generate gestures to accompany new vocabulary. CG 12: Memory in Motion Mayhem

Gestural output enhances memory and language production Embodied cognition uses gesture and manual movement to improve comprehension. This grounding of thought in action (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002) or gestural self-enactment also strengthens recall (Frick-Horbury, 2002). This proposal is supported by neurocognitive evidence showing that listening to a word such as ‘kick’ activates the same parts of the motor cortex as those involved in performing the kicking action itself (Pulvermuller, 2005). Enacted

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action is better recalled than action phrases without enactment (Engelkamp & Cohen, 1991) and self-enactment improves recall more than seeing someone else enacting (Frick-Horbury, 2002). Enactment provides numerous benefits: verbal information is retrieved in higher quantity; it is accessed faster and more accurately; and it decays more slowly (Macedonia & Knosche, 2011). The gestural ‘Information Packaging Hypothesis’ proposes that gestures help speakers plan what to say. By performing a gesture, speakers can explore aspects of their communicative intentions and more easily select, package and linearize spatial information into verbalized units (Alibali et al., 2000). A cognitive explanation for this phenomenon suggests that by accompanying a gesture with a word (as compared to a word that is only read and heard), its representation is enriched and deepened by a number of modalities, thus increasing its complexity (Shams & Sietz, 2008). Selfinvolvement and enhanced attention during gesture production are additional features prompting the enactment effect and deeper semantic processing (Kormi-Nouri, 1995, 2000). Furthermore, attention modulates learning if speakers produce an action while uttering a word (Knudsen, 2007; Muzzio et al., 2009).

CG 13: Enacted Action Stories We have presented research on embodied cognition that outlines the advantages of accompanying the presentation of new vocabulary with enactment. However, until now, we have introduced investigations that experimented with words and concepts that are easily encoded in action, such as concrete nouns and action verbs. Macedonia and Knosche (2011) took their research a step further and investigated whether enactment produces the same beneficial outcomes with abstract sentences and not readily embodied words, like low- codability verbs (e.g. appreciate or enjoy) and adverbs (e.g. therefore or rather). Their results demonstrated that enactment reinforces the connections to embodied features of the word contained in its core semantic representation or to associated items. They proposed that enactment can construct an embodied representation from scratch which was not originally present. For example, the word, rather, is not readily illustrated by a representational gesture, so in order to embody it, the gesture has to be arbitrary – but still symbolic for the linguistic item it co-expresses. If a series of movements is produced as the symbolic gesture is acted out, the word’s representation is enriched and possibly leaves a motor trace in the representation of the word. Our technique encourages the use of enactment as a tool to embody verbal information and mechanically boost its memorability.

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CG 14: Experimenting with Arbitrary Embodiment A more process-oriented proposal to the role of gesture in retention is that gesturing reduces the cognitive load on working memory. In a task where speakers had to memorize word lists while they explained a math problem, those speakers who gestured during the math explanation subsequently recalled more words than those who did not. The argument is that by gesturing, speakers unload cognition onto an external representation, thereby liberating processing resources that can be re-assigned to memorization, planning or other working memory-intense operations. This could account for why TL interactants produce so many gestures when they are barely fluent, even when their interlocutors cannot see their gestures. It is possible that TL interactants’ gestures reflect their attempts to reduce the processing load of keeping words, grammar and the relationships between entities in mind at the same time as planning what to say next. In this sense, gestures may help speakers continue talking. Again, in and of itself, this is not a direct explanation for actual learning, but fits well with the effects to be gained from producing sustained output and from influencing interlocutors positively (Goldin-Meadow, 2005; Goldin-Meadow et al., 2001). To reduce the load of speakers’ working memories, we provide a technique in which they use gesture to help reassign their cognitive energies toward memorization and planning what to say next. CG 15: Uncluttering Our Working Memories

Gestural output increases self-regulation Expanding the topic of gesture use for intrapersonal functions, sociocultural researchers (who propose that cognition arises from the social and material planes), have concentrated on how gesture functions in the developmental processes that result in self-regulation in connection with problems that arise with language, conversation, task or a combination of these. For example, Platt and Brooks (2008) found that TL interactants used gestures, gaze, body movements and physical contact with task materials to help them achieve self-regulation in the L2. Negueruela and Lantolf (2008) demonstrated how iconic and deictic gestures performed a regulatory function when L2 speakers were confronted with the challenge of relating a narrative. Additionally, McCafferty (2008) explored how learners used both metaphoric gestures and TL verbal conceptual metaphors to achieve

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self-regulation and illustrated how a learner used metaphoric gesture to provide her discourse with a cohesive and coherent character as well as for making meaning. Similarly, TL interactants frequently use gesture to map out their discourse in accordance with points that they establish in space to help them organize thoughts and express them. Kita (2000) argues that gesture often functions as a type of spatio-motoric thinking that arranges information through manipulations in gestural space as evidenced by interlocutors who physically act out a representation of interaction with an object or who imitate another’s actions. He proposes that gestures are actional (not representational) and develop as a dimension of the corporal realm in tandem with the cognitive system. Another example of spatio-motoric use of gesture is McCafferty’s (2004) reference to a TL interactant who organized his discourse about the spread of the Chinese writing system by creating a virtual map in gesture space and then pointing to each of the three countries he talked about in relation to space. McCafferty (1998) researched the connection between forms of private speech and gesture, finding that gesture virtually always accompanies inner speech. Specifically, he was interested in how nonverbal forms of behavior, including gesture, work as self-regulators in private speech, which he defines as ‘vocalized forms of speech for the self that function metacognitively to help the individual plan, guide and monitor a course of activity (p. 73). Eight adult ESL learners (4 Japanese and 4 Venezuelan) engaged in narrative recall and picture narration tasks. Participants were videotaped performing the tasks, which were coded for forms of private speech (object, other, self), types of gestures (emblems, iconics, metaphorics, deictics, beats) and other nonverbal behaviors used. He found that there were both cultural and proficiency differences in the nonverbal behavior used and that ‘gestures that accompany private speech … are integrated with speakers’ efforts at self-expression’ (p. 92). McCafferty (2002) also investigated the function of overly explicit, redundant (not co-expressive) gestures by an intermediate L2 speaker who illustrated his speech mainly with iconic gestures while in conversation, despite the fact that he was seemingly experiencing no linguistic difficulties. This led McCafferty to conclude that, although the gestures might have appeared to an observer to be of communicative intent, they were primarily serving intrapersonal (cognitive) purposes, helping the speaker to orchestrate his speech production. Gullberg (2006b) also tested overly explicit forms of gesture to see if their use would persist in a situation where a screen blocking visibility was placed between the participants and their interlocutors. This proved to be the case, thus offering support for the claim that these forms of gesture serve intra- as well as inter-personal functions. To experience using gestures for intra-personal functions, we provide a technique that encourages speakers to use nonverbal cues to help orchestrate their speech production.

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CG 16: Mission Invisible

Gestural output enhances mimesis and identity-building Haught and McCafferty (2008) argue that language cannot be detached from communication and that when we use language, we embody it through mimemic or imitative action that interactively and dynamically create the language–culture mix. Furthermore, they propose that one’s body, language and mind are integrated in thought creation and the linguistic and imagistic form it takes through speech and gesture. With these theoretical underpinnings, they incorporated drama techniques in an adult ESL class in which the instructor modeled the lines and nonverbally acted out the characters. The participants responded by imitating both the instructor’s verbal performance and his nonverbal expressions, including his gestures. Additionally, actors started mimicking one another’s gestures (the same that were first performed by the instructor) after watching a video recording. These gestures, mostly iconic and metaphoric accompanied by a few beat gestures for emphasis, were also produced with other lines during scripted rehearsals. Eventually actors integrated more gestures into their interpretations as they became better acquainted with the scripts, having connected gesture to their TL performance. These circumstances allowed the actors through drama to ‘try on’ the language and culture and simultaneously boost their TL proficiency. A further advantage was that the class was structured so that participants recursively revisited the scripts, affording them multiple opportunities to practice and discuss cultural, linguistic and nonverbal features – a process that deepened their understanding of the TL and culture. Our technique reconstructs this research and provides an opportunity for actors to use drama to ‘try on’ their TL (Haught & McCafferty, 2008). CG 17: Trying on Language through Drama

Conclusion Throughout this chapter, we have attempted to highlight the communicative, affective and cognitive advantages of TL interactants’ purposeful use of their bodies and in particular, their hands, in both sending and receiving TL messages. Gestures are particularly important for TL interactants because they are inextricably linked to speech. Gesture-conscious interactants demonstrate cultural competence, maintain fluid turn-taking, strategically compensate for their linguistic limitations and increase their grammatical

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proficiency through using their hands to reduce ambiguity, aid comprehension and express ideas of low codability. Interactants with gestural dexterity convey emotions more effectively by increasing intersubjectivity with their interlocutors, creating zones of proximal development and indicating the strength of their feelings. Through gesture, interactants’ cognition also benefits as hand movements engage more senses, deepen processing, improve recall, offer methods of materialization, orchestrate speech, aid in selfregulation, lighten cognitive loads and map intentionality. We opened this chapter with a series of history-making situations in which the hands of the primary participant played a pivotal role. Each vignette demonstrated that movement communicates meaning that is socially constructed. Churchill used the ‘V for Victory’ gesture that for his national audience was a unifying symbol but for other cultures communicated vulgarity. Bill Clinton shook JFK’s hand – the 42nd President of the United States did not bow nor did he kiss the 35th President on both cheeks. Tommie Smith’s Black Power Salute fit the civil unrest of his time and place. Lasting impressions were created by these men and their hand movements, but the power of gesture is not solely within the purview of prime ministers, presidents and famous athletes. We gesture all day long in an attempt to create meaning – and for interactants who communicate interculturally, they can be used to their advantage or to their detriment. Nonverbally savvy teachers can make a difference.

Posture

Posture in Combination with other Kinesic Behavior The way a person gets from one physical location to another – whether skipping, sauntering or schlepping – delivers messages to others about who they are and what they are feeling. Likewise, the way a person sits transmits their attentiveness or boredom. Postural orientation during conversation says volumes about one’s rapport with, orientation toward and feelings about others. Social cues emanate from the way a person stands, stretches, sprawls, slumps or sits straight (Richmond et al., 2012). Thus, the probability of intercultural interactants experiencing more and deeper satisfying interpersonal relationships and increasing their sense of community will be heightened if they are familiarized with the relational functions of their postures and other kinesic cues. Furthermore, research has recently revealed that our posture also subconsciously influences our opinions, level of happiness, energy levels, perceptions of our own power, risk-taking tendencies and our decision-making. Mark Twain once intimated that his parents got smarter as he grew older. As children, some of us may have perceived our parents as pesky when they persistently repeated, ‘Sit up straight!’ Now, however, most of us who have developed slouchy postural habits probably wish we knew then what we know now, especially as concerns the importance of good posture. Postures by definition are fewer in number and represent a more limited medium of communication than other kinesic cues like gestures. Postures most effectively communicate in the emotional domain and have relatively restricted communicative and cognitive functions. Posture, together with other kinesic behavior, expresses attitudes such as the desire to increase, limit or avoid interaction with another individual; convey a positive or negative reaction to someone; and demonstrate one’s variable levels of self-confidence. In addition to their impact on perceptions of power, the number and kinds of postures often reflect our degree of responsiveness to another person, as well as the strength of our desires to establish a closer or more immediate relationship. Considerable evidence suggests that posture communicates a multitude of specific emotions from joy, happiness, sadness and interest to shame, anger and fear (Wallbott, 1998). In addition, posture indicates one’s 66

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level of interest in conversations (Bickmore, 2004). Individuals often lean forward to indicate to friends that they are ready for their friend to speak, or that what they are saying is engaging. In the previous section, we presented numerous tenets on the communicative, affective and cognitive functions of gesture, but there is more to be explored when gesture is observed in combination with other kinesic behavior such as posture. Bodily cues in general communicate a multitude of emotional and affective functions, including framing communicative interaction and helping to synchronize it. We emphasized in our introduction to this book that gestures in particular are inextricably linked to the verbal channel, allowing speakers to communicate ideas of great complexity. Also of relevance is that bodily communication often exposes how one feels about themselves. That said, kinesic cues perform at least four more affective functions among which are: (a) attitudinal information; (b) individualized evidence concerning an interlocutor’s psychological frame of mind; (c) the depth of emotions being felt; and (d) information about the relationship of interlocutors (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Table P1 provides a short summary of this chapter. Table P1 Posture’s influence Communicative

Affective

Cognitive

Influenced by the values of culture

Provides evidence of emotional state Poses problems for interpretation

Produces power

Exposes the nature of relationships Displays predispositions toward content of the interaction

Alters hormone levels that increase risk-taking Manipulates opinions Impacts physical well-being, which in turn influences cognition

Conveys attitudes and intensity of emotion Can be used for energizing purposes Expresses degrees of inclusivity, congruence, openness, confidence, likeability, assertiveness and power

Posture Influences TL Communication We preface the predominantly affective function of posture with an allimportant caveat concerning the sociolinguistic competence that is necessary to effectively communicate in a TL using kinesic cues. Throughout our text, we define knowing what to say to whom and when as a part of communicating effectively. Such sociolinguistic competence demands that interactants understand the culturally defined nature of kinesic cues.

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Posture and sociolinguistic competency Like every other nonverbal code examined in this text, it is important to remain vigilant concerning two issues. First, even though our perceptions of others and ourselves are highly influenced by gesture and posture, other types of nonverbal behaviors dynamically intermingle with these kinesic cues for continually changing effects. Communicatively competent interactants do not examine gesture and posture in isolation without considering the verbal message, prosody, facial expression and other nonverbal behaviors that intermingle simultaneously to create a complex dynamic system. Secondly, culture is a significant variable in the framing of priorities concerning the importance of being perceived in a certain way with variables such as openness, confidence, likability, assertiveness and power. For example, the Japanese attach a high priority to being perceived as powerful, whereas North Americans tend to prioritize being perceived as likable (Matsumoto & Kudoh, 1987). Much of the research examined in this section was carried out in Western countries and should therefore be interpreted through that lens. Although we attempt to keep our examination of concepts as culturally inclusive as possible, at times we overtly signal examples of specific cultures. Furthermore, we try to keep our activities at an awareness-raising level seeking to refrain from a culturally imperialistic tone or framing language learners as deficient. With this in mind, our first activity provides an opportunity to experiment with the varying degrees that cultural values underscore posture. CM 10: Postural Priorities by Culture

Posture Influences TL Affect Posture, in combination with gesture, provides fairly reliable evidence of our emotional states. In this section, we present research on how posture combined with other kinesic cues can impact intercultural interactions in sending and receiving emotional information. We begin with a note of caution concerning how readily posture can be misinterpreted and then transition into how posture reflects the nature of interlocutors’ relationships, exposes attitudes and exhibits our degree of arousal and intensity of feelings. We also highlight the notion that posture communicates both functional and dysfunctional personal information. Because kinesic behavior influences the likelihood that interactants will perceive each other as inclusive, congruent, open and confident, it is important that classroom experience is provided to maximize positive perceptions and minimize negative ones. Generalizing about kinesic cues – or most nonverbal behaviors for that matter – is somewhat precarious owing to the unpredictability of human

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interaction and the culture-specific priority given to particular relational values. At the same time, however, previous research suggests that certain types of cues typically have a greater positive impact than others on the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of interlocutors. Next, we highlight postures and other kinesic cues that are considered advantageous during interactive exchanges in many (but not necessarily all) cultures, as well as those cues that would put communicators at a disadvantage (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Finally, we demonstrate how posture plays an important role in how individuals perceive one another via kinesic cues and posture and how they convey emotional meaning through positive and negative nonverbal indicators on three dimensions: liking/disliking; assertiveness/non-assertiveness; and power/powerlessness (Leathers & Eaves, 2008).

Posture can be interpreted in a variety of ways by different observers Even though particular affective states are consistently manifested through similar postures, interpreting the emotion of an interlocutor can frequently present difficulty. Although posture is not usually one of the most discussed visual cues for detecting affect, Gregersen (2009), in her study on nonverbal cues and language learning anxiety, noted that it was one of the most problematic cues for participants to use in deciphering the emotion that language learners’ behaviors were actually expressing. When she compared the interpretations of posture by observers, she discovered that the same bodily cue was described as ‘a relaxed stance’ by one group who suggested that the speaker was not anxious, and as ‘shifting legs’ and ‘tense posture’ by the other group who assessed the speaker as anxious (p. 57). This same study also indicated that observers had difficulty in decoding which visual elements deserved credence when several conflicting nonverbal cues were present. For example, observers who erroneously labeled a speaker as ‘nonanxious,’ indicated in some form that the speaker had ‘relaxed posture’ but ‘fidgeted some.’ The observers’ mistake was in bestowing more importance on the relaxed posture and less on the fidgeting. Observers who correctly decoded the speaker’s hand movements zeroed in on the fidgeting and accordingly rated the participant as ‘anxious.’ These instances exemplify the complexity of decoding emotion through posture and also the necessity of considering it in conjunction with other codes and channels. In another study on language anxiety and its nonverbal manifestations, Gregersen (2007) found the same imprecision in observers’ responses as they attempted to decode the negative affect expressed in posture. Her main goal was to investigate whether awareness-raising in nonverbal behavior would increase observers’ accuracy in decoding emotion. She found that

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training increased the accuracy of decoding the nonverbal cues evidential of high and low language anxiety, but training did not impact observers’ accuracy for interpreting the nonverbal cues of those participants’ whose selfreported language anxiety was at a moderate level. The reasons why observers did so poorly in assessing the status of particular speakers were revealed in the short narratives that observers wrote, defining what criteria they used to arrive at their conclusions. For example, in one instance, although the speaker’s arms and ankles were crossed in front of her – a closed position that is often indicative of anxiety, the attention-grabbing body language that overwhelmed the observers’ perspectives was that she was slouching in a very relaxed posture with her legs totally extended in front of her. So instead of paying attention to the closed body position, many observers who assessed incorrectly, commented on her stretched out, reclining posture. Another inaccurately assessed learner in the same study most likely gave the illusion of being anxious because of some idiosyncratic features of her behavior (Gregersen, 2007). Decoders commented that they had rated her as ‘anxious’ based upon her ‘rigid, straight-backed posture’ (p. 217), which according to previous research can be an anxiety indicator. However, in this case, one could also interpret her straight back as her normal way of sitting. She sent mixed signals. The correct decoders mentioned in their narratives that her hands were ‘loosely held in front of her and that her body was almost continually at a forward lean toward her interlocutor’ (p. 217) – usually recognized as nonanxious cues. On the other hand, a few of the incorrect decoders gave credence to her body position, which they perceived as ‘tense’ and mentioned that ‘she shifted her weight several times’ (anxious attributes). Thus, there was evidence that the lack of specificity concerning what particular body cues mean and the assignment of various meanings to the same cue, coupled with the idiosyncratic elements of individuals’ behavior may have led to some discrepancy on the part of decoders concerning the emotional states of some of the speakers. The technique we provide offers a chance to explore conflicts encountered when the verbal and nonverbal messages are mixed. AF 30: Dealing with Dissonance

Posture exposes the nature of interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships Postural orientation reflects relational elements between two people during in-face conversation (Scheflen, 1964). Dyadic partners are basically limited to two options: They can engage in a conversation while facing one another or while sitting or standing side-by-side (Photo 14). Whereas the

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Photo 13 Face-to-face postural orientation

Photo 14 Side-by-side postural orientation

face-to-face orientation transmits intimacy, the parallel bodily orientation delivers a message of wanting to interact with the whole group rather than with any particular individual in it (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). For instance, face-to-face positions are indicative of more formal or professional interactions (Photo 13). If colleagues are observed sharing teaching tips in the teachers’ lounge, they would most likely maintain a stance where they are facing

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each other. It may also suggest that each person feels a need to continually monitor the other. Also, the face-to-face orientation may signal more lively interaction, whereas the parallel position may indicate neutral or passive interaction (Richmond et al., 2012). It is most likely that when students interact in groups, they engage more actively with the interactants across from them than the ones adjacent to them. In our technique for this tenet, interactants gain insight into how posture reflects the relationship between and/ or among interlocutors. AF 31: Peek a Boo You Two: Your Posture Speaks Volumes Our predispositions toward the content of our interpersonal interactions are generally encoded in our posture and gestures. Additionally, our kinesic behavior also exposes a great deal about our attitudes toward ourselves and the individuals with whom we are communicating. For example, because particular gestures and postures reveal how a person feels about themselves at a given point in time, interlocutors maintaining closed postures suffer an upsurge in unpleasant emotions (RossbergGempton & Poole, 1993). Although facial cues are often more precise indicators of particular types of emotions, bodily cues are better at revealing the overall degree of emotional arousal and the intensity of the feelings being expressed through one’s facial behavior. Such intensity cues are critical to responding appropriately to the emotions displayed by interlocutors (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). However, there is hope for mitigating the intra-personal upsurges in unpleasant emotions from slouching. Peper and Mei Lin (2012) reveal that, although a slouched or despairing posture can result in negative-narrowing affect and reduced energy, those feelings can be undone by walking with more erect posture. They claimed that people are inclined to believe that the brain and body relationship goes one way – from brain to body – when in fact, the association is bidirectional. When bodies are put in upright, open postural modes, biological pathways that can increase happiness and energy are opened up. Their study also revealed that when participants with physical pain hugged themselves, they could at times decrease some of their bodily discomfort. Furthermore, when sitting up straight, the likelihood of remembering positive memories or thinking positively overall is increased. Their take-away idea, which we incorporate into our technique for this section, was that if individuals integrate more body movement into their daily lives, they can convince their bodies to have more energy – similar to the principle of ‘fake it till you make it’ (Peper & Mei Lin, 2012).

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AF 32: Energize Yourself through Posture

Posture has an important impact on how interlocutors perceive one another Inclusiveness. When we position our bodies in a way that excludes another person, we are visibly conveying our intention to restrict or avoid interaction with that person (Scheflen, 1964) (Photo 15). For example, imagine walking out of a classroom between language classes and seeing that small groups have formed. Especially noticeable is a group of five people huddling closely who are enjoying their private interaction while virtually ignoring their other classmates. With their postures and body positions, this little group has communicated to the others that they are not included. Our technique exemplifies how such exclusions operate. AF 33: ‘Dissing’ with Distance Congruence. When two people in a communication exchange assume similar postures, this signals agreement, equality and liking between them. Postural mirroring – that is, interlocutors assuming the same postures as their interaction partners – also facilitates cooperation (Photo 16). Postural

Photo 15 Group non-inclusive postural orientation

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Photo 16 Congruent postural orientation

congruence may involve crossing of the legs and/or arms, leaning, head propping, or any number of other positions. Mirroring happens when the listener’s behavior is performing a role symmetrical to the speaker, rather than a complementary role, most often during periods of positive speech, indicating rapport and cooperation (LaFrance, 1985). Nonverbal mirroring occurs frequently when interactive participants are other-oriented, like when they want to be liked, feel concern, and seek a closer relationship. This tendency to match others’ behavior – whether posturally, facially or vocally – occasionally results in emotional contagion (when an emotional experience is triggered as a result of mimicking someone else’s behavior) (Hatfield et al., 1994). Such unintentional mirroring, sometimes called the chameleon effect, frequently pertains to interactants who feel rapport to the point of imitating the other’s body posture, hand gestures, speaking accents, among others. In interpersonal interactions, mimicking our interactant’s body language can increase our likeability. According to Chartrand and Bargh (1999), the chameleon effect is the natural tendency to imitate another’s vocal and physical expressions. The placement and movement of the body help to create smoother interaction and increase the level of likeability. These ideas began with inquiries that addressed the questions of whether interactants automatically mimic each other irrespective as to whether they are strangers, whether this imitation increases interactants’ likeability and whether individuals who are more agreeable or more open to other’s opinions display the chameleon phenomenon more.

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In the first experiment, Chartrand and Bargh’s (1999) participants interacted one-on-one with a researcher who employed variable behaviors that included more or less smiling, touching their faces and foot waggling. Results demonstrated significant increases in all such behaviors – even when the interactants were strangers. In their second study, participants again conversed with an experimenter. With half the subjects, researchers sustained a neutral and relaxed seated position and with the other half, researchers mirrored the posture, movements and mannerisms of the participants (crossing their legs, twirling their hair, etc.) when their interactants did. Afterwards, participants whose moves had been imitated had rated their experimenters as more likable, and reported having better and smoother interactions with them. In the third experiment, Chartrand and Bargh (1999) explored the psychological dispositions that inspire an interactant’s tendency to naturally mimic more than others and discovered that interactants who are open to the other’s ideas (and not necessarily more empathetic) are more likely to mirror – suggesting that the chameleon effect is more cognitive than emotional. Our technique to explore congruence is a fun and interesting attempt to replicate a portion of the chameleon effect notion. AF 34: Chameleon Challenge Openness. When we nonverbally communicate openness – comparable to words that verbally express disclosure – we signal to our interlocutor that we are making a sincere effort to honestly express our feelings. In turn, openness cues frequently trigger reciprocal behaviors of a similar nature in others (Nierenberg & Calero, 1973). Nonverbal cues of openness and verbal utterances of self-disclosure remove or reduce behavior that is perceived as being calculated to withhold or misrepresent private thoughts, feelings or information (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). We invite TL interactants to use the ‘Johari Window’ to encourage self-disclosure as a strategy for strengthening interpersonal relationships and to notice how posture is affiliated with relationship-building. AF 35: Windows to Openness Assertiveness. As we explore the nonverbal indicators of assertiveness and unassertiveness or passivity, it is important to understand the role of social sensitivity in developing satisfying interpersonal interactions. In many cultures, socially sensitive nonverbal communicators are those who are able to convey that they are standing up for themselves without interfering with other people. That is to say, to converse in a socially sensitive way, an interactant must be assertive without being aggressive – and this balance is closely

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Table P2 Positive and negative indicators of assertiveness and passivity Positive indicators

Negative indicators

Assertiveness

Passivity

Nonverbal and verbal expression in-sync and used consistently Relaxed gestures and postures (forward lean preferred) Firm but not expansive gestures Sustained eye contact (albeit avoid staring) Illustrator gestures and vocal inflection to stress key words and phrases Adequately loud voice Touching when appropriate

Nervous gestures such as hand-wringing Clutching the other person as assertive comment is made Out-of-context smiling Stooping the shoulders Covering mouth with hand Rigid posture Repeated throat clearing Deferentially raised eyebrow Evasive eyes Filled pauses: ‘ah’

related to culture (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). TL interactants who attempt to be perceived as assertive must take special care to monitor their nonverbal cues lest they be identified as aggressive by some or all of their interlocutors. When TL interactants behave assertively, they stand up for themselves and say what they want to say, but express their ideas in a way that allows for differing viewpoints to be respected. In other words, to be assertive means that they also recognize and value the equality, rights and ideas of others. That said, equality is a critical aspect of assertiveness which results in a respect for others that moderates, but does preclude, seeking one’s own goals. There is a range of contexts in which the assertive style will offer the best chance at pursuing one’s goals in harmony with other people. Table P2 lists the nonverbal indicators of assertiveness and passivity found in North American cultures. For the most part, behaviors of passivity are simply the opposite of the indicators for assertiveness (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). The technique that we provide to practice assertive communication compares it with both extremes – aggressiveness and passivity. AF 36: Striking the Assertiveness Balance Confidence. Not only do kinesic cues indicate the existence of an interlocutor’s confidence but they also demonstrate the degree of that confidence (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Nonverbal cues that are overtly indicative of confidence are stereotypically portrayed in body positions that have the chin thrust forward, posture that is leaning back with both hands supporting the head, and feet on table. Although openness and confidence gestures are usually

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desirable, defensiveness and nervousness cues are not. Although defensiveness can be expressed in a variety of ways (i.e. eyes downcast, indirect body orientation and closed postures), what sets them apart from others is that they reflect a literal effort to block out unwelcome thoughts or individuals (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Gestures associated with nervousness, usually exhibited unintentionally, can also take numerous forms, many of which are ‘adaptors’ that are associated with increased anxiety levels, such as fidgeting, pulling at clothing, ears, hair, or other ‘tug-able’ body parts (self-adaptors), as well as twiddling or fiddling with objects in the room (object-adaptors). Our technique provides an opportunity to notice the nonverbal behaviors indicative of confident and unconfident people (along with likeability and power) in naturalistic settings. Likeability. ‘Liking’ is not the only label for nonverbal indicators that identify the types of cues that communicate pleasantness. ‘Interpersonally attractive,’ ‘immediacy,’ ‘intimacy,’ and ‘pleasantness’ also describe clusters of nonverbal behaviors that convey comparable (but not exactly the same) kinds of affectivity. Leathers and Eaves (2008: 85) propose, ‘The desire to be liked is almost universal.’ They contend, however, that just because a person communicates his desire to be liked does not necessarily ensure that he will be. Furthermore, communicating one’s liking for another person does not automatically yield a reciprocal response. They conclude, ‘Nonetheless, those desires are closely related because we tend to like those who like us.’ To verify our liking of another person, we need to communicate that we want closeness by showing our attraction. Table P3 offers cues that convey both ‘Liking’ and ‘Disliking.’ Notice how ‘disliking’ often relates to the absence of positive indicators of liking, or tend Table P3 Positive and negative indicators of liking and disliking Positive indicators

Negative indicators

Liking

Disliking

Leaning forward during interaction Face-to-face body and head orientations Open body posture Affirmative head nods Moderate gesturing and animation Appropriately close interpersonal distances Relaxed (but not too relaxed) body posture Appropriate touching Initiating and maintaining eye contact

Indirect bodily orientations (parallel) Short duration eye contact Averted eyes Disagreeable facial expressions Limited use of gestures Rigid posture Visual inattentiveness Closed posture Incongruent postures (between interlocutors) Bodily tension (Kimbara, 2006; Maxwell & Cook, 1985; Mehrabian, 1981; Schlenker, 1980)

Smiling Postural mirroring (exhibiting similar or congruent postures)

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to take a reverse form. Dislike or disinterest may also arise from the violation of social norms by interlocutors who are overzealous in their attempts to be liked. Think about the irritation that surfaces when an interlocutor uses sweeping gestures, nods and smiles too much, sits too close, stares and/or uses over-emphatic postural shifts. Rather than communicating liking, those who employ unsubtle manipulative kinesic cues usually suffer the unintended consequence of garnering dislike (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Power. Contrary to the dimension of liking and disliking in which most people have a desire to be perceived as pleasant, the desire to be recognized as powerful may not be as universal. It is, however, a characteristic that still compels many people in a broad range of cultures. Schlenker (1980) indicated that powerlessness or submissiveness cues are not always dysfunctional. Many situations demand that individuals with superior power and status present themselves with relative humility. For example, the language learner who naturally rises to a place of leadership in the classroom might take pride in cultivating the ‘authoritative’ persona during group work, but is probably apt to think twice about championing such power prerogatives when in the presence of the teacher. Communicating with nonverbal cues that assert power in the presence of a more powerful person risks confrontation and even rebuke. Still, few people desire to be perceived as powerless (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Table P4 contains some of the body positions that indicate power or its absence. In the technique we provide opportunities to search for nonverbal clues of likeability, confidence and power (as well as their absence) in people in naturalistic settings. AF 37: On the Hunt for Confidence, Likeability and Power

Posture Influences TL Cognition In the previous section, we looked at the affective affects that posture has on INTER-personal relationships: How does my posture affect the way others perceive me and my relationship to them? Although the contents of the next section continue to examine similar characteristics, like power and confidence, we transition into the ‘cognitive’ domain because of posture’s INTRApersonal influence on our decision-making and formulation of opinions: How does my posture affect my own ‘self’ perceptions of confidence and control?

Posture is a tool TL interactants can use to harness healthy psychological and cognitive benefits In both humans and primates, expansive, open postures reflect high power, whereas contractive, closed postures reflect low power (Carney et al.,

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Table P4 Power and powerlessness nonverbal indicators Positive indicators

Negative indicators

Power

Powerlessness

Relaxed posture Erect rather than slumped posture Dynamic and purposeful gestures

Body tension Excessive smiling Steady visual attentiveness while others are speaking Not looking directly at others Looking down frequently Distracting foot movements Closed posture Excessive eyebrow elevating Never touching another individual

Steady and direct gaze Variation in speaking rate and inflection Variation in posture Relative expansiveness in postures The option to touch The option to stare The option to interrupt The option to approach another person closely

2005; Darwin, 1872) (also see Table P4). Such body positioning not only reflects power, it also produces it (Photo 17). As opposed to the low-power poses from Table P4, assuming the high-power poses heightens explicit and implicit feelings of power and dominance, risk-taking behavior, action orientation, pain tolerance and testosterone (the dominance hormone), while reducing stress, anxiety and cortisol (the stress hormone) (Cuddy et al., 2012).

Photo 17 Power posing; taking up as much space as possible

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Additionally, those who adopt high-power poses benefit from improved thought abstraction and action orientation (Huang et al., 2010). Cuddy defines her research objective as wanting to ‘discover scientifically grounded ways to help relatively powerless people harness some of the healthy psychological benefits that relatively powerful people often enjoy … I wanted to equip people with tools that would help them feel stronger and more confident, less stressed and fearful, and better able to bring their full, spirited selves to highstakes, stressful situations – like … speaking in class’ (Cuddy, 2012). Language learners often find themselves in situations of limited power (Norton Peirce, 1995). They are speaking a language that is not their first and they are adjusting to challenging cultural differences. Negative affect and diminished cognitive resources often plague even the most resilient learners (Anderson & Galinsky, 2006). Power could improve their performance by positively orienting them toward goals and by liberating them from the psychological constraints that could prevent them from performing to their full potential. According to Cuddy, assuming a high-power pose represents a subtle way of making oneself feel more powerful (Cuddy et al., 2012). There is reciprocal action between the body and the mind. When an individual strikes a power pose, the body also shapes the mind and causes people to become powerful. Cuddy (2012: para. 5) claims that after sitting or standing alone in a room, in a high-power pose for just two minutes, participants in her experiments resembled powerful people – emotionally, cognitively, behaviorally and even physiologically: They felt more powerful, were willing to take risks, presented their ideas with greater confidence and enthusiasm, and performed better in demanding situations … two minutes of preparatory power posing optimizes the brain to function well in high-stakes challenges. In a related study on the relationship between posture and confidence, researchers had volunteers sitting in either a slumped or upright position while participating in simulated employment interviews. Those who held upright, open posture conveyed their personal and professional strengths much better than those in slumped positions who suffered reduced self-confidence in their communication. One reason that posture matters is because the brain tends to associate certain postures with how we feel about ourselves (Briñol et al., 2009). The technique provided offers learners an opportunity to experiment with power posing to discover whether their bodies can influence their minds just as their minds can influence their bodies. CG 18: Up-right Posture: Up-Surged Confidence Research in applied linguistics indicates that there can be accelerated development for language learners who are risk-takers – those who make

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educated guesses about language based on linguistic and nonlinguistic cues (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992). This information on risk-taking is particularly valuable in light of discoveries resulting from the research on power posing and the way that posture changes our hormones. Researchers from Columbia and Harvard showed that body language imbued with power can subconsciously influence risk taking habits via decision-making. The researchers assessed participants’ appetite for risk in either expansive, powerful poses, or constricted poses that occupied minimal space, keeping limbs close to the body. Participants assuming powerful poses not only felt more powerful and in control, but were 45% more likely to take a risky bet. Furthermore, the study examined saliva samples to demonstrate that expansive postures actually altered the participants’ hormone levels – decreasing cortisol and increasing testosterone. The neuroendocrine profile of high testosterone and low cortisol has been consistently linked to such outcomes as disease resistance and leadership abilities. Interactants’ postures may not only signal to others about their affective states, but they may also influence their own internal cognition. Seemingly, our bodies come first – when we alter our posture and body language, it influences our thinking and decision-making in important but often subtle or unconscious ways (Carney et al., 2010). CG 19: Run the Risk There is yet another way that our thoughts are influenced by our body movements. A study at Ohio State University (Briñol & Petty, 2003) found that our opinions can be subconsciously influenced by our physical behavior. That is to say, when one nods his or her head to signal approval or shake it to show disapproval, the message is not just sent to others, but the movement also influences the nodder/shaker. Nodding/shaking communicates to others as well as to ourselves. When participants in the study nodded in agreement or shook their heads to signal disagreement, these actions affected their opinions without them realizing. That is to say, this study suggests that individuals’ opinions can be affected when they shake their heads. According to Briñol and Petty (2003), head movements serve as a sort of self-validation that confirms how one feels about their own thoughts. Nodding the head up and down aids in gaining confidence concerning what is being said, while shaking from side to side has the opposite effect. This experiment was carried out in a culture where nodding signals approval and shaking expresses disapproval; it would certainly be interesting to experiment with this idea in cultures where nodding and shaking convey the opposite or something else. The technique we provide encourages participants to experiment with this idea. CG 20: Nod Your Way to Self-Satisfaction

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Although research has come a long way concerning the influence that posture has on an individual’s thinking and feeling, there is no consensus on what position is the ‘best’ posture. When learners spend extended periods sitting, as they might in a language classroom setting, researchers promote a neutral pelvic position, which means sitting up straight, especially for times when learners are sedentary for long periods. Physiologically speaking, if we have bad posture, various specific areas of the body can be affected. The most common pain areas of people complain about are: low back (63%), neck (53%), shoulder (38%) and wrist (33%). One team of scientists suggest that ‘the best posture is always the next posture,’ that means simply – keep moving. Learners in the language class who spend a lot of time sitting might not be using an effective posture that is beneficial to their health and well-being. The human body was built to move – not to spend hours a day sitting at a desk or in front of a computer (O’Sullivan et al., 2012). The technique provided helps keep learners stay attuned to advantageous postural positions. CG 21: Keep It Moving!

Conclusion This chapter began with a quote from Mark Twain and we would like to conclude it the same way. Twain’s famous line, ‘action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often’ references the connection between what we say and what we do. Throughout this section on posture, we have presented evidence concerning the many affective functions of posture in combination with other kinesic cues. Posture serves several relational purposes that convey one’s general attitude, one’s on-going outlook on the circumstances of specific interactions, and the overall presentation of one’s self. It also serves intrapersonal functions that influence the way we think about ourselves, our confidence, our risk-taking, our opinions and affects our overall health and well-being. The following image aptly provides warning:

Facial Expression

Have you ever thought about why photographers ask their subjects to say ‘cheese’? A part of the answer might come from physiology and the work of the French scientist, Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne back in the early part of the 19th century. For us, the authors, his empirical procedure was one of the great ironies in scientific research, for he used arguably the most despairing never-a-reason-to-smile people on earth to carry out the first ever investigations into smiling. He analyzed the chopped off heads of people executed by guillotine to study how the face muscles worked in distinguishing between smiles of true enjoyment and other kinds of smiling (That’s why genuine smiles are called the ‘Duchenne Smile.’) (Photo 18). Pulling facial muscles from a variety of angles to document which muscles corresponded to which smiles, Duchenne learned that smiles are controlled by two pairs of muscles. The first pair consist of the zygomatic major muscles, which trail down the side of the face and attach to the corners of the mouth and the orbicularis oculi, which pull the eyes back. The second pair are composed of the zygomatic major muscles that pull the mouth back, reveal the teeth and expand the cheeks and the orbicularis oculi, which cause the eyes to narrow in ‘crow’s feet.’ Why is all this physiology important to know? Because the zygomatic majors are consciously controlled, making them the primary mechanism in producing fake smiles (Photo 19). The orbicularis oculi, on the other hand, perform autonomously and expose our true feelings in a genuine smile. So the first place to assess the sincerity of a smile is to look for wrinkle lines beside the eyes. When people feel happy, signals awaken the portion of the brain that processes emotion, making the mouth muscles flex, the cheeks rise, the eyes crinkle up and the eyebrows dip slightly. When a person says ‘cheese,’ the zygomatic major muscles are being used, but if there is no sense of real joy, the outcome is a fake smile and an insincere photograph (Ekman, 1993). The smile is just one means by which our faces communicate emotion. The face in its entirety is one of the most significant nonverbal sources of emotional information. These functions, along with the notable visibility of the face (where does one look in conversation?), compel us to devote a great deal of attention to messages received via our interlocutors’ faces and to those sent by way of our own (Richmond et al., 2012). Facial cues are also relied upon to formulate interpersonal judgments. ‘The eyes are the windows 83

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Photo 18 Genuine smile; Uses autonomous orbicularis oculi muscles

Photo 19 Face smile; Uses consciously controlled zygomatic muscles

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to the soul, and the face is a marquee advertising one’s emotions, moods and attitudes’ (Richmond et al., 2012: 74). When a speaker engages in serious dialogue with friends, acquaintances and strangers, they look into their faces for evidence that corroborates or contradicts their verbal messages. Emotions and resulting facial expressions are related almost to the point of being inseparable, providing interlocutors with a myriad of facial cues that offer significant information about how one feels about themselves and others. Affectively speaking, the face is the most significant means through which one can demonstrate their emotional intelligence. Each culture, however, defines the rules that regulate emotional expression and shape sociocultural expectations via display rules concerning when to mask, intensify, neutralize, and de-intensify what one feels (Richmond et al., 2012). Nevertheless, although the overriding function of the face in TL interactions is to convey emotion, it also has communicative and cognitive functions. Communicatively speaking, facial expressions can replace spoken speech (much like the gestural emblems mentioned previously), aid in the regulation of turn-taking, and complement and qualify other behaviors. Cognitively speaking, TL interactants benefit from seeing parts of their interlocutors’ face as the multimodality found in hearing the auditory input together with seeing their lips facilitates learning. Table F1 provides a roadmap of our chapter on facial expressions. Table F1 The face’s influence Communicative

Affective

Cognitive

Replaces spoken messages

Provides evidence of others’ emotions Signals emotional responses

Aids perception and comprehension of speech

Provides an avenue to talk about an emotion while indicating it is not felt Opens and closes communication channels Provides listener feedback Underscores, amplifies, minimizes or contradicts verbal message

Provides means of deliberate and effective communication Conveys competing emotions Can be interpreted differently

Influenced by underlying cultural meaning Plays role in formulating initial impressions Expresses universal emotions Expresses culturally specific emotions Masks, neutralizes, intensifies and de-intensifies emotions

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The Face Influences TL Communication In this section, we offer research that links facial expression with improved TL communication. The face is an important component in sociolinguistic competency as interactants navigate the culture-specificity of facial emblems. It also plays a significant role in discourse competence through turn-taking regulation by initiating and controlling interaction. Used strategically, the face can also complement or qualify spoken messages.

Facial expression and sociolinguistic competency The face replaces spoken messages Analogous to hand gestures, ‘facial emblems’ have a relatively consistent linguistic translation within cultures; for example, most North Americans would interpret an exaggerated wink with the loose translation of ‘you know what I mean.’ However, facial emblems are not necessarily accompanied by the emotion they are supposed to express. They provide an avenue for senders to talk about an emotion while at the same time indicating that they are not actually feeling it. Although generally used in contexts not likely to trigger the actual emotions, facial emblems are usually maintained for longer or shorter time spans than the actual expression and are usually performed by only part of the face (Ekman & Friesen, 1975). For example, a listener might drop their jaw and hold their mouth open without displaying other features of the surprise expression to signal that their conversation partner’s comment was surprising or that the listener was dumbfounded by what was said (Photo 20). Likewise, widened eyes without other features of the surprise and fear expressions can replace a verbal ‘Wow!’ When a person wants to nonverbally indicate their disgust for something, wrinkling their nose and/or raising one side of their upper lip would most likely communicate the message – and maybe even more forcefully! In some scenarios, movement of one or both eyebrows communicate ‘I’m puzzled’ or ‘I doubt that’ (Knapp & Hall, 2010). CM 7: Facial Emblems of the Rich and Famous

Facial expression and discourse competency The face in turn-taking The face can open and close channels of communication. When we desire a turn to speak, we often open our mouths in readiness and frequently

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Photo 20 Facial emblem; Wow!

accompany this cue with an inspiration of breath. Our conversation partners usually detect these signals and are left with the option of disregarding or acknowledging them. Likewise, an eyebrow flash – often accompanied with a smile – also indicates our willingness to jump into the conversation (Stivers et al., 2009). Although the primary purpose of smiling may be attributed to the display of emotion or attitudes, in reality smiles serve numerous complex functions. For example, smiles operate as listener responses or conversational back channels that signal attentiveness and participation much like head nods, ‘uh-huh’ and ‘yeah’ do (Brunner, 1979). Smiles can also be used to close communication channels, as seen in those instances when, for example, an interactant pastes a smile of appeasement on his face as he backs away from an imposing interlocutor who he wants to avoid. These regulatory smiles are not encoded as emotional indicators of joy or happiness but rather are used to facilitate and encourage an interlocutor’s speech – thus attaining channel control by maintaining the communication channels open (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Provided are three techniques that offer experience with the role of facial expression in managing turn-taking in conversation.

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CM 14: Turn-taking Talk CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Descriptors CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators

Facial expression and strategic competency The face complements or qualifies spoken language In the normal ebb and flow of interaction, both speakers and listeners encounter communication scenarios where they want to underscore, amplify, minimize or contradict what is being said (Knapp & Hall, 2010). For example, a speaker can provide additional emphasis to an unhappy verbal message by accompanying it with eyebrow movements that generally accompany the communication of sadness. Furthermore, a smile tempers a message that otherwise may be interpreted as being negative – as is the case, for example, when a teacher accompanies her error correction with an encouraging smile. Consequently, facial cues can complement other cues to limit miscommunication and magnify or qualify the meaning of different messages. The two techniques we offer provide an opportunity to tap into the information in facial expressions and other nonverbal cues to gain more complete understanding of the verbal message. CM 26: Breaking the News: Complement or Qualify? CM 34: Redoubling Redundancy to Undergird Understanding As a speaker engages in conversation, they often expressively move or change one or more of their face regions (e.g. the brows, eyes, nose or mouth). These movements are called facial displays. Such displays can be symmetrical or asymmetrical (for example, both eyebrows or a single eyebrow may be raised) and frequently involve actions such as eyebrow raising or lowering, eyes widening or squinting, nose wrinkling, upper lip raises, mouth corners pulled back or down and lip biting (Photo 21). Facial shrugs, for instance, are asymmetrical displays as only one corner of the mouth is usually pulled back. Facial displays are organized into five categories, with several specific subcategories within each. Readers will most likely notice congruencies between the types of facial displays and gesture types. The main classifications are syntactic displays, speaker comments, speaker illustrators, listener comments and adaptors (Chovil, 1989). Table F2 provides an at-a-glance summary of the different kinds of facial displays, how they are made and examples of their verbal equivalents. Immediately following Table F2 is an expanded discussion of the information found in the table. First, syntactic displays are facial movements that are typically linked to intonation or the syntactical features of the verbal output, similar to some

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Photo 21 Facial adaptor; lip-biting

of the functions of beat gestures. Their placement in the utterance and their lack of meaningful content connection to the words they accompany make them readily recognizable. The most familiar syntactic displays are word emphasis/stress and question markers. Displays of word emphasis are recognized by the facial actions (usually eyebrow movements) that occur simultaneously with one word that is stressed, usually accompanied by intonation as well. Underliners are displays that accentuate a clause or portion of an utterance – again usually accompanied with variation in intonation. Question markers indicate that the utterance is interrogative and they may co-occur with one particular word or they may be sustained for the entire query. Facial actions are used in comma/pauses displays where a pause or a comma would normally be placed in the written form of an utterance. Sentence change displays occur when speakers deviate from what they had intended to say, as illustrated by those situations where we begin our statement but then stop in midstream to initiate a new one. The facial action typically happens when we begin the revised utterance. Pronunciation correction displays occur when a speaker mispronounces a word and repeats the word using the correct pronunciation. Also within the category of syntactic displays are story announcement, continuation and ending displays that mark the topic’s organization. Story announcement displays accompany the introduction of a story. Story continuation displays occur with conjunctions such as so, but, then, so anyways, etc. and indicate that the speaker is transitioning to a different topic or point. Story or topic ending displays highlight that the topic is complete (Chovil, 1989). The technique provided offers the chance to use Readers’ Theater to align TL

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Table F2 Summary of facial display taxonomy (adapted from Chovil, 1989) Type of facial display

Facial actions

Verbal equivalent examples

Syntactic displays Emphasizer

Eyebrows raise

Underliner

Eyebrows raise

Question mark Offer

Eyebrow raise or lower Eyebrows raise

Sentence change

Eyebrow raise

End of utterance Story announcement

Eyebrow(s) raise Eyebrow action

Story continuation

Eyebrow action

This grammar test is really hard! My main conflict is with my teacher! You don’t study every night? We could study tonight at my place. She leaves the choice up to her students Surely effective, I’m sure _____ Um, my friend, together with my friend …but that happened yesterday, Bad one

Speaker illustrators (redundant) Personal reaction Portrayal Thinking/remembering

Facial shrug

Yes/no Not (verbal negation) But Speaker comment (Nonredundant) Personal reaction Thinking/remembering

One or more facial actions depending on reaction Eyebrow raise Eyebrow raise or lower, eyes closed or looking off or mouth actions such as pulling one side back or twisting mouth to one side Sudden raise or lower of eyebrows, downward turn of mouth, or pulling back one corner Eyebrow action Eyebrow action or closing eyes Eyebrow actions

Facial actions vary. Depend upon reaction Eyebrow raise or lower, mouth twisted to one side, one corner pulled back

That was brilliant! And I shouted Why did you do that? You remember the story ah, last class

I’m not sure, well I don’t like to study too late, no.

Yeah, I like that too I don’t disagree with anyone. I see, but are you sure?

It’s too complicated. It’s it I’m not sure. Well, yes, I think I will

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Table F2 (Continued) Type of facial display

Facial actions

Verbal equivalent examples

Facial shrug

Eyebrow flash, mouth corners pulled back, mouth corners pulled down into horseshoe shape Eyebrow raise

Class activities? I like almost every class activity

Interactive

Metacommunicative (such as sarcasm) Listener comments Backchannel displays Personal reactions Motor mimicry Understanding displays Facial adaptors

Eyebrow raise and slight raise of upper lip Eyebrow raise or lower Depends on level of enthusiasm in reaction Depends on communication situation Depends on communication situation Examples: scratching, lip wiping, lip biting

I was going to say role play instead of worksheets because you know how everyone… The last test, it was so easy

Hmmm Yeah Wincing as speaker talks about getting hit Nonverbal equivalent of ‘I know what you mean’ Have no meaning

interactants’ facial expressions, intonation and other nonverbal features to their oral output to create a cohesive verbal-nonverbal message. CM 37: Practicing Syntactic Displays through Readers’ Theater The category, Speaker comments, are facial displays that add information that is not redundant with the verbal content. This type of display usually accompanies verbal content; however, occasionally a speaker comment can also occur without words; for example, neither person is speaking and one person raises his eyebrows as if to say, ‘Well, now what do we do?’ When speaker comments accompany verbal utterances, the message conveyed by the display is different from the verbal content. That is to say, speaker comments do not illustrate or repeat what is being said; rather they are nonverbal ways of expressing an idea or thought. They are nonverbal equivalents of spoken utterances much like emblematic hand gestures. Speaker comments can also be personal reactions to what is transpiring during the interaction. For example, one interlocutor could perform a disgust display while chatting about eating chocolate covered ants or could frown to indicate uncertainty while talking about the foods he or she dislikes. Other personal reactions

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might revolve around evaluations about what the speaker is saying (e.g. disagreement, doubt). When the expression is emotional, it must be connected to something that is occurring at the time, that is, it is not a reenactment of a past emotion display (i.e. one that occurred in the past such as a reenactment is a Speaker Illustrator). The facial shrug is another type of speaker comment that indicates meaning such as ‘What can I say?’ ‘Too bad’; ‘I don’t know’; etc. Such displays frequently consist of eyebrow flashes. Speakers use Thinking/remembering displays to show that they are recalling an idea from memory or are contemplating what they will say next. Interactive displays are an attempt to include the listener in the interaction with verbal equivalents such as ‘You know?’ or ‘Well, what now?’ Metacommunicative displays are facial expressions that convey to listeners how to interpret a message; for example, the interlocutor is being sarcastic or his words were said in jest. Analogic ‘no/ yes’ displays express a speaker’s negative or affirmative response and are the nonverbal equivalent of the speaker saying ‘No/Yes’ or ‘not really’ (Chovil, 1989). The technique provided encourages TL interactants to use their faces to supplement information in the communication context with facial displays that take the place of words. CCM 38: Emblematic Faces As the facial equivalent to illustrator hand gestures, Speaker illustrators are another facial display category. These displays illustrate whatever is being conveyed verbally and are at least partially redundant with the information communicated by the verbal content, forming a visual picture of the speaker’s words. For example, an interactant could be saying ‘How gross!’ while simultaneously displaying a face of disgust. The verbal channel may also deliver information that creates a context in which the facial display should be interpreted. For instance, an interactant’s verbal content might suggest that she is re-enacting a previous conversation and so the facial display is an illustration of this conversation. Another example is when speakers hesitate and say something like ‘Um, ah, I’m not sure’ and simultaneously lowers their eyebrows. Specific subcategories in this classification include personal reactions, thinking/remembering, metacommunicative and analogic ‘not.’ Additionally, portrayal displays portray something the speaker did or said in the past and may indicate that the speaker is taking the role of another person and speaking from that other person’s perspective. These displays can be likened to a speaker who makes ‘air’ quotes around an utterance. Likewise, portrayal displays can be a re-enactment of behaviors or an emotion display that occurred in the past (Chovil, 1989). To increase awareness of and ability to use facial illustrators to reinforce verbal messages, we provide a technique that uses speakers and actors to improvise a variety of communication situations.

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CM 27: Illustrator Improvisations Finally, listener comments are facial displays made by the conversant who is not speaking at the time and are made in response to the speaker. Interlocutors are considered ‘listeners’ when they either say nothing at all or contribute a comment with no significant meaning (e.g. ‘oh really,’ or ‘that’s interesting’). When listeners remark beyond the inconsequential, they are considered speakers. Listener comments are commonly backchannel displays that reveal that the listener is following the conversation. Sometimes such backchannel displays accompany a verbal backchannel (e.g. ‘um,’ ‘yeah,’ ‘mhmmm’) with intonation often providing evidence as to whether the listener is responding to the speaker’s utterance or simply acknowledging that something was stated. Listener comments might also serve as feedback to what the speaker is saying, including whether the listener understands. Verbal reactions to a speaker’s words can be distinguished from backchanneling by the level of enthusiasm with which the listener responds. Motor mimicry displays are reactions to the circumstances being described by the speaker – as if the same were happening to the listener, like wincing while listening to an account involving someone being hurt. Understanding displays signal that the listener understands and grasps the conditions being talked about by the speaker and may convey sympathy or express the nonverbal equivalent of ‘I know what you mean’ (Chovil, 1989). The technique we offer stimulates TL interactants to demonstrate through nonverbal means that they are actively and attentively listening during oral exchanges. CM 28: Listening Unleashed Facial adaptors are not connected to anything in the interaction and do not communicate meaning, in that way they are analogous to gestural adaptors. These actions may be performed to reduce physiological discomfort or because of another action, such as scratching. The most common facial adaptors are lip wipes and lip biting and they often occur after one has finished speaking or while the interlocutor is speaking. If they are enacted in the middle of an utterance, such adaptors may also function as a comma (Chovil, 1989).

The Face Influences TL Affect Before considering research on the emotional power of facial expressions during interaction, we would like to offer readers a brief fable that might be shared with learners, young and old alike. It is the story of two little dogs in

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a faraway village and their visit to a house of 1000 mirrors. The first dog, small and very happy, learned of this house and decided to visit. Upon his arrival, he bounded gleefully up the steps and looked through the doorway, ears lifted high and tail wagging frenziedly. To his astonishment, he discovered 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging as fervently as his! He smiled from ear to ear and was answered in kind with 1000 enthusiastic smiles just as warm and friendly. As he retreated from the house, he thought to himself, ‘What an incredible place! I will return often!’ In the same town, another little dog who was a chronic grump and quite unhappy, decided to visit the house. He sluggishly schlepped up the stairs and hung his head low as he looked inside the door. When he saw the 1000 hostile dogs glaring back at him, he growled and was horrified to see the 1000 dogs snarling back at him! As he descended the steps, he thought to himself, ‘What a horrible place! I will never go back there again! In this section, we present research that relates facial expression to TL affect and emotion. Before we begin exploring how we can cultivate the emotional facial decoding and encoding skills found in effective TL interaction, we must first answer a fundamental question: What is emotion? Although most theorists would agree that an emotion is a complex but temporary psychological state that implies physiological, experiential and behavioral changes (Collier, 1985), they cannot reach consensus on the precise nature of these changes nor on the inner neural singularities that produce them. Gregersen et al. (2014: 575), use Reeves’ (2005) description of emotion when they define it as ‘a coordinated reaction typically covering four domains: subjective feelings, biological/physical reactions, purposive (goaldirected) behavior and a social component that guides emotional expression and interpretation in situ.’ They suggest that emotions cannot be simply divided into these component features so it is best to consider them as an integrated whole. What is important for our purposes in this text is that emotions have an expressive aspect, inextricably linked to facial expression, vocal cues and body movements. All of these emotional features have repercussions on interpersonal interactions, whether it is sensing or sharing the feelings of others or reacting to or expressing one’s own feelings. Emotions are further distinguished from vibes: ‘Whereas emotions are reactions to specific events, vibes are more subtle, diffuse and imperceptible’ (Gregersen et al., 2014: 575). Epstein (1993: 323) describes ‘vibes’ in the following way: ‘A typical sequence of behavior is that an event occurs; the experiential system scans its memory banks for related events; and vibes from the past events are produced that influence conscious thoughts and behavior.’ According to MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012), these elusive unconscious feelings persistently impact learners’ affective states even if they are not consciously aware of feeling a specific emotion. The physical reactions incited by these emotions are a part of the learner’s interpretation of the experience-inprocess (Mates & Joaquin, 2013), such as when a learner notices her face is

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flushed as she gets anxious about her speech. Thus, our affective reactions to language learning are influenced by an ongoing appraisal process that continuously evaluates the communicative context (Schumann, 1997, 1999).

The face and emotional intelligence Terms such as ‘emotional intelligence,’ ‘interpersonal intelligence’ and ‘people smart,’ among others, have much in common. The definition of emotional intelligence (EI) that encompasses what we want to explore in this text comes from Mayer et al. (1990: 772): ‘The accurate appraisal and expression of emotions in oneself and others and the regulation of emotion in a way that enhances living.’ This ability involves a set of interrelated skills and processes, and because our faces are the principle means by which we express distinct emotions nonverbally, the ability to read other people’s facial expressions and to regulate our own is vital in emotional intelligence (Elfenbein et al., 2002). The techniques we provide encourage learners to consider facial expression as one of a myriad of other nonverbal cues they can use to notice their interactants’ expressive nonverbal behaviors, associate such behaviors with their interactants’ internal states and thereby assess the intensity of their interactants’ emotion so that learners can respond appropriately and effectively. AF 5: Display your Dismay AF 6: Becoming Attuned: Notice, Associate, Respond Emotionally intelligent TL interactants also use their faces to signal agreement, happiness, disapproval, skepticism or heartfelt interest in the messages of others, essentially creating the mood and calibrating the tone of interaction. Competent communicators know what face to put forward in the myriad of differing communication situations that they encounter daily. Although facial cues are often decoded unconsciously, this does not mean that one cannot become overtly attentive to this activity. Awareness is the first step to increasing facial decoding accuracy and ultimately EI. The effectiveness of the process of encoding or decoding communication is improved as individuals are attending to the cues and are able to read them (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). The technique provided demonstrates that the face is an information source for ascertaining the emotions, moods and feelings being experienced by others as well as the means through which we convey our own. AF 10: Fractions of Factions At every moment, we experience particular feelings or a combination of feelings and these emotions often exist with relatively little awareness and

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without conscious choice, influencing the way we move, our physiological processes such as heartrate and breathing, and the way we speak. We are often propelled by our feelings to change, eliminate or maintain them. With increased awareness of how one feels and responds, communication can move toward becoming more deliberate and effective. Our technique aids in nurturing EI because of its importance in choosing and rehearsing how TL interactants would like to feel and how they want to express their feelings. AF 11: Feeling Frenzy Effective TL communication necessitates that communicators identify their interlocutors’ general emotional states but also be able to distinguish subtle emotional implications that are components of the more generalized states. For example, affectively sensitive TL interactants intuit that their ability to identify their interlocutors’ anxiety is undeniably useful, but that skill in distinguishing the force of that anxiety (i.e. smaller worry vs bigger fear) is just as important. Although body tension and posture are better indicators of the intensity with which an emotion is felt, the face is the primary information source on the type of emotion a person is experiencing. Thus, to acquire both general and specific emotional information, competent communicators must cultivate the capacity to decode both facial expressions and posture accurately (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). The technique recommended for gaining experience with this process is called Walk the Talk. AF 12: Walk the Talk Even the faces of the most emotionally intelligent interactants will reflect dynamic emotions that may be conflicting. Research on the emotions linked to language learning differentiates between positive and negative forces (de Bot et al., 2007) that can drive or restrain learners (MacIntyre, 2012). These impulses act in tandem and can emerge from interior and/or exterior triggers. Gregersen et al. (2014: 576) give the following example of a student giving a TL speech in class while simultaneously thinking: ‘I love Spanish, I hate tests, I like to talk about my hobby, I hate public speaking of any kind, I like my teacher, my friend at the back is going to make fun of me, I need a good grade in this class, I don’t remember all of the specialized vocabulary to describe my hobby, and so on.’ Whether a learner’s impulses are construed as positive-broadening or negative narrowing will hinge on a variety of rapidly changing factors.

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The technique we provide encourages TL interactants to explore the competing nature of their emotions and the different action tendencies and conflicting nonverbal cues, including facial expressions that result from such differences. AF 13: Urge and Surge It is not surprising then that the same facial expression can be interpreted in different ways. Successfully decoding the emotion behind another’s facial expression is complex and full of potential contradictions. Gregersen (2009) examined whether nonverbal visual or auditory channels were more effective in detecting negative affect in TL speakers. Although her quantitative data did not conclusively offer evidence as to which channel provided a more accurate means of detection, her qualitative data revealed indicators in both auditory and visual modes leading to determinations that are more successful. By comparing what accurate decoders were seeing and hearing with what was seen and heard by those who were not as effective in judging emotion, she concluded that one of the most problematic visual cue that led to misjudgment was smiling. ‘Whereas the accurate decoders of anxious learners cited behavior like “fake smile” and “smiled too much” as an indicator of foreignlanguage-anxious behavior, the inaccurate decoders also used “smiled a lot” to justify identifying the same learners as nonanxious. Thus decoding accuracy did not necessarily depend on noting whether the learner smiled or not, but on making an authenticity judgment about whether the smile was genuine’ (p. 57). To provide an opportunity to experiment with the different social and emotional functions of smiling, we provide a journaling technique that encourages individuals to look inward. AF 14: Grin and Bear it! Gregersen (2006) also cautioned about the cultural difference that may play a role in assigning meaning to a smile, as both the sender and receiver. In an article where she advised teachers to ‘watch what your students are not saying’ and to ‘become avid students of cross-cultural nonverbal behavior and advance with trepidation while interpreting the unspoken messages of foreign students’ (p. 20), Gregersen (2006) related a personal experience: ‘I had a Russian exchange student who complained that Americans smile excessively and that we represent ourselves, in Russian eyes, as being phony. My American students have intimated that the Russian foreign exchange students look cold and unexpressive’ (p. 20). In the technique we provide, TL interactants explore the cultural implications behind smiling as they attempt to interpret the authenticity of smiles.

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AF15: Smile: Does the World Smile with Me? In most cases when a person smiles at someone, it triggers a smile in return, even when both are fake smiling. Researchers in Sweden examined the way in which the unconscious mind exerts direct control over our facial muscles. Through the detection of electrical signals from muscle fibers, the researchers gauged volunteers’ facial muscle activity while looking at photos of both happy and angry faces. Volunteers were instructed to frown, smile or remain expressionless in response to the image they observed. At times, the expression they were requested to convey was contradictory to what they viewed (i.e. responding with a smile to a frown or a frown to a smile). Evidence revealed that the volunteers did not have complete control over their facial muscles. Although frowning back at an image of an irate man was easy, it took greater effort to smile. Whereas participants consciously attempted to control their natural reactions, their twitching facial muscles communicated something different. Participants’ facial expressions mirrored the expressions they saw, even when they tried to exert control. At work here were the ‘mirror neurons’ discussed earlier – receptors in the brain that trigger the area responsible for facial expression recognition and result in an immediate mirroring response. That is to say, people often spontaneously duplicate the facial expressions they see (Dimberg et al., 2002). This is yet another motive for TL interactants to think about the ways in which smiling affects communication; even deliberate smiling may directly influence other people’s attitudes and responses. Our technique called Infectious Expressions allows interactants to experience firsthand how reciprocal facial expressions operate. AF 16: Infectious Expressions The frequency with which we smile is not only influenced by culture, but it may also be moderated by power and gender. On the one hand, Hecht and LaFrance (1995) provide evidence that subordinate people smile more with dominant and superior individuals, in both friendly and unfriendly circumstances, whereas superior individuals smile exclusively with subordinate people on friendly occasions. Their investigation also indicated that women smile much more often than men in both social and professional conditions, resulting in the potential for women to seem subordinate or weak in an encounter with unsmiling men. This does not imply that a woman cannot be as powerful as a man, but her smiling might have the unintended effect of making her seem to be less powerful. In more current research on smiling and power, Hall and Horgan (2003) carried out three studies that investigated the notion that the connection between being happy and

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smiling during conversation is influenced by the comparative power of the interactants. In all three of their studies, happiness was positively associated with general smiling behavior for participants who were both of low and high power and the strength of the relationship was analogous to the results of procedures when power roles were equal or unnoticeable. In short, their research suggests that happiness and overall smiling have a positive relation that is not influenced by interpersonal power. AF 37: On the Hunt for Confidence, Likeability and Power

The face and its interpretability Those who do not readily smile may be prone to being perceived as having a ‘resting witch face’ (more commonly known among the younger generation as ‘RWF’). (A quick internet search of this in-vogue moniker shows that this is quite a well-known phenomenon when its vulgar rhyming counterpart replaces ‘witch.’). This refers to people whose faces while at rest, communicate disapproving affect, even though there is no intention of actually conveying negativity. That is to say, decoders often interpret witch-like attitudes in ‘resting witch faces’ that are not there (Photo 22). This would not be so problematic except for the fact that interactants form initial

Photo 22 Resting witch face

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impressions within milliseconds of meeting us (Willis & Todorov, 2006)! To manage initial encounters and to wield a certain amount of influence over others’ first impressions, it would be advantageous to be aware of the unconscious vibes we emit. When we meet someone for the first time we make several rapid assessments, such as: Is she someone to approach or avoid? Is he a friend or a foe? Does she have status and authority? Is he trustworthy, competent, likeable and/or confident? We compute at lightning speed, making major decisions about one another in those first seven seconds. And whether we like it or not, whether it is fair or not, whether we are correct or not, these first impressions are crucial. Although others cannot be stopped from making snap decisions, individuals can understand how to make other people’s decision-making work in their favor. Through role-playing first encounters, the purpose of the technique provided is to increase awareness of the initial impression given to new acquaintances. AF 18: Avoiding Resting Witch Face and Improving Initial Impressions Facial expressions of anxiety in language learning also pose interpretability issues. Gregersen’s (2005) observation study examined the nonverbal behavior of anxious and nonanxious foreign language learners during a videotaped oral foreign language exam and discovered different tendencies for each group. Her research questions targeted both the frequency of facial movements during a TL oral exam and whether there was a qualitative difference between the groups in the form the expressions took. Whereas the number of facial actions performed by nonanxious participants ranged from 6 to 23, the number of actions made by the anxious students ranged from 2 to 3. She thus concluded that the nonanxious participants tensed and contorted their faces roughly six times more than the anxious. In general, the limited expressions made by the anxious individuals consisted predominantly of nose wrinkling when searching for words. Otherwise, tense facial muscles precluded any other type of facial expression, including smiling. Concerning brow behavior, a comparable propensity for the nonanxious to be more animated was found. Compared to the anxious participants who moved their brows from 7 to 12 times, the nonanxious did the same 11 to 25 times, creating an average difference of 89%. Furthermore, whereas the nonanxious were inclined to raise and lower their eyebrows as a regular complement to the words they spoke, the greater part of the anxious learners’ brow movements was a coming together of the brows. Smiling was another facial manifestation that set the anxious learners apart from the nonanxious. A comparison between anxious and nonanxious learners who were completing a four-minute oral exam showed differences in both the quantity and quality of the smiles. On average, anxious learners smiled only 7% of the time but nonanxious learners smiled over 40% of the time. The meaning of

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the smiles also was related to anxiety. The smiles of the anxious were frequently accompanied by nervous giggling in response to an error, or as a reaction to the teacher’s remarks. The nonanxious learners, according to the qualitative comments by one observer, ‘gave the impression of continually being on the verge of a smile’ (p. 391). The technique called Anxious Al Meets Nervous Nelly is meant to demonstrate that no one is alone in reacting to those factors that trigger the worry, concern or anxiety that might be experienced in the language classroom. AF 17: Anxious Al Meets Nervous Nelly

The face and cultural implications in emotional expression According to Darwin (1872), humans, regardless of culture, possess the ability to express emotions in the same ways, primarily through their faces. More recently, other universality studies have documented evidence that suggests that faces, no matter what culture or society, express emotions panculturally when considering the six basic emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise (Photos 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 & 28). Ekman’s (1972) neuro-cultural theory of facial expression of emotion proposes two sets of determinants for facial expressions: one responsible for universals, and the other for cultural variability. They offer evidence from investigations involving both literate and pre-literate cultures and from a selection of different language groups, which they suggest confirms the existence of the six universal facial expressions of emotion first mentioned by Darwin. EiblEibesfeldt (1979) also acknowledged the reality of universals in expressive human behavior and draws attention to the existence of innate motor

Photo 23 Anger

Photo 24 Disgust

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Photo 25 Fear

Photo 27 Sadness

Photo 26 Happiness

Photo 28 Surprise

patterns of expression demonstrating that persons born blind smile, laugh, cry and convey fear, anger and embarrassment, which they could not have learned through observation – showing biological grounds for universal expressiveness. In a more recent study, researchers examined the facial expressions of thousands of photographs of blind and sighted athletes at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. They

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discovered that no matter whether athletes could see or not, victors adopted similar wide grins and losers similar frowns or polite, tight-lipped smiles (Matsumoto & Willingham, 2009). Our technique called Everyone Emotes provides practice in recognizing the six universal emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. AF 19: Everyone Emotes Although there is general agreement on the universality of certain basic expressions of emotion, anyone who experiences even limited intercultural contact immediately discovers that cultures express emotions in different ways. Three aspects are primarily responsible for the culture-specific variances that emerge in facial expressions: the circumstances that elicit emotions; the consequences that follow after certain emotions are expressed; and the learned display rules that govern the use of facial behavior (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Culturally competent encoders are mindful of the meaning-creating potential of the face and tend to monitor it carefully according to the cultural context in which they are inserted by masking, neutralizing, intensifying and deintensifying when desired. So, although certain basic expressions of human emotions such as anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust and surprise are universal among human beings regardless of culture (Ekman, 1973; Ekman et al., 1987), intercultural differences exist concerning which emotions may be expressed and under what conditions. That is to say, just as there are rules that manage what we say about our feelings, there are also norms for our nonverbal communication of emotion. Cultural constraints dictate when it is proper to convey our thoughts, feelings, or emotions, as well as their intensity (DeCapua & Wintergerst, 2010). Developing intercultural sensitivity to such constraints is the focus of the critical incident provided in the technique for this tenet. AF 20: Facial Freedom? No Such Luck Facial management techniques are learned so early and thoroughly that they become habitual – thus becoming inextricably bound with our cultures. That is, they are learned so well that they become automatic responses. In fact, facial expressions of primary emotions can be altered to such an extent that even typically universal expressions can vary from one culture to another. Furthermore, social norms prescribe which facial management techniques are fitting for each emotion when individuals of different status, gender, age and social roles express them (Richmond et al., 2012). Known as ‘display rules,’ facial management techniques are learned, but not always consciously invoked. We not only learn culturally prescribed norms for when and how much

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emotion to display, but we also develop personal display rules based on our needs and the demands of our occupations. We also learn that some affect displays are appropriate in some places but not in others, for some status and role positions but not in others, and for one gender but not the other (Knapp & Hall, 2010). For example, one of the co-authors was hosting a visiting scholar from China that imposed a yearlong separation from her Chinese husband. About a week before she was scheduled to return home, she shared in class that she had been video chatting with her husband the night before and while they were talking, she noticed that something was glistening on his face. When she asked what it was, the husband quickly wiped it away and said that it must have been a dust speck. The Chinese scholar commented that even after many years of marriage, Chinese social norms dictated that it was not appropriate for her husband to express outwardly how much her absence had affected him. The presence of display rules clarifies why it appears that members of different cultures express emotions in divergent ways. For example, the graduate program of one of the co-authors routinely attracts many international students and the emotion that individuals display upon receiving their test scores demonstrates a good deal of cultural diversity. In one instance a couple years ago, a Costa Rican and a Korean student received almost the same grade. While the Costa Rican overtly celebrated with a hoot and a holler, the Korean rejoiced with a deadpan expression. In both cases, the underlying emotion, happiness, was felt (and would probably be expressed similarly in private) but the difference was that in public, the cultural norm – in the form of display rules – regulated the Korean’s behavior. In one culture, the rule may dictate, ‘Show how happy you are,’ but in another the rule may say, ‘Exuberance is improper’ or ‘Don’t make others who did not succeed feel badly’ or even ‘Be humble with success.’ The ‘gallery walk’ TL interactants take in the technique provided exposes them to the different demands that cultures place on emotional nonverbal expression. AF 21: Display Dilemmas: With Whom and Where? This brings us to how individuals actually operationalize display rules. The four most common facial management techniques are masking, intensification, neutralization and de-intensification (Ekman & Friesen, 1969, 1975). With the continual feedback we receive about our facial expressions, we gain competence at managing them (Knapp & Hall, 2010). • • •

Masking emotion: stifling the expression related to the emotion we really feel in a particular circumstance and replacing it with a more acceptable one. Intensifying emotion: using facial cues that exaggerate what we feel to demonstrate an appropriately heightened response to our interlocutor(s). Neutralizing emotion: neutralizing our facial expressions to remove any semblance of emotion to thwart objectionable reactions from others.

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De-intensifying emotion: diminishing the intensity of our facial expression of a particular emotion because the conditions surrounding the event demand that we minimize our true feelings (Richmond et al., 2012).

The technique we provide reinforces the role that cultural expectations play in managing facial expressions triggered by emotion and hopefully increases interactants’ confidence in masking, intensifying, neutralizing and de-intensifying their feelings. AF 22: Mingling with Masks

The Face Influences TL Cognition Research suggests that observing our interlocutors’ faces, particularly their mouths and lips, aids in the perception and comprehension of speech. Applied linguists, particularly phoneticians, have focused their attention on the question of how to optimize TL learners’ acquisition of problematic TL phonemes via different forms of auditory training, including assorted voices and phonetic contexts. Hirata and Kelly’s (2010) research examining the auditory and visual sensory integration of speech and lip (mouth) movements demonstrated that a listener’s perception of information in one modality is closely associated to perception of information in the other (Sekiyama, 1997). Seeing lip movements triggers the auditory cortex, even when speech sounds are absent (Calvert et al., 1997), implying that ‘seen speech’ affects ‘heard speech’ (McGurk & MacDonald, 1976) during the initial phases of language processing. This bimodal integration aids in the perception and comprehension of TL speech for learners (Hardison, 2003; Wang et al., 2008). Research findings reveal the added benefits of other modalities – beyond simply hearing words spoken – in assisting TL learners to increase their skill at perceiving and learning the distinction of challenging phonemic contrasts. Through our technique, it is our aim that learners discover that multimodal input from lips and speech work in tandem to facilitate learning more than simply with auditory input by itself. CG 22: Watch What I Am Saying!

Conclusion Throughout this chapter, we have underscored the primarily affective function of the face. In our introduction to this chapter, we focused attention on Duchenne and his scientific research on smiling. Through his work, we

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learned how important it is to gauge the sincerity of a smile, and the processes that lead to the assessment of a smile as authentic or not. We would like to end with an account of one historical figure whose sincere sense of humor became part of his legacy, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. During his lifetime, however, the expression ‘sense of humor’ had not entered the era’s lexicon because it was not commonly used until the 1860s and 1870s. In Lincoln’s epoch, it was called ‘the sense of the ridiculous,’ and did not summon the positive implications that ‘sense of humor’ has now. In those times, that which was ridiculous invited ridicule. According to historians, Lincoln’s humor was atypical because, first, it was truly ‘humor’ as the word was defined in his time. Although presently little distinction is made between ‘wit’ and ‘humor,’ 19th-century society did. Humor implied congeniality and empathy, whereas wit connoted sarcasm and antipathy – much like today’s difference between ‘laughing with’ (humor) and ‘laughing at’ (sarcasm). Lincoln seemed to use humor more often than wit, and when he did ‘laugh at’ someone, the target was usually himself (Mankoff, 2012). During the celebrated Lincoln–Douglas debates, when Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced, Lincoln, referencing his physical unattractiveness, responded, ‘Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?’ (Mankoff, 2012). Lincoln’s face itself revealed his sense of humor, conveying his emotion and attitudes to full effect.3

Eye Behavior

The eyes are often perceived as ‘the window of the soul.’ Many people believe that they can reveal the true essence of the self. In fact, according to Webbink (1986), ‘reading’ our interlocutors’ eyes may be achieved through understanding the language of the eyes which he proposes has its own syntax and grammar. Whether that existential argument is true or not, one thing is certain: the eyes serve numerous vitally important communicative purposes. Most importantly, our eyes are the principal focus of visual attention – case in point: The eyes receive 43.4% of attention during interaction with the second most significant feature of visual attention being the mouth, where we center our attention 12.6% of the time (Janik et al., 1978). ‘Reading’ the eyes can be quite complicated. An American professor of cross-cultural management at an international business school in France, who lived her adult life in Europe and Africa, tells a provocative story about being especially sensitive to the eyes. While in Tokyo with a Japanese colleague, this professor presented a brief talk to a group of 20 managers. At the end, she invited questions or comments and as no hands went up, she began to take a seat. Her colleague, however, whispered that there actually were some comments and he asked her if he could try. He asked the group again for comments or questions. Again, no hands were raised, but he regarded with care each person in the silent audience. Signaling to one of them, he asked what she wanted to add. To the amazement of the presenter, the woman responded affirmatively and asked a very intriguing question. The Japanese colleague repeated this numerous times, looking directly at the audience members and asking for more questions or comments (Meyer, 2014). After the session, the professor asked her Japanese colleague how he knew that those individuals had questions. After a slight hesitation, he explained that it was because of the brightness of their eyes. He clarified that in Japan people do not make as much direct eye contact as in the West, so when the professor asked if there were any comments, most people were not 107

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looking directly at her. A few people in the group, however, were watching her unwaveringly, and their eyes were bright. For the Japanese colleague, that was an obvious indication that those particular people would be happy to be called upon (Meyer, 2014). The next day, after a similar presentation, the professor again asked for questions and comments, and again no one raised a hand. So she decided to follow her Japanese colleague’s advice and she looked carefully at all the faces, and saw that a few people were indeed looking directly at her and their eyes were bright. So she stepped toward one of them and gently gestured, to which the audience member responded by giving a slight nod of the head and asked an insightful question (Meyer, 2014). After the trip, the professor tells the story of returning to her business school in France where her students are managers from all over the world. As she scanned the classroom, she said she felt both embarrassed and unsettled to see that she had been missing a lot of bright eyes in her classroom. She finished her story by commenting that in Japan, there is an expression popular with young people, ‘kuuki yomenai’ (often abbreviated ‘K.Y.’), which refers to a person who is unable to read the atmosphere. On her trip to Japan, the professor said that she learned just how K.Y. she was. On a positive note, she encouraged culturally interested people that with a little curiosity and some helpful coaching, we can improve our ability to read dissimilar cultures’ atmospheres (Meyer, 2014). Eyes are important because they carry out a variety of functions. For example, Kendon (1967) identified four major functions of gazing: (1) regulatory (individuals can demand or suppress responses via eye behavior); (2) monitoring (people direct their gaze at their interlocutor to signal the end of thought units and to gauge their attentiveness and reactions; (3) cognitive (communicators are likely to look away while processing complex information or deciding what to say); and (4) expressive (individuals communicate the intensity and essence of their participation or affective involvement through visual cues). We begin by detailing the functions of gazing. After that, we outline the ways in which the eyes can regulate the flow of conversation, monitor feedback in relation to interest and emotional involvement, reflect cognitive activity, communicate the nature of interpersonal relationships and provide credibility through personal impression management. However, an important caveat is that even though the functions are presented as separate entities for ease of presentation, in reality they do not operate independently; that is, visual cues not only send information – they also provide one of the principal means for collecting it. For example, shifting one’s gaze to the interlocutor as an utterance is finished may not only communicate that one is yielding a speaking turn, but it can also be used to monitor interest and emotional involvement (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Table E1 summarizes the plan for this chapter.

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Table E1 Eyes’ influence Communicative

Affective

Cognitive

Influenced by culture

Provide feedback about interest and emotional involvement Accompany other nonverbal cues Establish relationships and reflect level of intimacy Influence one’s affective state

Reveal a shift in attention

Establish initial relationship/interaction Regulate turn taking Change cross-culturally in frequency and intensity Used to avoid interaction Extend invitation to interact Command responses

Influenced by cognitive demands of the task

Promote emotional contagion Indicate relational issues such as status, dominance and power Establish credibility Manages impressions of trustworthiness and confidence

The Eyes Influence TL Communication In this section, research tenets are provided to outline how the eyes can function to improve both the sociolinguistic and discourse competencies of TL interactants. Like all other nonverbal codes, eye behavior is heavily dictated by culture and the interactants’ social milieu. The eyes are also a primary resource for regulating the flow of conversation as they are used to invite interactants in or shut them out. With our eyes, we can command responses and supply turntaking cues, although this might not always result in smooth transitions.

The eyes and sociolinguistic communicative competency The role of culture Social and cultural constraints tell a cautionary tale about establishing initial eye contact. On the one hand, we can be perceived as ‘too fast’ or ‘too forward’ if we gaze more than is deemed appropriate. On the other hand, we risk being labeled as ‘rude’ in some contexts if we do not acknowledge with a casual greeting that eye contact has been made. When North Americans encounter strangers in a public place, initial contact typically (but not always) includes acknowledgement with a fleeting glance and in some cases, maybe even a casual ‘hi,’ but this initial contact is then followed by gaze avoidance behaviors unless additional interaction is desired, or unless the other person indicates that they want further contact by gazing back or smiling. In short, a gaze that lasts longer than an acknowledgment glance signals a desire to enter into conversation (Cary, 1978), and those who disrespect this norm run the risk of producing negative feelings in the recipients (Zuckerman et al., 1983).

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To close the communication channel, potential interactants usually diminish their eye contact. Consequently, although mutual gazing is often observed in greeting sequences, gazing is greatly diminished when an encounter is brought to a halt (Knapp & Hall, 2010). The technique provided offers a chance to respond to eye contact and proximity behaviors that might not be what TL interactants are accustomed to encountering. CM 8: Too Fast and Forward It is not only the initial establishment of a relationship that provokes variation in eye behavior interculturally, but the way interactants use gazing during the exchange for turn-taking is also culture dependent. Rossana et al. (2009) examined the eye behavior of three very diverse language communities and came to the conclusion that in conversation, gazing norms are not general across function and cultures. Similarly, researchers who explored turn-taking in ten different language groups discovered that although there was clear evidence that all of them avoided overlapping talk and tried to minimize silence between conversational turns, the groups nonetheless showed variance in the average gap between turns (Stivers et al., 2009). The time and directionality of gaze while thinking of an answer during communicative exchanges also varies across cultures. McCarthy et al. (2006) assessed the gaze behavior of Canadian, Trinidadian and Japanese speakers while responding to questions to which they either knew the answer or had to take a second to think about it. When they knew the answers, Trinidadians sustained the greatest amount of eye contact and the Japanese the least. When participants had to think about their answers, Canadians’ and Trinidadians’ gaze directionality went up, whereas the Japanese looked down – demonstrating that gazing behavior (at least while thinking) are in part culturally influenced. With this variance in mind, we offer a technique that provides an opportunity to explore the norms for gaze behavior in initiating conversation and in sustaining it through turn-taking both in interactants’ L1 and TL cultures. CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators Besides intercultural differences in eye behavior that initiates an exchange or regulates conversational flow, there can also be variance in the frequency and intensity of interactants’ gazes. Experts generalize that North Americans usually look directly into each other’s eyes when speaking, thus expressing familiarity, spontaneity and equality in their glances. If eyes shift and/or evade meeting those of the other person, North Americans may perceive disinterest or possibly even deception. However, in some cultures the absence of steady and direct eye contact signals respect and/or humility. In Asian

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cultures, people may maintain their gaze downcast which has the potential to disturb Americans with thoughts such as, ‘He didn’t even look me in the eye!’ Likewise, in Hispanic culture, direct eye contact is used far less than that found in North American culture. An effective way of making a good first impression and demonstrating cultural competency is to learn the eye contact behaviors of the culture. The degree and intensity of eye contact may serve to convey that people are either trustworthy and friendly or sneaky and suspicious; that they are polite and appropriate or overly bold and disrespectful (DeVito, 2014). The technique that is provided offers an opportunity to reflect on the cultural differences that might exist in the way interactants think about and use their eyes in TL communication. CM 9: Do I Raise my Gaze or Lessen my Look?

The eyes and discourse communicative competency Eye behavior regulates the flow of communication First of all, the eyes contribute to the synchrony of speech, conversation and dialogue, indicating when to encode a message, when to decode a message, and when to respond to our interactant (Richmond et al., 2012). Interpersonal encounters are generally initiated with the establishment of eye contact, signaling readiness to communicate and indicating that the communication channel is open. Argyle and Cook (1976: 170) emphasized that mutual gaze ‘has the special meaning that two people are attending to each other. This is usually necessary for social interaction to begin or be sustained.’ In fact, in many cultures, this visual connection often obliges individuals to interact (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Most language learners can easily recall instances when the teacher asked the class a question, they were certain they did not know the answer (and even if they did they did not want to respond), and invariably learners evaded the teacher’s gaze to avoid interaction and close the communication channel. Teachers then have the difficult choice as to whether to call on ‘gaze evaders’ or not. Although visual cues can be used to extend an invitation to communicatively engage with others, they can also be used to close people out. By merely gazing intently at a specific person or persons, we can shut the metaphorical door in the face of any others present. By looking closely at one person, the ‘gazer’ is instructing interlopers not to approach or enter the conversation (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Our technique demonstrates the manner in which this is done. CM 21: An Assassin among Us

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During conversation, the speaker’s eyes are often used to command a response – either verbal or nonverbal – from the interactant. Because speakers look less at their listeners than vice versa, the instances of mutual gaze are defined by the speaker’s gaze. This eye contact usually encourages listeners to respond with attention signaling devices like a smile, other facial expressions, sounds such as ‘mm-hmm,’ and nods (Bavelas et al., 2002). Although this makes the speaker’s behavior an important determinant of the timing of listeners’ feedback, listener responses are also uttered when interactants do not see each other, like when we talk via telephone (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Two techniques are offered that bring together the full range of nonverbal resources, including gaze behavior, to manage interaction. CM 14: Turn-taking Talk CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Disruptions Besides opening and closing the communication channel and commanding responses from our conversation partners, individuals also use eye behavior to regulate the communication flow by supplying turn-taking cues. Although we have established that speakers generally look less often than listeners, speakers do tend to glance during grammatical breaks, at the end of a thought unit or idea, and at the end of the utterance. Glances at these intervals often signal to listeners that they are free to assume the speaking role; however, speakers also look to get feedback, to observe how they are being received, and to see if the listener wants them to continue (Knapp & Hall, 2010). When speakers want to continue their turn, they signal their intention by dramatically reducing their eye gaze toward their listeners. Likewise, listeners encourage speakers to continue in that role by looking at them more frequently and steadily. An oft-used turn-yielding cue used by speakers to signal their speaking turn is ending involves a head-turn in the direction of their listeners accompanied by increased eye contact. Contrarily, listeners request a turn by directing their heads away from the speakers to diminish their eye gaze (Richmond et al., 2012). The technique we offer provides an opportunity to use solely the eyes to manage the sequence and flow of communication. CM 22: Group Ten Count For interactants who share the same language and culture, the choreography of a fluid speaker–listener dance is quite well defined. In many cultures, when speakers end an utterance or a thought unit, they gaze toward their listeners and maintain eye contact until the listeners assume the

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speaking role. Listeners maintain visual contact until the speaking role is assumed, at which time they will look away and begin the conversational cycle over again. Although this choreographed dance exists in ideal communicative circumstances, eye behavior does not always result in the smooth exchange of speaking turns – even when interactants share the same native language and culture. Sometimes speakers look at their listeners when yielding their speaking turns but their listeners delay or avoid a response. Also, in those instances when speakers initiate what they know will be a lengthy response, they likely delay gazing at their listeners beyond what would customarily be anticipated (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Additionally, imagine the disruption in turn-taking when interactants fight for their turn to speak in a heated exchange, an argument or another similar enthusiastic type of encounter. Breakdowns in smooth conversational transitions are often roused when regulatory nonverbal cues are misunderstood or ignored.

The Eyes Influence TL Affect In this section, research tenets are presented that relate eye behavior to TL affect. The eyes play a pivotal role in demonstrating our interest and emotional involvement in a communication event. Without making initial eye contact, most interactions would never begin. Once a relationship is established, the eyes provide evidence of its nature and help us manage the impressions we make on our interactants. Finally, through information that the eyes provide, specific affective states can be more effectively perceived.

Eye behavior provides clues to interest and emotional involvement In addition to opening and closing communication channels and regulating their flow, our eyes can also provide feedback concerning our level of interest and emotional involvement in the communicative exchange and what is transpiring therein. The eyes combine with the face to function as a powerful medium of emotional communication, making the language of the eyes the language of emotion (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). The power of the eyes is in their transparency. That is to say, although many areas of the face can be controlled, the eye area is deemed one of the least controllable and therefore more difficult to consciously manipulate. More than other facial regions, our eyes offer a plethora of unguarded cues about the emotions of fear, happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, contempt and disgust (Richmond et al., 2012). Increasing awareness of interactants’ own feelings and raising their consciousness concerning the way they communicate them is the primary purpose of the technique provided.

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AF 11: Feeling Frenzy

When we seek feedback concerning the reactions of our interlocutors, we gaze at them. If they are looking back, this is usually interpreted as a sign of attention to what is being said. In addition, facial expressions and visual cues can go beyond conveying attention to also transmitting whether or not there is interest in what is being said. The pupils of the interlocutor can be observed to determine whether they are experiencing positive or negative emotion, to gauge the intensity of the felt emotion, and/or to assess their level of interest. Pupil size reflects interest levels and the nature and intensity of emotions. They dilate as interest increases and as positivebroadening emotions such as happiness and joy are experienced. Pupils constrict when interest decreases and when negative-narrowing emotions such as sadness or sorrow are experienced (Knapp & Hall, 2010; Leathers & Eaves, 2008). According to Hess (1975: 4–5), the pupils of the eyes are a potentially rich source of information because ‘the pupil of the eye is intimately connected to all parts of the brain, and as a result, we have the anomalous situation of having a piece of the brain sticking out of the human body for all the world to see and evaluate.’ Monitoring an interlocutor’s pupil dilatation is a complicated affair, so this type of observation is included among a series of other nonverbal cues indicative of emotion in the technique provided so that participants have an opportunity to assess the kind and intensity of given emotions.

AF 12: Walk the Talk

However, trying to decipher the meaning of an individual’s emotional state through just looking at the eyes, without considering other accompanying cues, is error-prone. For example, the sight of tears certainly makes most of us infer that the ‘shedder’ is emotionally moved, but without other accompanying cues, it can be difficult to effectively interpret whether the tears reflect sorrow, physical discomfort, frustration, pleasure, anger or some other composite amalgam of feelings (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Essentially, people display the kind of emotion they are experiencing in their face and the intensity of the emotion in their eyes (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). That being said, the best judgments are made when we have their entire face and body before us and consider the entirety of nonverbal – as well as verbal and paraverbal – codes (Richmond et al., 2012). In the technique offered, TL interactants not only explore the different nonverbal

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codes indicative of emotion, but also how people act, react and think in continually shifting ways.

AF 13: Urge and Surge

Eye behavior establishes relationships and reflects their intimacy and nature In many cultures, relationships are established and intimacy is defined through visual cues. During the initial-encounter phase of a relationship, eye contact is frequently the catalyst for further interaction. Eye-to-body or eyeto-eye exchanges often determine whether a relationship is launched and frequently add meaning to the nature of the relationship. When an individual catches the eye of another, and the gaze is reciprocated, a relationship is established; however, if the receiver averts his gaze away from the original sender, the exchange ends there (Richmond et al., 2012). Furthermore, the eyes can close physical distances in establishing relationships. With one steady look, a person is able bring another person, who is physically distant, much closer. For example, public speakers scan their audiences and look for people who are returning their gaze, connecting speakers and audience members, allowing them to feel closer to each other (Richmond et al., 2012). The purpose of the technique we provide is to increase skill in recognizing how eye behavior initially establishes a connection between interactants. AF 23: Seeing Eye to Eye Eye contact impacts our emotional states and the emotional connection we share with others. Research suggests that individuals look more at people and things they find rewarding and that they like. When mutual gazes are held longer than otherwise expected, a desire for heightened intimacy is conveyed. Although increased eye contact can act as an appeal for additional interaction, it can also be a sign that heightened involvement has already occurred. Research in a North American context also suggests that small interpersonal signals, such as brief eye contact even with strangers, can help someone feel connected (Wesselmann et al., 2012). According to this research from a US university, feeling connected is significant for personal well-being and happiness. Some people report feeling bothered even when a stranger does not acknowledge them. In one experiment, a research assistant was walking along a busy path and identifying an unwitting subject and either (a) meeting the person’s eyes; (b) meeting the person’s eyes and smiling; or

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(c) looking in the direction of the person’s eyes but actually looking past them as if they were air. After passing the subject, the assistant signaled to another researcher to stop that person and ask how disconnected they felt from other people. Results demonstrated that the people who had eye contact from the research assistant (with or without a smile) reported feeling less disconnected than those who had been looked at as if they were not there. The researchers concluded that even strangers just walking by have a momentary disconnecting effect if they look ‘through’ rather than ‘at’ another person, which speaks to the power of human social connection and gaze behavior. Our technique for this tenet provides an opportunity to replicate this study and experiment with the force of gaze behavior as a means of creating social connections. AF 24: An Eye toward Interaction When negative attitudes arise in a relationship between two interactants, a decrease in gazing and mutual gazing may also ensue, but not necessarily. Although we are inclined to look at individuals with whom we are involved, visual cues motivated by antagonism also display interest and involvement in the relationship – albeit negative. What is important to remember is that the eyes do not function in isolation from other cues. Contextual information and other verbal and nonverbal cues must be relied on when trying to decide whether to interpret extended gazing positively or negatively. Although the intimidating glare of a teacher trying to silence her unruly class and a tender prolonged gaze of a couple in love may both be long, few would confuse the two – the collection of accompanying cues in the demeanors of these two communicators are surely conveying quite different things! (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Through the technique we provide, TL interactants explore the manner in which eye contact influences their own affective state as well as their emotional link with others. AF 25: Gaze Away the Gray Engaging in visual contact with others is certainly central to communicating emotion. In a previous section, we mentioned the phenomenon of emotional contagion whereby one individual’s mood or emotion is affected by another’s mood or emotion via subtle processes of which neither is fully aware (Hatfield et al., 1994). For emotional contagion to occur, the eyes also play a pivotal role. The technique we offer provides an opportunity to experience emotional contagion, but in this specific case, the infectiousness is neither subtle nor without awareness!

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AF 26: I Dare You Not to Laugh Gazing and mutual gazing frequently indicate the nature of the affiliation between two interactants, reflecting relational issues such as status, dominance and power. For example, teachers who understand classroom group dynamics recognize the way group leaders seem to choose the subsequent speaker by directing their gaze toward another group member. Individuals perceived as powerful generally look powerful and use eye behavior to reinforce this perception. The license to gaze intently at others for the purpose of control and persuasion is wielded exclusively by powerful people. Teachers who invite learners to prepare presentations will probably agree that speakers are persuasive, not solely because of the facts they present, but because of the intensity of their eye contact; and that in contrast, learners who avert their gaze and glance downward emit weaker and more submissive vibes. Individuals who avoid looking at others are often judged as possessing minimal leadership skills and are frequently relegated to a lower status category (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). TL interactants use argumentative discourse in the technique we provide to observe eye behavior that works persuasively. AF 27: Playing with Persuasion According to Dovidio and Ellyson (1985), one way to reliably and accurately gauge communicators’ status, power and desire for interpersonal control is the visual dominance ratio (i.e. the ratio of the percentage of speaking time spent looking at the other to the percentage of listening time spent looking at the other). Individuals with higher status or dominance gaze comparatively more while speaking and less while listening, compared to those with lower status or dominance. Communicators who display a high visual dominance ratio (55% looking while speaking versus 45% looking while listening) are viewed as considerably more powerful than communicators who display a moderate visual dominance ratio (40% versus 60%) or a low visual dominance ratio (25% versus 75%) (Dovidio & Ellyson, 1985). Thus, interactants who use sustained gazing display power and consequently elicit one of two visual responses from their interlocutors. Either they will stare back to communicate that the power display is being defied, or they will use gaze avoidance to escape (Richmond et al., 2012). Role playing with the visual dominance ratio in the technique we provide allows interactants to gauge relational issues such as status, dominance and power through noticing gaze behavior.

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AF 28: Gaze your Way to Status, Power and Control

Eye behavior establishes credibility, manages impressions and signals affective states In many cultures, the communicator who is perceived as credible sustains eye contact while speaking and being spoken to. Eye behaviors are essential in reflecting one’s credibility. If a teacher asks a language learner for a list of his bibliographic references in a private conference after finding plagiarism in his final essay, the writer may be more compelled by the serious eye demeanor of the teacher than by the message itself (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). By the same token, a communicator’s perceived competence and trustworthiness will most likely be increased with the use of direct eye contact. Members of many cultures commonly assume that those who look directly at their interlocutors know what they are talking about and are being honest. On the contrary, communicators who avert their eyes before speaking or answering a question are presumed to be less trustworthy, less credible in terms of competence and thus less persuasive (Burgoon et al., 1986; Burgoon & Saine, 1978). Conveying a negative self-concept and low self-esteem obviously limits the images communicators can credibly claim for themselves, thus making sustained eye contact with those with whom we interact an important skill for interactants in some cultures to develop (Droney & Brooks, 1993). The technique provided uses ‘rolestorming’ where interactants take on another identity to view the nonverbal behavior that establishes credibility and trustworthiness. AF 29: Believe Me! On the flip side of eye behavior that signals competence is that which shows interactants’ lack of confidence and negative affect. Gregersen’s (2005) observation study concerning the nonverbal behavior of anxious and nonanxious TL learners touched upon the role of the eyes in communicating affect. Besides differences between the groups concerning facial expression, she also found consistent patterns concerning how these two groups vary in their eye behavior in terms of blinking, sustained eye contact and gaze avoidance. For example, the normal spontaneous eye-blink rate at rest in normal adult humans is an average of 14 to 17 per minute (Bentivoglio et al., 1997). In the Gregersen (2005) study, nonanxious participants blinked less than the anxious participants. The nonanxious learners blinked an average of 12.5 times per minute (an average of 50 total blinks during the 4 minutes), whereas the anxious learners

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blinked an average of 23 times per minute (an average of 92 total blinks). These comparisons suggest that anxiety might cause greater frequency in blinking. In terms of gazing behavior, the greatest difference between the two groups arose when considering how much time the anxious and the nonanxious students spent making eye contact with the teacher. Whereas the nonanxious students were looking directly at the teacher for more than half of the time (an average of 146 seconds), the anxious students looked in her direction for an average of only 92 seconds. The other gazing behavior that was reliably different between the two groups was having eyes closed – anything from an extended blink to sustaining eyes closed. Whereas none of the nonanxious participants closed their eyes for more than a blink, three out of four of the anxious had their eyes closed from 11 to 15 total seconds, with the frequency of this occurrence ranging from three to 13 times. Their eyes can elevate the intensity of emotion which can be energizing for some persons but beyond the comfort zone for others. There are two techniques provided to explore these themes: one that looks at a variety of emotions associated with language learning and the other that specifically focuses on language anxiety. AF 12: Walk the Talk AF 17: Anxious Al Meets Nervous Nelly) In the next section on eye behavior and cognition, we provide a further possible explanation concerning concentration that goes beyond an emotional reason for why TL learners may remain for relatively long periods with their eyes closed. The techniques we offer provide learners with opportunities to look at a conglomeration of nonverbal codes, including the frequency and intensity of eye contact and blinking behavior in order to ascertain a person’s emotional state and to become aware of the eye behavior that is indicative of anxiety.

The Eyes Influence TL Cognition Finally, besides having communicative and affective purposes, the eyes also function cognitively. They demonstrate when a learner’s thinking moves inwardly or outwardly and offer a clue as to the level of demand of the cognitive task at hand.

Eye behavior reveals a shift from an external to an internal focus As mentioned previously in this chapter, while attempting to cognitively process challenging or complex ideas, both listeners and speakers tend to avoid looking at others. An averted gaze, including closing the eyes,

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reveals an attention shift from an external to an internal focus and an effort to reduce outside stimulation. Reflective questions (as opposed to factual ones) and those that demand respondents to go back in time (i.e. ‘Name a professor you had two semesters ago’ as opposed to ‘Name a professor you currently have’), cause more gaze avoidance in the thinkers. For example, in an experiment where participants were asked to respond to factual questions, first with eyes closed and then again while looking directly at the researcher, participants responded better with their eyes closed, demonstrating the operational effectiveness of blocking out external stimulation while processing challenging cognitive material (Glenberg et al., 1998). Our technique experiments with eye behavior that accompanies internal and external thinking. CG 23: Your Eyes Don’t Lie!

Eye behavior is influenced by the cognitive demands of the task The demands of a cognitive task can also prompt eye movement to the left or right. An individual shifts his or her eyes in one direction or another in relation to activity in the opposite hemisphere of the brain. That is to say, tasks involving intellectual and linguistic processing tend to stimulate increased activity in the left hemisphere causing individuals to glance to the right; whereas the right hemisphere is more active with tasks involving spatial or emotional processing and is associated more with leftward glances (Ehrlichman & Weinberger, 1978; Weisz & Ádám, 1993; Wilbur & Roberts-Wilbur, 1985). Research demonstrates that brain activity intensifies in the hemisphere opposite the direction of the eye movement, and that this increased activity can actually be stimulated by movements of the eyes (Knapp & Hall, 2010). On a related note, investigators discovered that people can augment the quantity and quality of their creative ideas by increasing the interaction between the brain’s right and left hemispheres (Parker et al., 2009). The technique we provide is an exercise to increase the cross-talk between brain hemispheres. CG 24: Eyeball Escapades for Better Brain Behavior

Eye movements are connected to the sensory mode used to process information Research also suggests that eye movements are linked to the sensory processing mode being used at any given moment. That is to say, our gaze direction changes if we are recalling something we have seen before (What

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Figure E1 Gaze directionality and sensory modes

was the last television program you watched?) or if we have heard before (What was the lead story on the radio news yesterday?); gaze direction also changes if we are attempting to visualize something (What does your ideal house look like?) or imagine a sound never heard before (What sound do you think a zebra makes?). Our eyes also shift when emotional or tactile sensations are being processed (What does silk feel like?) or if we are talking to ourselves (If I study my grammar tonight, I will probably get a better grade.). Figure E1 shows the gaze directionality associated with the sensory modes for right-handed persons (Dilts et al., 1980).

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The technique provided offers an opportunity to observe how the directionality of gaze shifts as the target of thought changes. CG 25: The Eyes Have It

Conclusion Goman (2014) uses the analogy of the children’s bedtime story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, to summarize the amount of eye contact that is necessary for comfortable and productive communication. In this story, Goldilocks eats Baby Bear’s food because the temperature of the porridge is ‘just right’ – neither too hot nor too cold, and she sits in Baby Bear’s chair and sleeps in Baby Bear’s bed because the comfort level is ‘just right’ – neither too hard nor too soft. Likewise, Gorman proposes that excessive eye contact is intuitively considered rude, antagonistic and/or patronizing. In professional milieus, too much eye contact could possibly be seen as deliberately intending to control, coerce, disparage or make another person feel disadvantage. Not enough eye contact often gives the impression of apprehensiveness, unpreparedness and disingenuousness. ‘Just right’ eye contact produces shared feelings of friendliness and confidence and fluctuates with situations, settings, personality types, gender and cultural differences.

Space and Touch

Use of Space (Proxemics) and Touch (Haptics) The concept of personal space and touch is a capricious one. It varies from region to region, from culture to culture, from person to person. In response to the question, ‘What does it mean to have your personal space invaded?,’ some people might immediately think about someone who entered the protective invisible ‘bubble’ that encapsulates them at any given time. This might include, but is not limited to, a conversant who speaks up front and personally in one’s face, a fellow student who has the choice of all the empty tables in the library and chooses to sit at the only one occupied, or a fellow elevator companion who, rather than facing the door as it closes, turns and faces the other occupants in the enclosed space. This conceptualization, however, puts primarily a physical spin on the interpretation of ‘personal space.’ Our personal space also includes sound. Think about the incessant cell phone talker who speaks endlessly while riding the bus, or the couple in the theater whose persistent conversation during the movie provokes ‘shhhhhhh’ from all directions. Is there also not space around our noses? Think about taking a transoceanic flight with a seat partner whose cologne or body odor is overwhelmingly unpleasant. Another person’s gaze behavior can also burst our personal bubbles. Consider the impoliteness of a person who stares at another because of some physical trait – whether that person be beautiful or physically challenged in some way. There is also the notion of territoriality – laying claim to an area surrounding oneself – that comes with ‘personal space.’ The following story exemplifies just how dicey it can get (https://www.psychologytoday.com/ blog/communication-central/201004/personal-space-how-violating-unspo ken-rules-can-lead-chaos-least): It was a Saturday morning, a rather busy time for shoppers and I was third in the checkout line. The lady in the front of our queue had taken 123

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her items out of her basket and placed them on the ‘conveyor belt.’ However, apparently she had not arranged her items in a manner suitable to the man behind her because she left space between her bag of chicken breasts and bread. So the man behind her grabbed her bag of chicken, picked it up and placed it on top of her bread and eggs. He then proceeded to place his items on the conveyor belt. ‘Don’t touch my stuff!’ The lady shouted. ‘Okay. Okay.’ The man yelled in turn. Unsatisfied, the woman continued and pointed her finger in the man’s face. She said, ‘I placed it there for a reason! Thank You!’ While she said this, she moved her bag of chicken breasts back to its original place. ‘You’re welcome!’ The man replied sarcastically. Everything had stopped for a moment or two in the store as everyone watched the scene unfold. As it appeared to be over, people returned to what they were doing as if nothing ever happened. This vignette suggests that the way we use space and touch represents an important communicative medium. We all have idiosyncratic and culturally defined proxemic (aka, space) and haptic (aka, touch) expectations of ourselves and of those with whom we interact. When we conform to those expectations, we increase our probability of achieving effective interpersonal communication, but when we violate them, we can anticipate resentment, resistance and even conflict (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Thus, interactants’ ability to maneuver the complicated and uncertain cultural norms surrounding the use of space and touch while communicating in their TL speaks volumes about their sociolinguistic competency. The way communicators navigate the space between each other and their use of touch conveys affective and emotional information about themselves and each other. In the next section, summarized in Table S&T1, we outline two powerful variables that contribute to the variability of personal space. First is the fact that appropriate use of space is socially learned through communication with other people from our culture. Second is that the way communicators navigate the space between them conveys affective and emotional information about themselves, each other, their relationship and their needs. With these considerations in mind, let’s turn to the first variable, culture and consider the many factors that influence our invisible space bubbles and the behaviors that will pop them (Becker & Mayo, 1971; Hall, 1983; Sommer, 1959, 1969; Watson, 1970).

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Table S&T1 Space’s influence Communicative

Affective

Expectations are culturally defined

Individual factors influence space expectations Violations of space expectations consider valence, expectedness and importance Influenced by competing needs for affiliation and privacy

Cultures are defined as ‘contact’ or ‘non-contact’ Space zones are ‘intimate,’ ‘personal,’ ‘social’ or ‘public’

Proxemics Influence TL Communication The use of space and sociolinguistic communicative competence The role of culture Like all of the other nonverbal codes we have introduced so far, our personal space and touching proclivities are greatly influenced by our cultures. Sociolinguistic norms regulate our proxemic and haptic behaviors. Among the dynamic elements that cause interpersonal space to expand or contract are how well interactants are acquainted (are they married or recently introduced?), the purpose or topic of conversation (e.g. are they arguing or telling jokes?) and the gender of the people interacting (are they same or opposite sex?), among a host of other variables that may modify these broad cultural tendencies. The following three techniques we provide are meant to encourage interactants to notice cultural differences in nonverbal interaction and demonstrate how behaviors that violate cultural spatial expectations result in discomfort and action on the part of interactants who feel the threat of their personal space bubble being popped. CM 1: Confounding Cultural Contexts CM 6: Roles and Regulations CM 8: Too Fast Too Forward Literature on proxemic and haptic behavior make a broad distinction between contact and noncontact cultures. In contact cultures such as those found in Central and South America, southern Europe and the Middle East, communicators face one another more directly, interact more closely, touch one another with greater frequency, make more direct eye contact and talk in a louder voice than do those in noncontact regions such as Asia and Northern Europe (Knapp & Hall, 2010; Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Yet we must approach these generalities with caution as there can be a great deal of

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variability within cultures, subcultures, specific groups and even within individuals (Remland et al., 1991). The technique we provide asks learners to compare their home cultures with their TL cultures and define those particular situations which serve as exceptions to the rule. CM 11: Contrasting Contact A great deal of research has been done on the spatial cues used in North American culture and for this reason we use it as an example, but reiterate the caution that there will be exceptions to any generalizations. Hall (1966, 1983) outlines four interpersonal distance zones: intimate, personal, social and public. The intimate zone represents the innermost interaction region and, for North Americans, extends from touching to a distance of approximately 18 inches (Photo 29). Although people sometimes find themselves in crowded public places where their intimate zone is encroached upon, such as riding on a crowded train, these moments are usually fleeting and involuntary. This region of intimacy is customarily reserved for a few special people including romantic partners, very close friends and nuclear family members. Moving outward, the personal zone is the next region in the personal space bubble and ranges from roughly 18 inches to about four feet (Photo 30). This distance is negotiated during conversation with rather close friends and relatives as well

Photo 29 Intimate space

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Photo 30 Personal space

as longtime business associates who are perceived as friends. The social zone is that space in which most people we encounter are expected to remain (Photo 31). Stretching from four to eight feet, this region is often the distance at which professional affairs are managed. In these situations, the space parameters are usually strictly observed; however, when the conversation shifts to casual or private subjects, it is fairly common for interactants to move closer and enter each other’s personal space. Finally, beginning at eight feet and

Photo 31 Social space

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Photo 32 Public space

extending to the outer limits of interaction potential is the public zone, the outermost region of the interaction space bubble and includes interactions as far apart as one can find in huge stadiums (Photo 32). The technique we provide illustrates the various spaces interactants practice in everyday exchanges and allows them to experiment with finding their comfortable ‘bubble’ space. CM 13: Popping Bubbles The above-defined distance zones are only rough guidelines that North Americans employ as they create space buffers vis-à-vis other individuals – and point to the mitigating influence of culture on nonverbal spatial cues. The second factor, as mentioned earlier, is an affective one and concerns the effect of the idiosyncratic tendencies of the individuals involved in the interaction and their relationship, an issue we turn to next.

Proxemics Influence TL Affect Expectations of space are influenced by individual differences Burgoon and Jones (1976: 132) argued persuasively that distance zones or ‘expected distancing’ are not determined by the normative expectations of our culture alone, and that idiosyncratic preferences of individual communicators also come into play (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity or race, status, personality, degree of acquaintance, area of residence, among others). Violations of the norms and expectations surrounding the use of space can be distracting in

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some cases, but in other instances can produce positive effects – violations of space are not always negative. Depending on the situation and the interlocutor with whom one interacts when expectancy violations occur, different outcomes are produced. When invaders violate others’ spatial expectations by invading their bubbles, the attention of the invadees is acquired. Sometimes violations are so immediately aversive that invadees become defensive. On other occasions, invadees mentally process the nature of the violation and who the perpetrator is to regulate their response. The violation of personal space may be assessed more positively or more negatively than the expected behavior, and the invadee adapts accordingly. If the positive or negative quality of the violation is uncertain, the perceptions of the violator come into play. A positive estimation of the violator most likely results in a positive appraisal of the bubble-popping violation in such cases and vice versa. The technique we provide offers a chance to observe naturalistic interactions involving people in a variety of scenarios and relationships to raise awareness concerning how people arrange themselves in public and private spaces. AF 38: Plotting Personal Places

Space violations take into account valence, expectedness and importance The Expectancy Violations Theory (EVT) is a notion in communication that explores the way in which interactants react to unexpected breaches in social rules and behaviors. It can be best understood by breaking it down into its three component parts: violation valence, violation expectedness and violation importance (Afifi & Metts, 1998). First, violation valence is the potential positive–negative range that a behavior can have as perceived by the invadee (the person whose space has been compromised). For instance, although a violation valence for a spatial invasion between friends at the water cooler after class might be positive, a newcomer to class who receives a hug from her classmate for unknown intentions may be startled by the action. Second, violation expectedness is the potential range of expected behaviors during the violation. For example, if the violator expects the invadee to be intimidated (e.g. to withdraw), this action triggers the invadee’s fight-or-flight assessment in those instances when it is unanticipated. The fight-or-flight impulse requires the invadee to decide whether to engage with the invasion or withdraw from it. In their assessment, invadees attribute intention to the invaders’ actions, and decide whether it provides comfort, security, attraction, anxiety, fear or disapproval. For example, if a learner is studying alone at a table in an empty library and a stranger takes the seat directly opposite, her

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assessment of the violation will probably be very different than if all the other tables are occupied. In the first scenario, she has greater reason to assess the stranger’s motive as aggressive or intrusive and flee to another table, but in the second, she would probably evaluate the action as inoffensive and stay put. The third component of EVT, violation importance, reflects the extent to which the violation of expectancy impacts the relationship. A learner whose space is violated by a classmate and assesses it negatively might prefer to avoid that classmate in the future. The technique we provide offers an opportunity to experiment with proxemic behaviors and observe peoples’ reactions when they feel their personal space has been violated. The technique also provides practice in rating the valence, expectedness and importance of each spatial invasion. AF 39: Space Invasion

The use of space is mitigated by competing needs for affiliation and privacy In our use of space, there is often great disparity between the meanings we intend to communicate and those we actually do. Our proxemics or spatial behavior seems to be most strongly affected by two competing needs, the need for affiliation and the need for privacy. Generally, our desire for contact with others and our initiation of a closer relationship with them is often indicated through closer physical proximity. Moreover, physical proximity in conjunction with touching unmistakably plays a fundamental communicative role in close interpersonal interactions. In contrast, we protect our privacy needs by conserving greater distance from others while frequently pursuing physicality to create a barrier by using our elbows or turning our backs to keep individuals from getting too close to us (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). The technique we provide offers a chance to role play in order to observe how space and touch communicates conflicting desires for guarding privacy and seeking relationships. AF 40: Finding Affiliation or Protecting Privacy? To conclude this section on personal space and territoriality, think about all the spaces that as individuals we lay claim to every day. Territories that we define as ‘our own’ might start with which side of the bed we sleep on (‘Hey, get over on your own side!’) or our places at the breakfast table (‘Hey, you’re in my chair!’). Students may feel put out when they arrive to the library and someone has taken ‘their table.’ Teachers might be familiar with the dilemma of remembering names by the particular seats students occupy

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in the classroom and if they change, we cannot retrieve anyone’s name (Hey, you changed places! What was your name again?). At the school or university cafeteria, we probably feel most comfortable using the same table and maybe even the same chair every day. Space – and our perception of where we belong in it and who we allow to enter it – is important to us and we protect it. The instinctive human emotions and impulses that drive our response to threats carry over into less critical areas such as protecting our place at the table, our seat in the classroom, and defending the invisible bubble that encircles us at all times. Burgoon and Jones (1976), referred to personal space as the inviolable zone that surrounds a person and is an undetectable, ever-changing and mobile area the dimension of which is dictated by the individual’s perceived needs at any given time. Nonverbally savvy TL interactants are aware of the central role that culture plays in shaping one’s use of space and understand how and what space communicates in formulating and interpreting TL messages.

The Use of Touch In the previous series of tenets, we proposed that interlocutors use spatial orientations to communicate various messages that at the same time infer a great deal about the relationships, attitudes and feelings of those involved in the interaction. The related nonverbal code of haptics – the study of the quality, quantity, purposes and consequences of touching behavior – is also governed by (mostly) unwritten rules of acceptable behaviors that are embedded deep within each culture. Touch is likely among the most complicated of all nonverbal codes associated with communication processes. The online version of the Russian newspaper Prada carried the story of President Vladimir Putin’s haptic faux pas with the Chinese presidents’ wife. To enjoy fireworks at the stadium that was built for the 2008 Olympics, Putin was seated next to China’s First Lady, who was sitting next to her husband, President of China Xi Jinping. At some point, Putin stood up, took a brown blanket and wrapped it around his neighbor’s shoulders. The lady smiled and thanked the Russian leader for his attention. Xi Jinping at the time was busy talking to his US counterpart Barack Obama and did not see the Russian president taking care of China’s First Lady. Peng Liyuan immediately threw the blanket to her bodyguards and put on a black jacket. That excerpt alone seems factual; it is the passage immediately following from the Prada newspaper that lends an editorial slant to the occasion: Chinese censorship removed the video of Putin’s gesture and declared it secret, but it was impossible to avoid the leak.

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Some foreign publications, writing about the incident in China, believe that Putin’s courtesy should be added on the list of the things that must be excluded at diplomatic dinners. With his token of attention for Xi Jinping’s wife, Vladimir Putin broke the unwritten rule of diplomacy ‘never to touch the wives of diplomats’ as he wrapped his blanket around the Chinese leader’s spouse. The incident took place in China, with the participation of a Chinese female. Residents of China are known for their high sensitivity to being touched. They do their best to avoid being touched by strangers, especially foreigners. For example, many tourist guides to China recommend foreign tourists not to touch the Chinese. Moreover, Chinese women experience a physiological aversion to tactile signs of attention from outsiders. Therefore, hugs, pats on the back and other bodily contacts are completely unacceptable. To crown it all, despite gender equality in China, it is impermissible for men to touch women and commit acts of common politeness, such as assisting a woman in putting on her coat, opening a door in front of her or offering her a seat. (http://english.pravda. ru/society/stories/11-11-2014/129005-putin_china_wife_blanket-0/) This is but one small (but very public) example concerning the deeply held cultural beliefs about what is and is not appropriate touching. In the next sections, as indicated in Table S&T2, we briefly examine the communicative function of touch as a turn-taking management technique and then proceed to its affective purposes, including its role in conveying acceptance or rejection, its relational purposes, its complexity and its dependency upon context. Table S&T2 Touch’s influence Communicative

Affective

Norms are culturally defined

Communicate acceptance and rejection

Where and who can touch each other are important questions

Purposes: professional, social, friendship, intimacy

Ritualistic touches include greeting and leave-taking

Four touching types: pat, squeeze, brush, stroke

Regulate turn-taking

Convey positive and negative affect Communicate discreet emotions Diffuse affection and aggression Contribute toward compliance Convey involvement and responsiveness Frequency depends on context

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Touch Influences TL Communication Touch and sociolinguistic communicative competence The role of culture Violation of a culture’s tactile or proxemics norms usually makes those involved in the interaction uncomfortable (Photo 33). Persons may perceive touch as inappropriate; alternatively, those who are not touched also may perceive the absence of touch as an inappropriate signal of their irrelevance and insignificance. Touch communicates power and status, with those having greater power being allowed to initiate touch on the less powerful, as when a doctor touches a patient or the boss pats an employee on the back. For this reason, people who are excessively touched run the risk of being considered individuals of inferior status (Richmond et al., 2012). The notions of appropriate space and touch are clearly interconnected in the physical sense – interactants must be close enough in order to touch. This means that communicators cannot be separated by more than an intimate distance of arm’s length if touching is to happen comfortably. Consequently, touching and close proximity are both indicators of a positive attitude toward intimacy and approachability (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). CM 1: Confounding Cultural Contexts

Photo 33 Violating cultural touching norms

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Culturally defined touching norms are strongly influenced by two factors: the part of the body that is touched, and the demographic characteristics (e.g. gender, age, status, culture, etc.) that distinguish one interlocutor from the other. TL interactants will encounter body regions that may be touched in specific contexts, as well as differences in how their interactants’ gender, age, status and culture prescribe the type and frequency of touch that is socially and culturally acceptable (Knapp & Hall, 2010). For example, whereas most North Americans would not think twice about affectionately patting a child’s head, many Asian cultures would find that highly inappropriate as the head is perceived as sacred and therefore off limits to casual touching. Likewise, many Westerners would have no problem passing the mashed potatoes across the table to a dinner guest with their left hand, but to people from the Middle East, this would be in extremely bad taste as they use the left hand exclusively for hygienic purposes. Our technique offers learners an opportunity to compare the factors that influence haptic behaviors (body regions and personal characteristics of interactants) in their TL culture with their home cultures. CM 12: Attuned Touch Ritualistic touches convey meanings linked with cultural rituals like greetings and departures (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Each culture has its own welcoming and leave-taking rituals, most of which incorporate some kind of touching, kissing or physical contact. While many North Americans in formal situations shake hands, friends often hug upon first meeting and then again when saying good-bye (Photo 34). Friends in Chile arrive and depart with a kiss on the right cheek. In Italy, both cheeks each get a light brush of the lips (or sometimes an ‘air kiss’). These rituals are deeply rooted in cultural norms (Photo 35).

CM 6: Roles and Regulations CM 8: Too Fast and Forward

Touch and discourse communicative competence Touch regulates turn-taking Touch can be used to manage interactions, controlling conversation or elements of conversation in many ways; gestures, facial expressions and eye behavior can function with a similar purpose. When touch is used successfully it can guide interaction without interrupting the verbal conversation. Touch

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Photo 34 Cultures have different welcoming and leave-taking touching rituals (North American)

can be employed to gain attention by tugging at the person’s arm or tapping him or her on the shoulder (Knapp & Hall, 2010). A listener can request a turn, or the speaker can deny a turn, by the strategic use of touch. CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Disruptions CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators

Photo 35 Welcoming and leave-taking touching norms; Italian

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Touch Influences TL Affect Haptic behaviors are used for more than just communicative purposes; they also convey affect. Normal development, even our very survival, depends upon the powerful affective tools of touch and body contact. One reason is that touch is one of the most effective means to communicate our feelings and emotions. Among other things, body contact suggests liking and acceptance, especially early in life. Contrarily, the withholding of touch may convey an array of negative emotions such as resentment, antagonism, or distrust. Touching also serves as an indicator of the status of the communicators. There are particular expectations about giving and receiving touch in certain role relations. For example, superiors touch more than subordinates, and relative to the communication context, dominant personalities likely initiate touch more than their less dominant interactants (Richmond et al., 2012).

Touch has a variety of purposes: Professional-functional, social-polite and friendship-warmth For the purposes of our text, we outline three categories of touch that will likely be observed in language learning classrooms: professionalfunctional, social-polite and friendship-warmth types of touch (Richmond et al., 2012). We have chosen to leave out ‘love-intimacy’ and ‘sexual-arousal’ which indeed are important to relationships, but which are not the focus in language classrooms. Throughout our discussion on professional-functional touch, social-polite touch and friendship-warmth touch, we emphasize the fact that cultural norms are an extremely influential factor in each of the touching scenarios we present and a TL interactant’s appropriate understanding and use of the social mores that control touching behavior are important to sociolinguistic communicative competency. The first type of touch that is frequently found in classrooms is the professional-functional touch (Photo 36). This touch is impersonal and business-like and is most often used to accomplish or perform some task or service, like a brief tap on the shoulder by the language teacher who comes up behind a learner working in a small group to get his attention. This type of touch is also common in situational contexts such as trying on shoes in the shoe store, visiting the hair stylist, or in some cultures, when exchanging money. The common denominator in all these situations is the fact that the physical contact is incidental to the interaction’s purpose. Language classroom interactants might also exchange social-polite touch which helps them communicate a limited form of interpersonal involvement that recognizes that the person they are interacting with is more than a mere object (Photo 37). In these scenarios, body contact acknowledges the interlocutor in a social role, as during a greeting. Social-polite touch is dictated by strict cultural rules, and as a result, cultures differ widely about what is

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Photo 36 Professional touch; incidental to interaction

considered proper social touch. For example, in North American culture, people frequently shake hands at the initiation of an encounter to acknowledge another person; however, the length of time and the pressure applied as one holds another person’s hand can convey more than mere politeness. Therefore it is imperative that the social handshake say only, ‘Hello, nice to meet you.’ In other cultures, interlocutors might clasp shoulders or kiss each other’s cheeks. Social touch is a culturally appropriate nonverbal tactile cue that neutralizes the status disparity between two communicators. The third type of touch is that which communicates friendship-warmth. It communicates to interlocutors that we care for, value and have an interest in them, but because of its ambiguity, it is probably the most difficult form of touch to interpret (Photo 38). Besides the potential for cultural differences,

Photo 37 Social touch; limited personal involvement

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Photo 38 Friendship-warmth touch; communicates value and interest

one reason for confusion is that relationships in which communication partners use friendship-warmth touch are often so close that they can also be mistaken for intimacy and sexual attraction. Ongoing relationships will develop patterns of friendship-warmth contact that can differ from social norms as people who know one another develop unique norms within a relationship that might not be applicable at all to recently acquainted strangers. Greater cross-cultural variability arises with friendship-warmth touch than any other type. For example, in cultures that are defined as noncontact, touch that conveys friendship-warmth is unpredictable and needs to be handled with care. The heavy influence of noncontact norms that determine greater spatial distances when people interact also prescribe unwritten rules that dictate when it is appropriate to use this kind of touch. In North America, for example, it would be considered appropriate that two friends meeting in public at an airport after months or years apart would make contact using friendship-warmth touch. However, later in private when the two are alone, it would be perceived as less appropriate. In other cultures, men touch men more in public and in private than do many North American males. The technique we provide offers a chance to observe and reflect on the three different kinds and functions of touch we just outlined and to become familiar with the cultural conditions under which they are used.

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AF 41: Touch-Type Scavenger Hunt

The semantics of touch are complex The meanings of touch are affected not only by who touches whom but by the type of touch (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). In a professional classroom setting, for example, the status differential presupposes that a teacher touching a student communicates a distinctively different meaning than a student touching a teacher. Nguyen et al. (1975) identified four kinds of touching: a pat, a squeeze, a brush, and a stroke. They suggest that squeezing and brushing seem to convey meanings that fluctuate with the communicative circumstances, but that patting is usually interpreted as playful and friendly and stroking more consistently signals affection and sexual desire. We can explore five distinguishable meanings that touch in different cultural contexts can communicate (Jones & Yarbrough, 1985): (1) convey positive and negative affect, (2) communicate discrete emotions, (3) mitigate aggression or affection, (4) gain attention and/or compliance, and (5) increase involvement and/or responsiveness. First, touch can be used to convey both positive and negative affect. Positive-affect touches include contact that communicates support, appreciation, inclusion, affection and sexual attraction (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). If the touch is sustained, it may communicate a message of inclusion: ‘we’re in this together’ (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Language learners working in groups might be seen patting one another on the back or arm as they work together toward shared goals. Negative-affect touches express emotions such as anger or frustration and can be conveyed by hitting, slapping or tightly squeezing another’s arm. We usually see this contact much more in children than adults (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Teachers familiar with playground antics of children are accustomed to seeing this kind of haptic behavior. The technique we provide is the first of a two-part technique that begins with an exploration of different touch types and individual definitions of where specific emotions fall on a continuum of positive, neutral and negative emotions. AF 42: Touch Tones Secondly, touch can communicate discrete emotions. Discrete-emotion touch goes beyond conveying generalized positive and negative feelings. In a study by Hertenstein et al. (2006), they discovered that individuals from a variety of cultures could accurately decode emotions through tactile stimulation and that they could also interpret the distinct emotion by merely observing other individuals communicate via touch. In their study, ‘touchers’ were

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video-recorded as they attempted to communicate a variety of emotions solely through touching the arm and forearm of another person. Observers of the video recognized (at rates superior to guessing) the emotions of anger, fear, happiness, love, sympathy and disgust. Subsequent analysis of the video data offered insight into the various forms that touch took to convey each emotion. For instance, ‘touchers’ conveyed sympathy with stroking and patting, anger with hitting and squeezing, and disgust with a pushing motion. Differences in intensity and duration were also noted by the observers. They also demonstrated that people can reliably signal love, gratitude and sympathy – prosocial emotions that go beyond the universal emotions studied in earlier investigations. The technique we provide offers an opportunity to participate in the replication of the study we mention to see if learners, too, can accurately decode distinct emotions solely via tactile stimulation or the observing of it. AF 43: Stroke, Squeeze, Shake – Emotion You Can’t Fake Thirdly, touch can defuse the affection or aggression in a message. Playful touches communicate affection and/or light-hearted aggression. Some communicative situations call for us to interpret the touch we give and receive as efforts to defuse the seriousness of an affective or aggressive message. For example, a light punch might accompany a harsh sounding verbal message such as, ‘This time you didn’t do so well, but you’ll get it next time!’ (Knapp & Hall, 2010). We also might see a related kind of consoling-type touch when one learner reaches out to another after an embarrassing public presentation in an attempt to moderate the gravity of the moment. The technique we provide uses role playing to experiment with the role of touch in modifying the strength of a message and/or defusing the negativity of a situation. AF 44: Defusing Dilemmas and Accenting Affect through Touch Touch can also contribute toward gaining attention and/or compliance. Control or influencing touches are used to gain the attention of an interlocutor or to announce a response to something said (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Similarly, touch in this category may be used to persuade an interactant to do something, so in this case, touch is associated with wielding influence. Jones and Yarbrough (1985) called these compliance touches. There is fascinating compliance touch research from different North American communication contexts: servers who touched diners received bigger tips (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984); store customers who were touched by a greeter spent more time and money (Hornik, 1992); psychologists who touched students on the shoulder when asking for help gained better compliance

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(Patterson et al., 1986). When attempting to interpret the reason behind the relationship between touch and compliance, researchers noted that the psychological mechanism responsible for such outcomes was probably the positive affect and personal bonding that the receiver may have inferred by the brief and apparently trivial touch between strangers. At the same time as providing hopeful findings, this research also suggests that interactants could attempt to use touch manipulatively. For example, waitpersons might deliberately touch their customers to get bigger tips (or a learner might touch a classmate to compel the more responsible student to inappropriately allow copying the homework assignment!). Such actions would backfire, however, if the recipients did not like the touch or the toucher, and possibly also if they sensed a manipulative intent. These compliance-gaining scenarios highlight the ambiguous nature of nonverbal communication and demonstrate the difficulty of knowing the intention of the sender and being unable to predict the receiver’s reaction (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Our technique provides an opportunity to experiment with touch and its influence on gaining compliance. AF 45: Trialing Touch for Compliance Finally, touch can convey involvement and responsiveness. Interpersonal responsiveness touch displays the level of connection and/or receptiveness that communicators feel (Afifi & Johnson, 1999). Occasionally touch simply demonstrates that the intensity of the exchange or level of involvement in the conversation is high. Interpersonal responsiveness generates positive affect when it is mutually felt or when interlocutors feel they have contributed to the other’s behavior. Touch cues, perhaps more than any other nonverbal behavior that are recognized as purposeful, are particularly salient in interaction in that they are almost guaranteed to be noticed and are likely to generate powerful reactions – whether positive or negative (Knapp & Hall, 2010). The technique provided is meant as a culminating activity to put the complexity of the semantics of touch in perspective.

AF 46: Daily Touch Diary

The frequency of touch is context-dependent As with other nonverbal codes our touch behavior depends on the type of situation in which the interpersonal interaction takes place. Touching is likely to occur in some communicative contexts more than in others. In

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North America, for example, the scenarios in which touch is more likely and more frequent include trying to persuade rather than being persuaded, receiving ‘concern’ signals from others (rather than sending them), engaging in deep exchanges (rather than superficial ones), sending enthusiastic messages (rather than receiving them), receiving advice (rather than requesting it), giving orders (rather than taking them) and on social informal occasions like after class gatherings in the hallway (rather than informal settings like the classroom) (Beebe et al., 2014). The technique we provide offers the opportunity to hypothesize about the contexts in which touch is more frequent and then use naturalistic observations to test suppositions. AF 47: Hypothesizing Contexts of Touch

Conclusion There are rules for touching and being touched that are sometimes difficult to negotiate but others are very clear. Some people like to be touched and others are considered untouchable. With the Queen of England for example, formal protocol dictates that visitors should not touch her beyond a polite handshake – although when properly accomplished, it is but a mere brief meeting of the hands. These strict rules that impose the royal rules of haptic etiquette are explicit and quite well known – so well known in fact that when First Lady Michelle Obama threw her arm around Her Majesty during a State Visit, the British press was quite stunned. Most of us do not have the benefit of formal written rules of conduct about who, how, or where we may touch others and thus we are all apt to make cultural faux pas concerning haptics, particularly in intercultural situations. Nevertheless, because touching can produce some of the strongest positive and negative responses among all the nonverbal codes, we might want to consider ways of developing cultural competence through increasing our awareness of touch. By closely examining our personal beliefs, values and reactions to the touching norms of diverse others, we can create greater awareness of this important nonverbal code. The next step is to implement our knowledge through sensitive and skillful nonverbal behaviors.

Prosody

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. ‘Why?’ the confused waiter asks as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces an incorrectly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. ‘I’m a panda,’ he says at the door. ‘Look it up.’ The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves. Prosody is what makes this joke funny. Prosody, sometimes referred to as suprasegmental features, vocalics or paraverbal cues consists of all the attributes of sound that operate over stretches of speech larger than an individual vowel or consonant and convey meanings that have some measurable communication functions (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). In the case of the joke above, the comma indicates a brief pause that is the key prosodic element that changes the meaning of the word ‘shoots.’ Prosody in language learning is crucial because vocal cues, including the rhythmic and melodic aspects of speech, convey meanings that cannot be gleaned from context and influence the intelligibility and production of segmentals (the individual sounds of a language) (Lantolf, 1976). Two forms of prosody are typically distinguished: ‘affective prosody’ refers to the expression of emotion in speech, and ‘linguistic prosody’ refers to the intonation of sentences, including the specification of focus within sentences and stress within polysyllabic words. Whereas these two processes are united by their use of vocal pitch modulation, they are 143

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functionally distinct (Belyk & Brown, 2014). Among the sound attributes that give our vocal behavior its unique characteristics are pauses, volume, intonation (the use of pitch), stress (the use of greater energy, greater length, or higher pitch), rhythm (stresses and syllable patterns), rate, and voice quality (the general long-term setting of vocal organs, counting the tongue and vocal cords) (Brown, 2014; Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). All of these prosodic elements work together to carry out communicative, affective and cognitive functions. Communicatively, vocal cues increase grammatical competence by helping interactants produce and comprehend the important points of the utterances they say and hear more saliently through stress and emphasis. TL interactants can also use vocal cues to signal and recognize where one topic ends and another begins through topic management. Prosody also functions grammatically to improve communication by marking the status of information, for example, what is assumed to be shared knowledge in contrast to something new. In terms of discourse communicative functions, suprasegmental features – such as other nonverbal kinesic cues such as gestures, facial cues and eye behavior – indicate when to speak, when to be silent, and how (not) to relinquish the floor to someone else through turn-taking signals. Finally, TL interactants’ vocal behavior provides social meaning and reveals their social roles by positioning them vis-à-vis their interlocutor in terms of status, dominance, politeness and solidarity (Goodwin, 2001). Affectively, vocal cues serve emotional functions by conveying attitudes and feelings, signaling our degree of involvement, and providing ‘commentary’ on our personalities. Voices are not only used to verbalize a surface-level linguistic message, but also to present a more accurate underlying nonlinguistic expression of feelings. When we express ideas to another, it is primarily our voice – not our words – that communicates our level of intimacy and indicates the degree of liking and trust that we feel toward that person. Prosodic features not only reveal how we feel about others, but they also say something about our self-confidence and our knowledge about the subject matter over which we are speaking, therefore influencing our ability to persuade (Beebe et al., 2014). Cognitively, vocal cues impact learning, comprehension and retention of material. The first prerequisite to processing any information is that something can only be learned if it has first captured our attention. Analogous to the dull whine of the classroom ventilation system whirring in the background, monotonous speech that incorporates little variety in vocal qualities, inflection and rate hinders listeners’ attention and interest. Vocal cues are also used to organize discourse into more effortlessly perceived and memorized chunks. For example, individuals have the tendency to divide phone numbers into rhythmical chunks that make remembering them easier. Table PR1 provides an at-a-glance summary of what is to come.

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Table PR1 Prosody’s influence Communicative

Affective

Cognitive

Culture contributes to value placed on voice quality Vocal stereotypes exist within cultures Regulate turn-taking

Emotion can be accurately interpreted from vocal cues

Variety enhances clarity and comprehension Variety aids retention

Some emotions are more easily decoded and encoded than others

Native speakers are flexible as concerns rate

Response latencies influence turn-taking and comfort More effective when combined with other codes Rate must be slow enough to be comprehensible but fast enough to earn credibility Pauses separate thought groups – act as oral punctuation Ungrammatical pauses cause processing problems Speech flow has a variety of grammatical options for pausing Pauses add emphasis

Rate influences frequency and length of thought groups Fluency in spontaneous speech is relative Psycholinguistic pauses are filled or unfilled and are used to transform thoughts into words Hesitation pauses are affectrelated Interactive pauses convey the meaning of interactants’ relationship Intonation uses pitch patterns to create meaning

Can be interpreted in different ways

Listeners often prefer faster speech Slower rates do not necessarily translate into higher intelligibility

Many factors influence interpretation of emotion

Promote emotional contagion Functions such as music to generate emotion Generalizations exist concerning vocal cues and emotion

Voice quality communicates personality features

Voice quality creates impressions

(Continued)

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Table PR1 (Continued) Communicative

Affective

Cognitive

Intonational idioms use formulaic pitch patterns Intonation emphasizes and clarifies important points Word stress is important for intelligibility Rhythm contains beats at regular intervals Rhythm is a feature that distinguishes languages Fast speech produces reduced forms

Prosody Influences TL Communication Prosody and sociolinguistic communicative competency The role of culture Prosody and the personality traits attributed to specific voice qualities may differ among cultures. There has been a fair amount of research done with North American speakers and researchers have developed a detailed list of stereotypes for vocal attractiveness for North Americans (Zuckerman et al., 1990). Zuckerman and Driver (1989) propose that the following characteristics are attributed to voice quality: Table PR2 Characteristics attributed to voice quality Flat voices are linked to:

Breathy voices are linked to:

Nasal voices are linked to:

manliness

femininity

socially undesirable personal qualities

slothfulness indifference unapproachability

superficiality shallowness

Around the world, cultures might or might not follow stereotypes similar to those in North America. In the technique we provide, learners use naturalistic observation to understand the ways in which communicators use their voices to convey confidence, likeability and power in their local context. Although the tasks are related to the affective domain, learners also explore the relationship that one’s culture has in defining the importance of them. Developing this awareness is part of their sociolinguistic communicative competence.

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AF 37: On the Hunt for Confidence, Likeability and Power Researchers have also defined a vocal stereotype that suggests how speakers should sound to a North American audience if they want to be viewed as credible and competent (Thakerar & Giles, 1981). In particular, research reveals that individuals who use standard or prestigious accents, pause only momentarily before replying, speak fluently, utilize appropriate variation in pitch and loudness and speak relatively quickly are typically seen as more competent than individuals who are associated with vocal cues on the opposing end of these continuums (Street & Brady, 1982). Our technique provides an opportunity to evaluate how nonverbal behavior such as gaze behavior combines with the vocal channel to establish credibility and manage impressions from the perspective of a variety of different cultures. AF 29: Believe Me! When considered from a somewhat broader perspective, researchers suggest that most North Americans recognize that ‘the attractive voice’ (as opposed to the ‘unattractive’ one) sounds more articulate, lower in pitch, higher in pitch range, low in squeakiness, non-monotonous, appropriately loud and resonant (Miyake & Zuckerman, 1993). People with attractive voices in turn have greater power, competence, warmth and honesty attributed to them than people with unattractive voices. Individuals with ‘babyish’ vocal qualities are usually perceived to be less powerful and less competent but warmer and more honest than people with mature-sounding voices (Berry, 1992; Berry et al., 1994). Vocal cues can have a significant impact on the most important image dimensions that define the impressions a person makes on other people: competence, interpersonal attractiveness and dominance (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). We provide two techniques that focus on the situational appropriateness of the use of combinations of nonverbal codes within and among different cultures. CM 1: Confounding Cultural Contexts CM 6: Roles and Regulations

Prosody and discourse communicative competency Prosody in turn-taking Another important role of vocal cues is interaction management. The give and take of the speaking role uses nonverbal codes such as gesture, facial expression and eye behavior in addition to the voice, but it is worth

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mentioning again that many nonverbal codes work in tandem, sometimes in conjunction with words, to increase message clarity. For interactants, knowing how vocal cues operate in their TL is pivotal to smooth turntaking transitions between speakers and listeners. For example, emitting a low pitched mm-hmm (rather than even pitched) feedback might be intended to opt out of a speaking turn, when in effect it is a signal for a turn to speak (Richmond et al., 2012). The game-like technique we offer focuses on conversational management by providing a setting in which TL interactants can use their voices and other nonverbal codes to regulate turn-taking. CM 14: Turn-taking Talk During previous discussions of regulatory cues in other codes, we mentioned that there are four types of turn-taking behaviors: turn-maintaining, turn-yielding, turn-requesting and turn-denying. According to Richmond et al. (2012), our voices are also used to manage interaction. Speakers who want to maintain the floor may increase the loudness of their voices (thus overpowering other persons’ attempts to request a turn) and/or increase their rate of speech so that breaking into the quickly moving stream becomes more difficult (thus decreasing the opportunity of listeners’ getting a word in edgewise). Speakers who fill their pauses with vocalizations rather than leaving them unfilled also convey that, although they may be at the end of a particular thought, they are not finished talking. Consider a language teacher who scolds a student for not having her homework done. As the learner tries to explain, the teacher might increase his speech rate and volume because he wants to add, ‘… and don’t let me down again!’ before the learner interrupts with an excuse. By providing opportunities in our technique to regulate turn-taking with and without being able to see their interactant, we hope to demonstrate how important the voice can be in taking, maintaining, yielding, requesting and denying conversational turns. CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Disruptions Turn-requesting cues encourage the speaker to wrap things up and finish their turn as soon as possible. Cues include the stutter start (BUT … but … but …) and vocal buffers (Er … ah … or uh, well …) which are inserted into the conversation while the speaker is still talking. To hint at their desire to speak, interactants can also increase their feedback rate through signals such as mm-hmm or yes … yes … In the technique we provide, learners are exposed to the ways different cultures use prosodic cues, along with other nonverbal visual cues, to regulate who speaks when.

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CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators Listeners transmit turn-denying cues when they do not want to take a speaking turn, particularly when they feel they have nothing to say as the speaker begins to yield the turn. Turn-denying includes a slower rate of responses and vocal cues that tend to reward the speaker for talking. Positive nonlanguage vocalizations such as the recently mentioned mm-hmm delivered at a slowed pace and accompanied by a positive head nod generally spur on the speaker to continue. The technique provided uses role-play to practice the different ways listeners show they are listening and indicate that they do not want a speaking turn. CM 27: Listening Unleashed Asking the listener a question, as when the speaker heightens his pitch at the end of the utterance, is the most overt prosodic turn-yielding device. The opposite pattern, that is an emphatic drop in voice pitch at the end of an utterance, also signals a speaker’s willingness to give up his or her turn. Tacking on an end phrase after the lowering of pitch is an even more overt way of yielding the floor. Typically, trailing-off phrases are more widespread when the speaker is coaxing the listener to start talking. Furthermore, intonational fluctuations that deviate from the customary rising and falling of the voice during a speaking turn and/or an increase in speech rate can signal to the listener that the speaker is relinquishing the speaking turn. Certainly, a long unfilled pause serves the turn-yielding function but extended silences can become uncomfortable for those involved in the conversation. Even though as listeners we might not have anything significant to add to a conversation, someone may begin speaking simply to break the silence (Richmond et al., 2012). The time it takes for communicators to initiate their speaking turn after their interlocutor yields is called response latency. There is a great deal of individual variability among communicators in response latency. Those with short latencies tend to talk over their partners, speaking before the other is finished and interpret the briefest pause as encouragement to capture the conversation. In contrast, interactants with extended response latencies can cause their partners’ discomfort as they wait in silence. When speakers pause to let their partners jump in, if listeners do not begin talking right away, speakers in some cultures might feel forced to take the floor again. When people with short response latencies interact with those who have long latencies, the former usually dominate the interaction – even if they have no intention of doing so (McCroskey, 2001; Newman & Smit, 1989). There is also a culture effect. Although researchers discovered that there are striking universals in the underlying pattern of response latency in conversation

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across cultures, they found differences across languages in the average gap between turns (Stivers et al., 2009). The technique we offer provides evidence of just how much some listeners cannot stand silences. CM 23: Silence Is Not Golden Prosody is more effective in combination with turn-taking cues in other nonverbal codes. For instance, raising a finger along with the eyebrows, leaning forward and inhaling audibly communicate a request to speak. Conversely, accelerating the speech rate, looking away, turning the body, increasing volume, and exhibiting a halting gesture (putting the hand up to stop interruptions) toward the listener, function individually or in tandem to maintain the speaking turn. Similarly, verbal comments can function to refuse turns as when listeners complete sentences for the speakers or request clarification on earlier comments.

Prosody and strategic communicative competency Prosody and speech rate Language teachers often question whether they are speaking too quickly or too slowly. The answer is complex. Research suggests that ideal vocal cues consist of longer chunks at native-normal conversational speed. Although slowing down is one option, there is a down-side, and it relates to the ability of the human brain to process speech. Sentences spoken considerably more slowly than the normal rate may strain the listener’s working memory and make them more challenging to process. If teachers or more advanced interactants decide to reduce their speaking rate, then shorter sentences can be used to alleviate the load on the listener’s memory. As learners progress they can move from shorter, slower and deliberate utterances to longer chunks at nativenormal conversation speed. In this way, learners can process longer sentences and produce language themselves at more natural speeds (Brown, 2014). An average native speaker utters around 100 words per 30 seconds, but roughly 80 words in that amount of time would be perceived as fluent by most listeners. In the end, speakers must strike a balance between speaking slowly enough to make themselves understood, yet fast enough to earn the credibility and competence that increased and more variable speaking rates produce. On the one hand, effective speakers do not speak excessively quickly. This is especially true if audience members are not native speakers, if the topic is technical, and if the audience is large – in which case loudness should be increased but speed decreased (Brown, 2014). On the other hand, research suggests that speech rate is not only an indicator of fluency, but also of perceived intensity, credibility and competency. Yet there is obviously a point at which speaking rate becomes so fast as to have a negative effect on

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competence (Hecht & LaFrance, 1995). In the technique we provide, TL interactants experiment with language chunks at regular speaking speed to experience the sweet spot of speaking slowly enough to be understood yet quickly enough to seem trustworthy and proficient. CM 29: Speak-Eazy

Prosody and grammatical communicative competency Prosody, thought groups and pauses Pause frequency reflects the occurrence of brief breaks in the stream of words. Fluent TL interactants integrate grammatical pauses into their speech in the same way that a comma is used in a written text. Pauses help to divide utterances into manageable chunks or thought groups. Pauses can be thought of as oral punctuation because they indicate the elements that fit together grammatically and therefore are located at the boundaries of speech units corresponding to phrases. Using grammatical pauses to chunk out thought groups provides a win-win situation for both encoders and decoders as they also help listeners process and comprehend the speech flow. Consequently, one of the first challenges for language teachers is to coach their learners to pause at the most effective moments. For example, grammatical pauses occur at natural punctuation points like the end of a sentence, immediately preceding a conjunction (but, and, or) or a relative or interrogative pronouns (who, which, why), in association with an indirect or implied question (You think so), immediately preceding adverbial clauses of time, manner and place (I will leave when I’m ready), and when whole parenthetical references are used (I am sure that you, a very responsible student, will have the video watched before class tomorrow) (Brown, 2014). Less fluent speakers often pause too frequently in ungrammatical places and tax their interactants with disruptions that make it difficult to process what is being said (Brown, 2014). Ungrammatical pauses occur in the middle or at the end of a verbal phrase as illustrated in the following junctures: • • •

gaps or breaks between words and phrases that are repeated (I believe he will … (pause) … will discover that … (pause) … that he misinterpreted your words); gaps or breaks between verbal compounds (You have … (pause) … thought about this far too long); disruptions or false starts (Your teacher is worried … (pause) … the problem is your attendance).

Our technique for effective pausing provides an opportunity to both tell and listen to jokes whose punchlines necessitate precise timing.

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CM 39: Grammar Gapping Another complication for TL interactants is that the speech flow has more than one way that it can be grammatically segmented. A written sign on one of our colleague’s doors completely changes its meaning with ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect pauses.’ The title of the sign says: ‘Punctuation Can Save Lives’ and is followed by these two lines: ‘Let’s eat, Grandma’ and ‘Let’s eat Grandma!’ In our technique, TL interactants think about pauses as commas in a written sentence to facilitate their processing of oral language. CM 40: Take Pause An additional element to consider in teaching vocal cues is that a grammatical pause can often be inserted before or after an item in order to add emphasis to it. This is particularly important if the item is also accentuated by other nonverbal means such as gestures, facial expressions and vocal cues such as intonation and stress. Effective speakers tend to pause more frequently in order to emphasize their ideas and make them easier to process, hence making their speech more persuasive. In each case, the speaker has a clear communicative reason for wanting to draw listeners’ attention to each word (Brown, 2014). We provide a technique on persuasion where vocal cues are included among a myriad of other nonverbal codes. Teachers who want to practice pausing before particular words for persuasive emphasis can readily adapt this technique to focus more attentively on vocal cues.

AF 27: Playing with Persuasion Communicatively competent TL interactants understand that their speaking rate influences the frequency and length of their thought groups. Speedy speakers pause less and have fewer but longer thought groups (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). By concentrating on pausing, they are able to control their breathing and avoid speeding up to unacceptable rates. This is especially useful for presenters who may be nervous (Brown, 2014). Although we discuss how the voice communicates emotion and affect in an upcoming section on voice quality, it is important to mention here that inadvertent pauses like uh, sentence changes, word repetitions, stuttering (repeating the first syllable of a word), incomplete sentences, tongue slips and intruding incoherent sounds, such as tongue clicks (Leathers & Eaves, 2008) are often perceived as nonfluencies by listeners, and unfortunately for interactants

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new to the TL, people have a tendency to attribute unacceptable levels of tension and anxiety to individuals who speak nonfluently. From a perceptual perspective, nonfluencies tend to be associated with both attributions of high levels of anxiety in the speaker (Jurich & Jurich, 1974) and tend to arouse anxiety-like physical responses in the listener as well (Guntupalli et al., 2006). Our technique provides an experience in public speaking along with a rubric for self- and peer-assessment. Through this technique TL interactants become aware of decision-making based on seeing AND hearing – using verbal and nonverbal skills to convince others about their positions. CM 41: Pausing to Persuade Pauses in the speech stream can be identified as either unfilled or filled. Whereas unfilled pauses (or silence) are intervals of interrupted vocal activity during speech, filled pauses are breaks in the content of the speech stream that are filled with audible vocalizations such as as uh, er and ah, stuttering, slips of the tongue or repetitions (Richmond et al., 2012). As previously mentioned, pauses can be used strategically to add clarity and meaning to a message, but speakers’ inadvertent pauses in the flow of interaction can indicate problems in communication or affect. Pauses, both filled and unfilled, can be categorized as three different silence phenomena: psycholinguistic, hesitation and interactive (Richmond et al., 2012). The first, psycholinguistic silences, are communication pauses linked to the encoding and decoding of speech, which usually occur at the beginning of a grammatical stream of speech to create a space to translate thoughts into words. Speakers may pause at the beginning of a sentence to collect their thoughts and syntactically order their words. Since pauses usually coincide with punctuation in a written text, teachers might want to practice the following general guidelines when having their learners read aloud: Use long pauses for a paragraph break, a medium pause for a period, and a short pause for a comma (Brown, 2014). The technique we offer explores how effectively placed pauses can help both listeners and speakers for a variety of reasons. CM 42: Practicing Pauses; Pause to Practice The second type of pause, hesitation silences, are affect-related and are generally triggered by anxiety or uncertainty about what to say next. MacIntyre and Doucette (2010) studied psycholinguistic and hesitation pauses in their investigation on language learners’ willingness to communicate and discovered that a lack of willingness to communicate in the TL is related to tendencies for a disruption in action control that also includes a

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learner’s perceived competence and communication anxiety. Gregersen and MacIntyre (2014) also addressed these pauses and recommended that teachers focus on successful past experiences, convert their intentions into actions and plan for hesitations. Our technique helps eliminate (or at least limit) the ungrammatical pauses through the uses of formulaic and/or standard utterances that provide TL speakers with time to plan and fill unwanted silences. CM 43: Halting Hesitations Finally, interactive pauses are the third type of silence. They stem from the interaction process and convey a variety of meanings about the nature of the relationship between the two interactants. For example, consider the differences in meaning of the silences invoked by two starry-eyed lovers as opposed to the silence of glaring-eyed combatants (Lalljee & Cook, 1969; McCroskey, 2001). Using role-play based upon photos, learners use this technique to take time to ponder how the relationship between interactants in any exchange influences the silences that occur. CM 44: Under-a-Minute Pause-in-Interaction Role Plays On a cheerier note for language learners, all of this information must be placed in the context that even native speakers’ spontaneous speech is riddled with fragmentation and discontinuities. What does the concept of fluency in spontaneous speech really mean? Even when native speakers are at their fluent best, two-thirds of their speech comes in chunks of less than six words with pauses ranging from milliseconds to minutes. This disparity in pause length is subject to individual differences, the verbal task, the degree of spontaneity, and the pressures of the particular communication situation (Goldman-Eisler, 1968).

Prosody, intonation and stress Each thought group also has the distinguishing feature of intonation, or a pitch pattern consisting of a variety of tones. Although intonation patterns vary and learners need to be aware of the contextual meaning behind their specific intonation choices, there are a few generalized patterns that prevail, and by providing language learners with some of the common ones for particular contexts, at least they have some options with which to work. Pitch movement options are actually quite limited and depend upon what the speaker wants to convey – speakers can make their voices go up, down, remain on the same level, or integrate any combination of the three (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011).

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For example, let’s consider the word yes in a scenario where we answer a knock at a solid door. Before opening it, we get close to the door jam and ask, Yes? (with a rising upward glide). Now consider that we hear a voice respond but we did not quite catch the name, but we think we recognize the voice as being that of Emily, a good friend, so we say, Is that you, Emily? She responds with, Yes (but in this context, her reply takes a downward glide or falling tone). When we open the door and ask, would you like to come in? She answers with a leveled Yes. (In this case, tone held stable) We hear three different intonation patterns in a one-word utterance with no grammar or further lexis to make the meaning clear, but the tone was selected based upon a desire to express a specific intent. The above example shows how intonation functions even over brief single word utterances. However, intonation also is a factor over longer stretches of discourse. In our previous discussion on pausing, we introduced the concept of thought group; however, when discussing intonation, these may also be called tone groups, or ‘stretches of speech over which a pitch contour extends’ (Brown, 2014: 132). These ‘chunks’ of language are units of one or more syllables that somehow ‘belong together’ and represent the speaker’s organization (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011: 46). Prominence, as previously mentioned, is the criteria speakers use for deciding which syllable in the tone group receives the pitch movement. Called tonic syllables, they signal the focal points of the message and constitute the minimum element of the tone unit. Our technique provides an opportunity to practice some of the most common patterns. CM 45: Practicing Pitch Patterns There are communication scenarios, such as when speakers use fixed formulaic intonation or ‘intonational idioms’ as is seen in such phrases as ‘You must be joking,’ ‘I see what you mean,’ and ‘So what!’ (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011: 45). Like linguistic idioms that must be considered as a whole unit and cannot be deciphered by breaking the expression down into its semantic component parts, intonational idioms too must use pitch patterns that carry over the entire phrase that do not typically align with standard intonational rules. The following technique is an adaptation of ‘Melodic Intonation Therapy’ a four-stage treatment program often used by speech pathologists for

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individuals experiencing various forms of aphasia. In the initial phase, intoned phrases are hummed by the teacher while learners tap the rhythm and stress of each pattern with their hands and feet. Learners then join the teacher in humming while continuing to beat the rhythms. Next, the teacher begins to sing intoned phrases and learners repeat them. After several repetitions, learners wait for a designated period of time before repeating the phrase or sentence in order to increase their word retrieval ability. In the final stage, learners transition to normal speech, keeping the same melody as the intoned sentence of the proceeding step, except that the constant pitch of the intoned words is replaced by the variable pitch of speech (Carroll, 1996; Roper, 2003). CM 46: Intonation Idioms: Music to the Ears Intonation uses pitch to clarify and accentuate the important points of verbal messages to enhance clarity. We provide a technique to ensure that TL interactants are conveying the desired meaning by incorporating appropriate variations of pitch in their messages. It offers experience that demonstrates that interaction carried out in monotones is uninteresting and difficult to listen to as it may require their listeners to exert too much effort to pay attention (Richmond et al., 2012). CM 33: Storytelling Signals Stress is another way to orally highlight information. Within each thought group, there is generally one prominent element – a syllable that is emphasized – usually by lengthening it and moving the pitch up or down. It usually represents information that is either new, in contrast to some other previously mentioned information, or is simply the most meaningful or important item in the phrase (Goodwin, 2001). Stress can be thought of in two different ways: as a conventional label for the overall prominence of certain syllables over others or as a narrower conception in which speakers actually achieve the impression of prominence through physiological exertion (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). The smallest domain in which the contrast between the stressed and unstressed syllables appears in a word is called word-stress. This plays an important role in intelligibility. Language learners do not recognize words in continuous speech sequentially one word at a time, but rather they pick out the stressed syllable from the speech flow and use it to search their mental lexicons. Feasible lexical candidates are chosen on the basis of this syllable and then assessed according to their fit with the unstressed syllables that surface to their left and right. If this chronology is legitimate, a reasonable

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consequence is that if a learner applies stress in the wrong place, processing time and difficulty will rise substantially. In contrast, learners who can pick up on the word-stress of others and who can accurately produce stress in their own language production will increase intelligibility (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). The technique we provide allows experimentation with very specific situations where if stress is placed on the wrong word, it completely changes the meaning of the entire utterance. CM 47: Stressing Stress

Prosody and rhythm Rhythm distinguishes one language from another. The rhythm of spoken English, much like that found in a musical measure, is created through a combination of longer and shorter syllables and is often highlighted more overtly when poetry is recited aloud. English speech rhythm contains stresses or beats occurring at regular intervals (i.e. stress-timed), as opposed to languages like French in which each syllable receives roughly the same timing and length (i.e. syllable-timed). The difference between rhythm, or sentence stress, and prominence is that the first considers ALL the stressed syllables in a thought group, whereas the latter refers to only the one which receives the most emphasis. For example, in the sentence, ‘She loves her light blue coat,’ of the three stressed syllables, the italicized ones are stressed, but the bolded one is prominent. Likewise, just as thought groups can have more than one stressed syllable but only one prominent element, multisyllabic words can also have more than one stressed syllable, but only one of those syllables receives primary stress. The others receive secondary stress or almost no stress at all. For example, in the five-syllable word, com-mun-i-cation, the third syllable (ca) receives primary stress, the second syllable (mun) receives secondary stress and the remaining three receive almost no stress at all (Goodwin, 2001). The technique we provide is an adaptation of Carol Graham’s famous ‘jazz chants’ in which beat gestures are used to enhance the auditory prominence of vocalic stress pitch patterns and overall rhythm. CM 36: Better to Beat It! Rhythm is a significant, large-scale feature of languages and one quite evident way in which they differ. To expose learners to the appropriate use of this element of vocal cues, teachers may simply provide an abundance of the TL used in natural contexts so learners can use these opportunities to unconsciously acquire an appreciation of the rhythm of the language. Certain genres, such as poetry, songs and emphatic speech have more regular, overt stress than other forms and may therefore be an effective means

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of exposing learners to the rhythm of the TL. Participants in our next technique share in a presentation of Readers’ Theater to raise their awareness of how intonation can be used to nonverbally mark syntactical features of spoken language. CM 37: Practicing Syntactic Displays through Readers’ Theater

Prosody and reduced forms Higher speech rates often produce connected and reduced forms. Language learners often complain that native speakers, including some teachers, speak too quickly and therefore find it difficult to understand TL speech or to segment its stream into constituent words. One underlying cause of this frequent frustration is connected speech processes such as assimilation and elision. In assimilation, a sound changes under the influence of surrounding sounds because of where the tongue is coming from and where it needs to go (e.g. wanna or gotcha). Elision occurs when a sound which should be present when a word is carefully pronounced is left out (e.g. camera is often pronounced without a schwa sound). Reduced forms are often frustrating because they are different from what learners expect after seeing the written form or how they would pronounce it themselves. Linking, the practice of connecting one word to the next in a speech stream, is a natural feature of native pronunciation but it does not help learners segment stretches of speech into words. Hence the important task of teachers is to help learners create appropriate expectations about the sound patterns they will probably encounter when interacting in normal native speech (Brown, 2014; Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). We might infer from this that in order to relieve learners’ frustration, teachers and more proficient interactants make a conscious effort not to speak too fast in class. However, it is crucial that if they slow down, the features of connected speech that characterize natural native communication, like assimilation and elision, are not eliminated from their utterances. Prosody-conscious teachers and advanced interactants do not place stress on more words in the utterance than would be natural. This is important for transitioning learners from the scaffolded instruction of the classroom and its simplified speech to the authentic rate and reduced forms found in more naturalistic interaction. The technique we provide is meant to reduce learners’ frustration with reduced forms and connected speech by familiarizing them with their respective formal written forms through the creation of dialogues. CM 48: Connecting with Connected Speech

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Prosody Influences TL Affect Our use of vocal cues not only serves communicative functions but it also carries out emotional and affective purposes that are both self-directed and others-directed. Prosody cues transmit information about our attitudes, emotions, involvement and personality. Most interlocutors know that the manner in which an utterance is said can be as significant (or even more) as the words that are spoken. A speaker’s tone of voice conveys a plethora of subtle auditory indicators about the emotion that accompanies the utterance. The vocal cues that express the emotional range of a speaker’s communication are frequently called affective prosody (Dromey et al., 2005).

Prosody communicates emotion One persistent question that we must answer from the outset is whether interactants can accurately identify each other’s emotions through vocal cues. Tapping into our own life experiences, most of us would anecdotally say, ‘yes,’ and then most likely qualify our affirmative response with a ‘but at some times more than others.’ It is encouraging for the purposes of our text that most research also points to an affirmative answer. In fact, evidence suggests that there is substantial accuracy even when speakers and listeners are not from the same culture. Also heartening for a positive intercultural communication prognosis is that listeners in different cultures tend to make similar errors and experience similar kinds of confusion as shared-culture communicators when judging the emotions of the same voice – though there appears to be some advantage in judging voices from one’s own culture (Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Scherer, 2003; Scherer et al., 2001). In fact, the ability to recognize emotion from voice is four to five times higher than what would be expected if interactants were simply guessing (Pittam & Scherer, 1993). When five emotions were tested, 90% accuracy was attained (Juslin & Laukka, 2003). The technique we provide offers the opportunity to deepen understanding of the kind and intensity of vocally communicated emotion in combination with other nonverbal codes. AF 12: Walk the Talk We must qualify any discussion of the voice’s overall ability to communicate and interpret emotion with the (probably unsurprising) caveat that some emotions are easier to encode and decode than others. A speaker’s excitement or calmness is linked with the degree and kind of pitch and volume changes (Richmond et al., 2012). For example, in one study, anger was accurately identified from vocal cues with 63% accuracy as opposed to only 20% accuracy for feelings of pride. In other research, recognition of joy and hate from the voice was higher than shame and love. Nervousness, anger,

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sadness and happiness seem to be fairly easy to recognize from vocal behavior alone. However, surprise, fear and love are often much more challenging to assess (Banse & Scherer, 1996; Pittam & Scherer, 1993). The techniques we provide allow participants to listen for vocal cues, among other nonverbal codes, to assess interactants’ emotional messages. AF 5: Display your Dismay AF 4: Emotional Illustrations In decoding vocally communicated emotion, we must remember that the same prosodic cues can be interpreted in different ways. In her examination of the qualitative data of a study where she investigated the relative accuracy of detecting language learners’ negative emotion from visual and auditory cues, Gregersen (2009) revealed three auditory cues that were particularly problematic for observers. The first was that inaccurate observers confused low volume with anxiety and equated it with uncertainty, remarking on the learner’s hesitancy and speaking softly. The observers who interpreted the same cue correctly had mentioned the learner’s ‘natural pace’ and his ‘quiet but steady flow.’ The second major stumbling block concerned an inability of some observers to separate issues of fluency from negative affect. Inaccurate decoders pointed to the learner’s overuse of fillers and slower pace as an emotional issue when it was more likely a problem caused by low proficiency. Thirdly, the notion of degree also hampered the accurate interpretation of prosodic features. In this study, inaccurate assessors heard only a ‘monotone’ quality in the learner’s voice, whereas those who interpreted the same cues correctly claimed the learner had ‘good inflection/intonation.’ The problem of misinterpreted vocal cues is even greater with TL interactants who are listening in intercultural contexts. The technique we provide uses a pair of dialogues that incorporate the same words but demand different vocal cues to make their meaning clear in completely dissimilar scenarios. AF 48: Identical Words, Distinct Meaning

Prosody resonance contributes to ‘emotional contagion’ Prosody resonance refers to the ongoing interaction between interlocutors that produces emotional feedback, as when one vibrating string on a guitar causes another string to vibrate. The value of the voice in communicating emotion goes beyond a simple recognition of our interlocutor’s state of affective well-being. Hearing voices that express different emotions can sometimes elicit or amplify the corresponding emotional feelings in others, as reflected both in the listener’s own vocal tone and in self-ratings of mood

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(Neumann & Strack, 2000). These, like the former instances that have been previously mentioned of ‘emotional contagion’ found in other nonverbal codes, show that emotions can be conveyed and shared as a largely unconscious process (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). TL interactants participating in the next technique experience how hearing a speaker’s voice convey emotion prompts the corresponding emotion in the listener’s voice. AF 49: Laugh and the World Laughs with You The idea that a listener might respond with emotion similar to that conveyed in the speaker’s voice is analogous to the effects of music. When researchers examined the accuracy of identifying emotions in music they discovered that it parallels the precision in judging emotions in the voice and that many of the same acoustic qualities are used in both. For example, in both modalities increases in tempo and intensity are associated with emotions such as anger and happiness; decreases imply sadness or tenderness (Juslin & Laukka, 2003). The expression of emotion in music and in the tone of our voices share many commonalities (Sundberg, 1998). For example, both speakers and musicians share a ‘common code’ of emotional expression through timing, rate, intensity, intonation and pitch (Juslin & Laukka, 2003). In fact, research that surveyed the emotional consequences of manipulating acoustic attributes reported that changes in pitch, intensity and rate in speech and music produced similar emotional ratings by listeners (Ilie & Thompson, 2006). Furthermore, Trimmer and Cuddy (2008) discovered that it is emotional intelligence and not music training or music perception abilities that successfully predicts the identification of intended emotion in speech and their melodic equivalents. The technique offered allows exploration into how music generates the same powerful emotional effects as that found in voices. AF 50: Your Voice is Music in my Ears! Although there is plenty of unpredictability in the expression of human emotion, most research findings support five generalizations. First, negative emotions are more readily and accurately perceived than the positive ones. Second, speakers who are better at vocally encoding their own emotions are also better at decoding emotions in their interlocutors’ voice. Third, interactants who hail from the same cultures as their interlocutors can identify vocal expressions more accurately. Fourth, interactants have a harder time detecting subtle feelings than they do overt ones. Lastly, interactants who monitor and regulate their own emotions can more accurately identify the feelings of others through vocal cues (Richmond et al., 2012). Our technique

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is a lesson in noticing whereby participants listen to the voices of others for information about their emotional states and personalities. AF 51: Voice Cues Bingo To clarify, TL interactants who are unusually attentive to what they feel and do are more sensitive to others’ vocal cues, probably as a consequence of self-observing their own emotional expression and attempting to control it. This self-monitoring process teaches them which vocal behaviors contribute to the conveyance of particular emotions thus making them more competent evaluators of other communicators’ vocal expressions. High self-monitors surpass others in judging vocal expression and are better at deliberately encoding certain emotions into their voices (Richmond et al., 2012). The technique we offer provides an experience in self-monitoring vocal cues to create greater sensitivity to the vocal cues of others. AF 52: Self-monitoring my Inner and Outer Voices There are also generalizations about prosody and its association with particular affective states. As we have discussed, vocalic cues – not necessarily the content of the message – tell us what our interlocutor feels. Although identifying emotional vocal cues is not a precise science, there are certain behaviors linked to particular emotions (Scherer & Oshinsky, 1977). Thus, with caution and trepidation, we attempt to summarize some of the key vocal cues associated with emotion. Using the information in Table PR3, the technique we provide incorporates role playing in encoding and decoding vocal behaviors that are linked to particular emotions. Table PR3 Emotions and their accompanying vocal cues Sadness Anger Disgust Fear Interest Surprise Happiness

slow rhythm, low pitch, limited harmonics, flat, little activity, drab quick rhythm, high pitch, loud, numerous harmonics, unpleasant, severe slow rhythm; numerous harmonics, flat, hard, limited intonation; repulsed pitch contour up, fast rhythm, strident, acrimonious, inharmonious, penetrating leveled pitch, moderate rhythm and harmonics, energetic, attentive Quick rhythm, high and variable pitch, numerous harmonics, disconcerted, dazed quick rhythm, high pitch, active, energetic, animated, jovial

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AF 53: I’m Going to Paris! Whoooopeee!

Prosody and personality Much of the information about our personalities that people provide to others is presented through voice quality. Voice quality refers to those dominant vocal characteristics that allow us to differentiate one person’s voice from another. It is defined by the long-term positions and states of the various vocal organs, including the lips, jaw, tongue, velum, and vocal cords. Tension, pitch and loudness also play a role in creating our perceptions of people. First, voice quality may be idiosyncratic. Although we may be able to attribute certain personality generalizations to a cluster of vocal qualities, there are other instances when a specific vocal quality is peculiar to the individual. Secondly, voice quality can also convey attitudes. Think about how listeners might glean different attitudes upon hearing the same sentence spoken by two speakers, one with nasalization and the other without (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). Thirdly, languages and accents inherently contain voice quality differences. For instance, speakers of English and French differ in their long-term lip position. English-speakers tend to position their lips in a neutral and moderately active position, whereas French speakers have rounded and robustly active lips (Honikman, 1964). Hence, voice quality can be individual, attitudinal and/or language-specific. Research suggests that the dominant quality of our voices powerfully influences the impressions that we make, and through changes in our vocal cues, we can make marked changes in how others perceive our personalities by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain apparent personality characteristics. Pitch, rate and distinctive overall quality of our voices are attributes of vocal cues that determine which personality characteristics are attributed to us. Research has consistently confirmed the idea that the nature of vocalic communication materially affects the personality characteristics that listeners identify with the communicator (Miyake & Zuckerman, 1993). In addition, listeners consistently associate specific sound attributes – such as rate, pitch or nasality – with the same specific personality traits. In the technique for this tenet, participants match a variety of vocal cues to different personalities and individual differences. AF 54: Personality Parade Prosody is but one variable in the complex system of vocal emotional expression. Our previous prosody tenets reveal that emotions can be conveyed through vocal cues, but does not reveal how the voice conveys emotion.

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One thing is clear: A myriad of interacting and fluctuating variables comprise the total picture of vocal emotional expression. Context cues, the linguistic message, other nonverbal behaviors, individual differences in the communicators and the undeniable existence of multiple ways to express a given emotion all influence the way emotions are expressed and interpreted. Teachers cannot identify key acoustic features and then direct their learners to look them up in a book to see which emotion is being expressed. There are no manuals prescribing nonverbal use and no dictionaries of emotional vocal cues to guide us. Exposure and reflection upon it are key.

Prosody and Cognition Prosody and comprehension and retention Vocal variety is not only important in communicative and affective competence – research also suggests that it enriches cognition. Studies reveal that vocal variety and clarity enhance listeners’ comprehension of orally delivered material, whereas monotone discourse reduces it (Markel, 1965). Warm, positive vocal behavior is also important to classroom learning. Positive vocal cues can serve to reinforce and encourage students to participate more actively in their own learning by talking more and seeking clarification. Positive vocal cues tend to create positive attitudes in students toward the material (Richmond, 2002). Vocal behavior can enhance the clarity of verbal messages which directly contributes to listeners’ comprehension. Verbal utterances are less ambiguous for listeners when speakers use appropriate variations in tone to emphasize, accent, or point out certain parts of the message, and signal to the listener which portions are the most important (McCroskey, 2001). Beyond mere comprehension, experts have also reinforced recommendations for prosodic variety to increase audience retention. Woolbert (1920) discovered that substantial variations in rate, force, pitch and quality resulted in improved retention when compared with the no-variation condition. Experimenting with prose and poetry, Glasgow (1952) established that mono-pitched voices decreased comprehension by more than 10% for both prose and poetry when compared with voices that incorporated variation. Furthermore, characteristics such as nasality and breathiness, as well as inarticulateness and unnaturalness, can hinder listeners’ attention, comprehension and recall (Addington, 1971; Kimble & Seidel, 1991; McCroskey, 2001; Sereno & Hawkins, 1967). In the technique we provide TL speakers highlight, underline, boldface or italicize words or phrases with their vocal cues to contribute to their peers’ ability to comprehend and retain nursery rhymes. CG 26: Minus the Monotone

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The impact of the rate of speech on learning has also been studied extensively in native language contexts producing evidence that listeners are actually quite flexible and that their comprehension does not seem to be greatly impacted by seemingly poor voice-related phenomena. For L1 speakers, increased native language speech rates are inclined to improve listeners’ comprehension and later recall. Experts suggest that we can process and comprehend information much more quickly than we can speak. For this reason, we often let our minds wander while a speaker is presenting. If speakers would talk faster to native language audiences, there would be less chance that listeners would allow their attention to wander, but it is a technique that must be cautiously applied – listeners might be unwilling to exert the effort necessary to keep up with a fast talker. Obviously, it is also possible to speak too quickly. Excessive speed may also produce problems in a speaker’s perceived credibility (Richmond et al., 2012). For native English speakers, the normal speaking rate is between 125 and 190 words per minute. Comprehension starts to decline once the rate tops 200 words per minute. The degree to which listeners need to process the message also varies. Faster speech rates tend to have a negative impact when we need to listen in order to understand and remember a message for the future as opposed to short term listening (where we store for 40 seconds or less), or interpretive listening where we need to ‘listen between the lines’ of the utterance (King & Behnke, 1989). Obviously individual ability to process information at rapid rates differs widely, particularly when considering TL proficiency differences. The prevailing conclusion from studies of native language speech rate is that individuals can comprehend messages at much faster speeds than they are customarily exposed to. Individual listeners under laboratory conditions where they were allowed to volitionally modify the rates of a presentation, on the average chose to increase the speed by 1.5 times (Orr, 1968). For TL communicators, research presents somewhat contradictory conclusions. In a study that investigated the influence of foreign accent and speaking rate on native speaker comprehension, it was found that an increase in speaking rate from a regular to a fast rate resulted in decreased comprehension for the most heavily accented speaker, demonstrating that TL communicators with heavy accents might want to slow down (Anderson-Hsieh & Koehler, 1988). In another study examining the speaking rates that TL listeners prefer, Derwing and Munro (2001) discovered that normal rates were preferred to slow rates and that the projected ‘ideal’ rates were faster for all listeners than the actual mean production rate of the TL speakers. The evidence indicates that once TL listeners have achieved high proficiency levels, there may be no need to further reduce the speed of the TL input they receive. That is to say, it is commonly assumed that speaking slower improves intelligibility, but this was not borne out in research (Derwing, 1990; Derwing & Munro, 2001).

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CG 27: Locating Learners’ Sweet Spot

Conclusion It’s been said that timing is everything, and people speaking with each other is something that is exquisitely timed. Prosody makes a joke either funny or flat, an apology sincere or snide and an expression of love endearing or just plain creepy. Vocal cues increase the communicative efficacy of a speaker’s messages and transmit the emotional tone that is appropriate (or not) for the situation and his or her affective intentions. Furthermore, TL listeners who pay attention to prosodic cues, and practice improving them, may increase their comprehension and retention of speakers’ utterances. To bring this section on Prosody full circle, we end the chapter with the way it began; with a joke: A mother and her daughter were sitting in church listening to The Reverend sermonize on the topic of humanity’s temporal earthly presence. As the pastor came to the conclusion of his pomp-and-circumstance-filled homily, he raised his hands in the air and reiterated the crux of his message, ‘… so, we are all but dust.’ Puzzled, the young girl leaned over to her mother and whispered questioningly in her ear, ‘Mommy, what’s butt dust?’

Part 3 Activities

Communicative Techniques

CM 1: Confounding Cultural Contexts Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world. – Helder Camara Communicative aim: To enhance sociolinguistic competency through roleplaying the differences that cultures exhibit in gesture frequency, pointing conventions, use of space and touch, and form and frequency of listener feedback (ex.: head-nodding, shaking, vocalizations, etc.). Level: All

Preparation Write the following instructions on separate index cards: Card A: Gesture and nod your head continually Make your movements large Point to things with your index finger Stand very close to your conversation partners – invade personal spaces Intermittently touch your partner Use wide vocal variation (quiet and loud, high and low pitch, etc.) Card B: Do not gesture or nod at all Use your lips to point to things Stand far away from your conversation partners Speak slowly and softly using baby-talk Card C: Gesture and nod your head at times Make your movements small but noticeable Use your foot to point to things Stand about three feet from your conversation partners Speak rapidly, melodically and with a deep voice 169

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that, even though there may be individual variation in people’s nonverbal conduct, one’s culture is still very important in forming nonverbal habits. (2) Place learners in three groups and give each group one of the prepared index cards. Explain to them that in this activity, they are at an international airport and that their plane is delayed. The airline has invited them to their lounge to pass the time. Tell them to use the index cards that were distributed and use those cues in their interactions. (3) Allow the three groups to mingle for several minutes and then call time. (4) Invite the groups to brainstorm two lists: one that describes the difficult communication events they endured and the other that outlines what they learned from interacting with culturally dissimilar others. (5) De-brief this activity in whole group, asking group members to share their lists. Remind them that cultures exhibit differences in gesture frequency, pointing conventions, use of space, form and frequency of listener feedback (ex.: head-nodding and shaking), and vocal cues and that for effective intercultural communication, it is important for all parties in the communication process to walk in the cultural shoes of others.

CM 2: Emblematic Problematic No human culture is inaccessible to someone who makes the effort to understand, to learn, to inhabit another world. – Henry Louis Gates Jr. Communicative aim: To enhance sociolinguistic competency through experimentation with different emblematic gestures to greet and leave-take, respond, maintain interpersonal control, and to insult or appraise another’s actions or appearance. Level: All

Preparation Write the following terms on the board: greet, leave-take, respond, maintain interpersonal control, insult another’s action or appearance, and appraise another’s action or appearance.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that emblems are hand gestures that differ from culture to culture and that different hand movements are used for social functions such as greeting, leave-taking, responding,

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maintaining interpersonal control and insulting and appraising others’ actions or appearance. Show them that understanding an unfamiliar emblem in social interaction can be as complicated as understanding an unknown word. To exemplify this, give a visual, nonverbal example of each of the functions written on the board (for example, wave your hand high in the air to say ‘hello’ and/or show a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ gesture to display appraisal). Divide learners into two groups and tell them that each group represents a different culture. Separate them into completely different spaces so that they can work without the other group hearing or seeing. Invite them to use the terms on the board and use their creativity to invent new emblems for each social function. Have all group members practice them. Next, send one member from each group to ‘visit’ the other culture, interact with them for a few minutes, and then come back. Continue the visits until all of the members from each group have interacted with the other group. In the same groups, ask learners to write what they learned from the other group’s nonverbal behavior. Have groups come together and compare their projections from their visits with what the groups had originally created as emblematic guidelines for social interaction. De-brief this technique by asking learners what they learned about emblems and the complexity of their interpretations from their visits to ‘another culture.’

CM 3: Enigmatic Emblems (Adapted from Alex Cross, UsingEnglish.com) Settling into a new country is like getting used to a new pair of shoes. At first they pinch a little, but you like the way they look, so you carry on. The longer you have them, the more comfortable they become. Until one day without realizing it you reach a glorious plateau. Wearing those shoes is like wearing no shoes at all. The more scuffed they get, the more you love them and the more you can’t imagine life without them. – Tahir Shah, In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams Communicative aim: To enhance sociolinguistic competency by increased awareness that gestures that mean one thing in one culture can mean something totally different in another. Level: All

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Preparation (1) Put the following terms that represent gestures that vary from one culture to another on slips of paper and place them in a hat or box from which learners can draw: (1) ‘Pay, please.’ (2) ‘Time out!’ (3) (in a restaurant) ‘Waiter! The bill please!’ (4) ‘You are crazy!’ (5) ‘I swear!’ (6) ‘Eat it.’ (7) ‘I’m cold!’ (8) ‘I’m hot!’ (9) ‘You’re drunk!’ (10) ‘Pleased to meet you!’ (11) ‘After you…’ (12) ‘This way…’ (13) ‘That’s too loud!’ (14) ‘You’re late!’ (15) ‘Excuse me. Can I have your attention?’ (16) ‘I won!’ (17) ‘I’m hungry!’ (18) ‘I’m thirsty!’ (20) ‘Well done!’ (21) ‘Be quiet!’ (22) ‘Please, I’m begging you!’ (23) ‘That’s a bad idea!’ (24) ‘Repeat.’ (25) ‘Mind your own business!’ (26) ‘Time’s up!’ (2) Arrange chairs into two concentric circles, one inside the other. The outer circle of chairs faces the inner circle so that the inner and outer chairs are paired.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by showing learners the ‘thumbs up’ sign and asking them what that means in their country. Allow a few moments for discussion. Next, explain that in some cultures, it is regarded as a childish gesture (such as sticking out one’s tongue), whereas in others it is understood as something obscene (similar to the meaning found in displaying the middle finger in other cultures). Ask learners to imagine the trouble that could become of them if they made the wrong gesture in the wrong culture. (2) Invite learners to take a seat in one of the concentric circles so that each learner has a partner. Go around the circles requesting that each student reach into the hat and select a slip of paper. Explain that the word(s) have gestural equivalents that differ from one culture to the next. (3) Instruct learners in the outer circle to mime his or her culture’s gestural equivalent of the word(s) written on their slip of paper. Tell learners in the inner circle to verbally respond with what his or her culture would deem appropriate. Then ask partners to switch roles – i.e. the inner circle person mimes, while the outer circle person responds orally with words. (4) When the partners have each had their turn, ask learners in the outside circle to rotate one seat to the right. Repeat the exercise using the same cues drawn from the hat. (5) De-brief this activity by asking learners which gestures were the most complicated. Were any of them taboo? Was there mutual understanding? Was there more than one way that a culture’s members might gesture the same meaning?

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CM 4: Allow Me to Explicitly Explain… One of the most effective ways to learn about oneself is by taking seriously the culture of others. It forces you to pay attention to those details of life which differentiate them from you. – Edward T. Hall Communicative aim: To increase sociolinguistic competency through explicitly instructing and being instructed in the meaning of culturally specific emblematic gestures. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that it is a sequel to the wagon wheel activity that preceded it and remind learners that emblematic gestures are culture specific hand movements that can take the place of words. Inform them that research suggests that the best way to acquire them is through explicit instruction (Jungheim, 1991), and that in this technique, they will become the teachers. (2) This technique can be carried out in small groups (made up of culturally similar members), or as individuals (in the case where there is only one learner who represents a culture). Ask groups (or individuals) to brainstorm a list of at least ten emblems that members of their cultures often use. If all of your learners are from the same culture, ask them to create lists of emblems that they have seen on movies or television. (3) Invite groups (or individuals) to take turns going to the front of the class to teach their chosen emblems. Ask them to perform the emblem while giving its verbal equivalent. Keep track of how many emblems were performed. (4) When all the groups (or individuals) have had their turns, ask the class to number on a piece of paper the number of emblems that were taught in Step 3. Ask groups (or individuals) to take turns going forward again to perform their emblems but rather than say what it means, have the classmates who are seated write its linguistic equivalent on their papers. (5) When all groups (individuals) have gone up a second time to ‘test’ their classmates, ask each group to provide the correct answer so that classmates can check their written responses. (6) De-brief this technique by taking a poll of how many each learner got correct. Which ones were the easiest to remember? Ask learners to discuss scenarios that could cause intercultural communication problems if some of the emblems they were just taught were encoded or decoded incorrectly.

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CM 5: Thinking for Speaking: How My Language Influences My Gestures We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society. – Alan Wilson Watts Communicative aim: To increase sociolinguistic competency through the realization that the way we gesture is influenced by the language we speak. Level: All

Preparation Choose a written TL narrative passage that matches the proficiency level of your learners that when spoken would trigger learners to use gesture.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining to learners that because speech and gestures are so closely linked, differences between languages might also extend to the gestures that accompany them (Slobin, 2004). (2) Pair learners with similar L1s and give each dyad a copy of the chosen TL passage. Ask pairs to translate the passage into their first language and memorize it with the purpose of later speaking it aloud. (3) Invite one member from each pair to recite the passage in the TL while the other partner carefully watches the gestures produced. Then ask the same learner to recite the same passage translated into the learner’s L1. Ask the listener to compare how the speaker’s gesture changed from one reading to the other. (4) Next, switch roles. The pair member who had watched in the previous step now reads, and the person who spoke, now watches. (5) De-brief this technique by asking for feedback from pairs about what they had discovered concerning the differences in gesturing between the two languages. Were there other variables that they think may have influenced their gesturing in one language as opposed to the other?

CM 6: Roles and Regulations We see that every external motion, act, gesture, whether voluntary or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by internal feeling or emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind. – H.P. Blavatsky, Russian writer

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Communicative aim: To increase sociolinguistic competency through roleplaying the situationally appropriate nonverbal displays that accompany speech acts in specific social contexts. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation (1) Write the following words (indicative of ‘speech acts’) on separate slips of paper and put them in a hat (bag): denying, disagreeing, informing, insisting, advising, asking, begging, excusing, forbidding, instructing, ordering, permitting, requesting, requiring, suggesting, urging, warning, agreeing, inviting, offering, promising, volunteering apologizing, congratulating, greeting, thanking. (2) In another hat, put slips of paper with the following pairs of words: parent/child; teacher/student; doctor/patient; police officer/speeder; judge/defendant; business owner/secretary; salesperson/customer.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that speech acts (give examples from the list above) are difficult because they often contain culturally loaded expectations. Speakers must not only choose the appropriate language, but also make sure their nonverbal cues consider the situational factors of formality, level of education, mood, topic, genre and intention (Gullberg, 2008). (2) Place learners in pairs and have each dyad draw two slips of paper, one from each hat. Give learners three minutes to write a short script using language appropriate to the people and speech act that they drew from the hats. (3) Invite them to enact their short role play in front of the class. Discuss the language and nonverbal behavior displayed. (4) Repeat this activity by putting the relationship word pairs back in the hat but removing the speech act slips already role-played. (5) Once all the pairs have had the opportunity to role-play, put the following headings on the board: Language, Gestures, Voice, Posture, Eye Contact, Space, Touch and Facial Expressions. Have learners brainstorm the precise ways that nonverbal cues changed due to the nature of the interactants’ roles. (6) De-brief this activity by asking learners to share their brainstormed ideas concerning how language and nonverbal behavior changed dependent upon the social relationship of the interlocutors. What do they think is the social factor with the greatest influence? Do they believe that social relationships change their exchanges in their home cultures as much as they do in their TL culture?

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CM 7: Facial Emblems of the Rich and Famous You know your mother, Malfoy? The expression on her face – like she’s got dung under her nose? Is she like that all the time or just because you were with her?’ – J.K. Rowling Communicative aim: To increase sociolinguistic competence by providing opportunities for TL learners to explore how culturally bound facial emblems have consistent linguistic translations and that their expression differs from the emotion they are supposed to express (Ekman & Friesen, 1975). Level: All

Preparation Provide the following ‘answers’ on a handout (one for every pair of learners) (a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

‘How surprising!’ ‘Wow!’ ‘How disgusting!’ ‘I’m puzzled’ or ‘I doubt that.’ ‘You know what I mean!’ (North Americans might do this with a conspiratorial wink) (f) ‘I disapprove!’ (North Americans might do this with a protruding tongue) (g) ‘I don’t know.’

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that emblems (nonverbal cues that have consistent linguistic translations) are not only found in gesture, but in facial expressions as well. They provide a way for speakers to address an emotion while at the same time indicating that they are not actually feeling it. (2) Read off the first expression on the prepared list (‘How surprising!’) and ask learners to perform the facial expressions from their cultures that might replace it. Tell them to freeze, keeping the expression on their faces. Find one learner whose facial expression best represents the idea that facial emblems are usually performed by only part of the face. Draw the rest of the class’s attention to that. Explain that dropping the jaw and holding the mouth open without displaying other features of an actual surprised expression signals that a comment was surprising.

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(3) Next, read the rest of the phrases on the list one by one. As they are doing each one, have learners look around at their classmates. Ask them if they know of any other facial expressions that would be considered ‘emblematic’ in their cultures. Invite them to model them and have classmates enact them too. (4) Place learners in dyads and ask them to choose a famous person. Pass out the handout that was prepared in advance. Tell them to create a series of questions that a reporter might ask to the famous person they chose but that their queries can only be answered with facial emblems. The handout contains a few sample answers with which the famous person might respond. Have groups think of several more facial emblems that they might include in their interview. Invite dyads to arrange their questions in a logical, conversational order. (5) Invite the pairs of learners to the front of the room to role play their interview. (6) De-brief this technique by discussing whether there was much facial emblem variation among the cultures in the class. Were the emblems still comprehensible across groups?

CM 8: Too Fast and Forward (Adapted from Remland & Neal, 2004) Love knows not distance: it hath no continent; its eyes are for the stars. – Gilbert Parker Communicative aim: To increase learners’ sociolinguistic competency by analyzing the interactional effects of conversants who violate gaze and proximity norms. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Create a set of the following instructions for every group of three learners in the class. •

Conversationalist 1: Carry on a conversation with Individual 2. Any ageand proficiency-appropriate topic will suffice. Make eye contact and stare at Individual 2 – do not remove your gaze. At the same time, slowly and carefully (so your movements will not be noticed) begin getting closer to Individual 2 as you talk. Move closer only when you can do it without being found out. Reach out and touch him or her as often as

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possible. Get as close as you can before he or she realizes what you are doing. Your ultimate objective is to get your partner to take a step back. Conversationalist 2: Carry on a conversation with Individual 1. Pose opinions that are in direct opposition to those of your partner. Important: While you are disagreeing, observe your partner’s eye contact and facial expression, paying close attention to nonverbal behaviors indicative of frustration or defensiveness. Observer 3: Your goal is to watch. Position yourself so you can read all the nonverbal signals but be far enough away so that you are not part of the conversation. Be sure to observe how space is used between interactants, the eye contact used by Individual 1 and its effect on Individual 2 as well as any avoidance behaviors used.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining in vague terms (lest learners are clued into the real purpose) that there are norms and expectations for communication that are imposed by one’s culture. (2) Divide the class into groups of three. Hand out the instructions for Individuals One, Two and Three. Do not let group members see each other’s directions. Tell learners to follow the instructions and begin their conversations. Allow roughly five minutes. (3) Ask all Conversationalist 2s how long it took them to realize that they had been deliberately misled by their instructions. Explain that the true purpose of this exercise was to observe how Conversationalist 2 reacts to a violation of personal space and gazing incurred by Conversationalist 1. (4) De-brief this technique by asking how far back Conversationalist 2s moved. Why did they do that? Were they even aware that they were moving away from their conversation partners? What other avoidance behaviors were implemented related to gazing, body orientation and other defensive cues such as arm crossing and self-adaptive (selftouching) mechanisms?

CM 9: Do I Raise My Gaze or Lessen My Look? To see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, to feel with the heart of another. For the time being, this seems to me an admissible definition of what we call social feeling. – Alfred Adler Communicative aim: To increase learners’ sociolinguistic competency by noticing the differences in eye behavior between learners’ home and TL cultures. Level: All

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Preparation Prepare a copy of the following survey for each learner: Survey: Noticing Cultural Differences in Eye Behavior Fill in the blank with the number you feel most accurately describes your home and target language cultures: (1) Never; (2) Rarely; (3) Sometimes; (4) Often; (5) Always In my home culture: _____ Strangers make eye contact on the street _____ Men and women who are acquainted (but not in a relationship) make eye contact _____ People of different social positions and authority statuses maintain the same eye contact _____ People of different ages maintain the same eye contact In my target language culture: _____ Strangers make eye contact on the street _____ Men and women who are acquainted (but not in a relationship) make eye contact _____ People of different social positions and authority statuses maintain the same eye contact _____ People of different ages maintain the same eye contact Place an ‘X’ on the line that represents the perceptions of your home and target language cultures: In my home culture, people who maintain eye contact are perceived as: Confident——————————————-Unconfident Impolite———————————————Polite Trustworthy —————————————Deceitful Disrespectful —————————————Respectful Interested ——————————————-Disinterested Inappropriate—————————————Appropriate Sincere———————————————– Insincere In my TL culture, people who maintain eye contact are perceived as: Confident——————————————-Unconfident Impolite———————————————Polite Trustworthy —————————————Deceitful Disrespectful —————————————Respectful Interested ——————————————Disinterested Inappropriate—————————————Appropriate Sincere———————————————– Insincere

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that an effective way to make a good first impression on someone from another culture and to demonstrate cultural competency is to learn the eye contact behaviors of the target culture. Explain that the degree and intensity of their eye contact may serve to distinguish them as either trustworthy and friendly or sneaky and suspicious (DeVito, 2014). (2) Hand out a survey to each learner and ask them to fill it in. If there are members of the class with the same home culture, invite them to form small groups to complete it. (3) Upon completion, ask learners to compare their answers in small groups. Invite them to answer the following questions: (a) What are some of the consequences of inappropriately making or maintaining eye contact? (b) Could answers on the first part of the survey influence how they might answer the second part? For example, would the gender or age of strangers who make eye contact affect their answers concerning appropriateness? (c) Under what circumstances might learners change their responses? For example, would a child making eye contact with a reprimanding parent be perceived as more disrespectful than if the child and parent were enjoying a conversation? (4) De-brief this technique by asking learners what they think would be the greatest challenges about nonverbally communicating in their TL culture. Ask them to reiterate the similarities and differences between the cultures that were discussed in their groups.

CM 10: Postural Priorities by Culture Often we may even smile or laugh at adversity, but all people share the same passions. They are merely manifest differently according to one’s culture and conditioning. – Yasuo Kuwahara Communicative aim: To increase learners’ sociolinguistic awareness by exploring the degree to which cultural beliefs influence the values that are assigned to different interpretations of posture. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that culture is a significant variable in the framing of priorities concerning the importance of being perceived

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in a certain way (Matsumoto & Kudoh, 1987) – and particularly in the case of this activity – with perceptions that an individual’s posture creates. Ask individuals to rank the seven attributes in the blanks in the first column from the least valued (1) to the most valued (7) in terms of what they believe their own home culture advocates. In the second column of blanks, have them rank the same seven attributes but consider what they believe their target language culture values. Explain, for example, that research into intercultural communications suggests that Japanese tend to value power over likeability, but that North Americans tend to value the opposite. (a) Inclusive (to involve everyone) (b) Congruent (to treat all equally) (c) Open (to be self-disclosing) (d) Confident (to be self-assured) (e) Likeable (to be perceived as pleasant) (f) Assertive (to defend one’s rights without negating those of others) (g) Powerful (to have authority and leadership) Place learners in small groups and have them compare their answers. Ask them to explain their criteria for answering as they did. Over the next week, ask learners to notice the posture of people in their daily encounters and the way they carry themselves. Tell them to note the seven attributes listed above and to find someone whose posture embodies each given attribute and someone whose does the opposite. Have them describe the observed people’s posture in detail, using words like relaxed vs tense, erect vs slouched, leaning forward vs back and open vs closed. Again, place learners in small groups and with data in hand ask them to discuss their observational findings. Tell them to draw similarities and differences within their own data as well as among group members’ data. De-brief this technique by asking learners about the differences in the priorities of attributes among cultures. What ideas do they take away? Discuss the small group findings about the way that people with and without the aforementioned attributes carry themselves. Was it easy to distinguish between people who did and did not have them?

CM 11: Contrasting Contact Diversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together. – Jacqueline Woodson

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Communicative aim: To increase learners’ sociolinguistic competence through deepening their understanding of ‘contact’ and ‘noncontact’ cultures and raising their awareness of differences between their home culture and TL culture in terms of communication patterns using space and touch. Level: All

Preparation Prepare a copy of the following survey for each learner: Contact/NonContact Culture Survey 1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neither agree nor disagree 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly disagree Compared to my TL culture, people in my home culture face each other more directly during interaction 1

2

3

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Compared to my TL culture, people in my home culture interact more closely during interaction. 1

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Compared to my TL culture, people in my home culture touch one another more during interaction. 1

2

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Compared to my TL culture, people in my home culture look one another in the eye more during interaction. 1

2

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Compared to my TL culture, people in my home culture speak in a louder voice during interaction. 1

2

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that a loose distinction is made when describing the interaction patterns of cultures as ‘contact’ or

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‘noncontact’ but that, although research supports these predicted dissimilarities, they must view the distinctions with caution as these broad cultural behaviors may or may not manifest themselves in every conversation within a culture as groups within the culture may behave differently from one another (Hall, 1966; Remland et al., 1991; Watson, 1970). Explain that the purpose of this activity is to compare their home culture with their TL culture to better understand how people interact differently in terms of space and touch. Hand out a survey to each learner and ask them to fill it out using the 1 to 5 Likert Scale provided. Ask learners to tally up their scores. Invite learners to share their outcomes and write them on the board. Explain that the higher their score, the greater contact their home culture has over their TL culture. Place learners in groups of four. Tell them that these are only loose parameters as not every conversation within a culture will necessarily manifest the behaviors. Tell them as a group to brainstorm a list of circumstances in which the items from the survey would NOT be true in their culture. Provide the example of interacting with a person of the same sex as opposed to someone from the opposite sex. De-brief this technique by asking groups to share their brainstormed lists with the class. Were there any consistencies? Disclose the research that suggests that how well people know each other, the content of their conversation, the gender of the interactants and socio-economic position may influence space and touch cultural norms. Ask learners whether they think it is important to accommodate their spatial and touching behavior to the norms of their TL culture and what are the implications behind one decision or the other.

CM 12: Attuned Touch Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts. – Charles Dickens Communicative aim: To increase learners’ sociolinguistic competency by deepening their understanding of culturally appropriate haptic behaviors as defined by where and who. Level: All

Preparation Make enough copies the following chart so that each learner receives two.

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Stranger

Mother

Father

Sibling

Same-sex friend

Oppositesex friend

Professional acquaintance/ co-worker

Head Back Face Hand Cheek Knee Hair Shoulder Foot Arms Legs

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining to learners that the purpose of this technique is to increase their awareness of how touching norms are culturally defined and are strongly influenced by what part of the body is touched and the personal characteristics that distinguish one interactant from another (Knapp & Hall, 2010). (2) Distribute two charts to each learner. Invite them to put an ‘X’ in those boxes in the first chart that correspond to the body regions and people who would most likely touch in their home cultures. (3) Place learners in small groups and have them compare and contrast the information in their charts. (4) With the second chart, tell learners to take the next week and observe people in their TL culture and likewise fill in the chart. If their TL is the one spoken where they are currently living and studying language, tell them to watch people as they go about their daily lives. If learners are in a foreign language environment (i.e. learning their TL in a culture different from the one(s) where it is spoken), tell them to watch movies, YouTube videos or other authentic sources to get the information. (5) Instruct learners that as they are filling in the chart to also make notes as to the circumstances in which they saw the behavior. Questions they might answer are: Was it in a public place? What was the function of the touch (i.e. affectionate, guiding, controlling)? (6) After the second chart has been completed, place learners in the same small group as Step 3 and have them compare and contrast their findings. If there are differences in their findings, can they be explained by the notes they took on the circumstances surrounding the observation?

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(7) De-brief this technique by asking groups to share whether they had unexplained differences. Discuss as a group. Ask learners what the biggest differences were between their home and TL cultures in terms of haptic behaviors. Which were the most surprising?

CM 13: Popping Bubbles Space perception is not only a matter of what can be perceived but what can be screened out. People brought up in different cultures learn as children, without ever knowing that they have done so, to screen out one type of information while paying close attention to another. Once set, these perceptual matters apparently remain quite stable throughout life. – Edward T. Hall Communicative aim: To increase learners’ sociolinguistic competency by exploring their own spatial comfort zones and building their awareness of the cultural norms and personal preferences that guide interactants’ use of space. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that there are essentially four different distance zones that interactants can maintain: intimate (from touching to approximately 18 inches and normally reserved for a very select few of close friends and family); personal (from roughly 18 inches to four feet and is negotiated during conversation with friends and close associates); social (from about four to eight feet and is the most common one among interactants); and public (can be as far apart as one can find in a huge stadium). Explain that these spaces are dictated by both culture and personal preference (Hall, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1973, 1983). (2) Ask learners to pair up and stand facing each other. First ask them to stand with their toes touching, then to stand an arm’s length away by putting a hand on their partner’s shoulder and then dropping their arm. (3) Next tell them to take a step back and stand fingertip to fingertip by measuring the distance with their arms and then dropping them. (4) Then ask one learner in each dyad to shift to a distance that feels comfortable for conversation while the other partner remains stationary. (5) Finally, ask the learners who did not shift the first time to now find their comfortable distance while the other stays put. (6) De-brief this technique by asking learners to talk about which distances were the most and least comfortable for them. Compare and contrast the preferences of both learners in the dyads. Did one have a larger

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‘bubble’ than the other? While maintaining an uncomfortable distance, what did learners do to erect an imaginary ‘barrier’? Did they cross their arms or avoid eye contact? Discuss the role that culture may have played in the exercise.

CM 14: Turn-taking Talk No man would listen to your talk if he didn’t know that it was his turn next. – Ed Howe Communicative aim: To enhance discourse competency by raising learners’ awareness of the role of nonverbal regulatory gestures, eye behavior and vocal cues in turn-taking. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that the nonverbal cues we use to control and regulate our conversations with others are usually automatic and thus are performed under communicators’ radar. (2) Divide learners into two groups and form two large separate circles. Tell them they will be participating in two different activities, both of which will be friendly competitions that draw their attention to and make them notice the nonverbal cues that signal the passing of who has the floor. (3) Instruct them that when you give the signal, each group is to say the letters of the alphabet in order without anybody saying the same letter at the same time. No other sounds are allowed and only nonverbal cues are to be used to indicate who goes next. If two people talk at the same time, the group must start again. The first group who gets to ‘Z’ without talking on top of one another is the winner. (4) Next, have the members of each team appoint one person as their leader. This person instigates a nonverbal activity (such as hand clapping or foot stomping) that the other team members must follow. The leader then forwards the leadership role to another team member through nonverbal signals. This can be done by winking, nodding or some other nonverbal action. When the new leader takes over, the group must attempt to determine who to follow. (5) De-brief this activity by brainstorming in whole group the kinds of signals that were sent to initiate a change of turn. Which were the most effective? Which were the least? What happened when signals went unnoticed or misunderstood?

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CM 15: Dodging Dialogue Disruptions I can’t just tell the guys I want the ball, I have to do it with my body language. – LaMarcus Aldridge Communicative aim: To increase discourse competency by noticing the importance of bodily cues in shifting speaker and listener roles. Level: All

Preparation Place learners’ chairs back-to-back in pairs

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by sharing the above quote by LaMarcus Aldridge, a basketball player, and explain that just as Aldridge must use body language to request or give up his turn with the ball on the court, so too must interactants use body language to request, deny, yield or maintain their listening and speaking turns. Inform learners that conversational turn-taking cues can be classified as those that the speaker uses to maintain or yield the talking turn or those that the listener uses to request or decline an invitation to talk. (2) Invite learners to sit in pairs with their backs to one another. Ask them to converse on a topic that has recently been part of the coursework. Choose a topic that will demand interaction and ask them to pay attention to how the conversation flows. (3) After a minute or two, ask learners to stop sharing and move their chairs about five feet away from their partner’s, still keeping them back to back, and continue talking for another minute. (4) Stop the conversations and ask learners to share with the class how they felt about the communication. (5) Repeat the exercise, but this time have the chairs facing one another at less than an arm’s length distance and ask them to pay attention to what their interlocutor does with his/her hands, eyes and voice to regulate the conversation. (6) De-brief this technique with a class conversation about the signals that we unconsciously send in conversation to cede, demand or maintain the floor. Ask them whether their partner used the termination of a gesture, a change in gaze direction, touching or specific variations in vocal cues to signal these things. Was there more confusion and interruptions in the first conversation as opposed to the second? What kind of nonverbal feedback (head nodding, eye contact, facial expression) were partners giving each other as they spoke?

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CM 16: Rehearsing Culturally Relevant Regulators To effectively communicate with others, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. – Anthony Robbins Communicative aim: To enhance discourse and sociolinguistic competency through noticing and practicing culturally defined turn-taking strategies. Levels: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation (1) For Step 3, there are several options for viewing authentic, English-language videos or programs: (a) Access the online video materials that accompany this text and play the corresponding footage in class; (b) Ask learners to watch an English-language television program or movie at home; (c) Play an English-language movie or television program in class; (2) Place five poster boards or sheets of newsprint around the room, each with one of the following headings: ‘Facial expressions,’ ‘Gestures,’ ‘Vocal Cues,’ ‘Touch’ and ‘Eye contact’

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that different communication situations demand that turn-taking is managed differently in conversation. Introduce this notion by asking learners to think about how interactants in their first language regulate who speaks and when. Is over-lapping permitted or even expected? Do silences and longer pauses make interactants uncomfortable? Is there a tendency for interactants to wait their turns? (2) Tell learners that different cues are used for regulating turn-taking in conversation, among them are facial expressions, gestures, vocal cues, eye contact and touch. (3) Using one of the options listed in ‘Preparations’ above, ask learners to watch an authentic-English-language video, movie, or television program. Direct learners to pay attention to the facial expressions, gestures, touching, vocal cues and eye contact used by the people in conversation while they are watching the program and to take notes on the nonverbal cues that they notice. (4) Divide learners into groups of four. Initiate a ‘gallery walk.’ Assign each group to one of the poster boards hanging on the wall. Give them three

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minutes to brainstorm and write down with a marker as many instances of that cue as they could find from the video clip. At the end of three minutes, call time and ask the groups to move to the next poster and repeat the activity, first reading what the other group had written and then adding to it. Repeat this exercise until all of the groups have seen all of the posters. (5) Read the learners’ written responses from the posters. Discuss. (6) Invite learners in their groups to practice the turn-taking strategies that they had just seen in the video, wrote about during the gallery walk, and discussed as a whole group. (7) De-brief this technique by writing the following prompt on the board: ‘What are possible consequences of not following these conversational cues? Are the consequences worth considering?’ Discuss.

CM 17: Mediating Memories; Negotiating Dreams We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they’re called memories. Some take us forward, they’re called dreams. – Jeremy Irons Communicative aim: To increase discourse and grammatical competency by using gestures and vocal cues in meaning negotiation and interaction. Level: All

Preparation Put the following instructions on cards that can be separated into two piles for each pair of learners in your class. Speaker Card 1: Talk about dreams you have for your life. While speaking, gesture and use vocal cues to elicit several specific words from your partner.

Listener Card 1: Verbally provide the words that your partner elicits.

Speaker Card 2: Continue talking about your dreams. While speaking, nonverbally indicate (using vocal cues also) to your partner that you need some time to think of a word.

Listener Card 2: Nonverbally signal that your partner can maintain his or her speaking turn.

Speaker Card 3: Talk about fond memories you have of your family. While speaking, introduce the topic of your mother but then use the incorrect pronoun ‘he.’

Listener Card 3: Use gestures to nonverbally clarify who your partner is referring to.

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Speaker Card 4: Continue talking about your family memories. First, say something you know your partner will agree with. Next, say something controversial that you believe your partner will disagree with.

Listener Card 4: Nonverbally provide signals of agreement and disagreement to the things your partner says.

Speaker Card 5: Talk about your language class. Refer to objects or people in your present environment using words such as ‘this,’ ‘that,’ ‘he’ or ‘she,’ pointing to the things or people you are referring to. Use the appropriate vocal features for emphasis.

Listener Card 5: Direct your attention to those objects/people your partner is talking about. Nonverbally signal whether you understand your partner’s referent.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that there are many ways that TL learners can keep the flow of conversation going smoothly by using nonverbal and vocal cues to elicit interactional adjustments – among which are gestures and vocal variation that elicit words, clarify coreferents, signal on-going word searches, mark agreement and direct interlocutors’ attention (Gullberg, 1998). (2) Pair learners and assign the role of either ‘speaker’ or ‘listener’ to each person. Provide each dyad a set of ‘speaker’ cards and ‘listener’ cards. (3) Tell speakers and listeners to both draw Card 1. Advise them to be sure that they are drawing cards with the same number on them so that when the speaker has Card 1, so does the listener. (4) Allow time to complete the instructions. Call time and instruct them to take Card 2. Continue until all five cards have been drawn and acted upon. (5) Next, have members in each dyad switch roles: speakers now become learners and vice versa. Go through the stack of five cards again. (6) De-brief this technique by asking learners if the gestures and vocal cues that the card instructed them to perform seemed natural. Had they been aware of making these gestures and varying their vocal cues before? Explain that interactants who actively assist each other can improve their conversation and therefore their language proficiency through negotiation, co-construction and prompting.

CM 18: The Cure for Communication Hiccups: 3Cs and an A The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard. – William Hazlitt

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Communicative aim: To increase discourse and grammatical competency through using ‘3Cs & an A’ gestures to negotiate interaction. Level: All

Preparation Make enough copies of the following dialogue to distribute to every learner in the class: A: I went to the park yesterday and saw a sludge. (DO YOU UNDERSTAND?) B: (I DON’T UNDERSTAND.) A: You know, that playground thing children sit on and go down. (DO YOU UNDERSTAND?) B: (I UNDERSTAND.) A: Did you used to play on one when you were a child? B: Yes, as a matter of fact, there was one in a park near my house, but my favorite thing was the teeter totter. (DO YOU UNDERSTAND?) A: Is that sometimes called a seesaw? (DID I UNDERSTAND?) B: (YOU UNDERSTOOD)

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that when learners interact in the TL, they can negotiate their meaning through ‘3Cs and an A’1 that incorporate these related self-questions: ∗ Comprehension checks (Do you understand?) ∗ Confirmation checks (Do I understand?) ∗ Clarification requests (I don’t understand.) ∗Agreement markers (I understand. You understand.) Explain that to keep the flow of conversation moving, these negotiation tactics are often done nonverbally or vocally. Inform them that through these next steps, learners will become aware of how to capitalize on nonverbal and vocal cues to negotiate smooth TL interactions. (2) Place learners in pairs, and distinguish Student A from Student B. Give each student a copy of the prepared dialogue. (3) Tell learners to read their assigned bolded parts aloud, but to communicate the lines written in capital letters in a nonverbal way. Provide a few minutes for practice.

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(4) Next, invite pairs to use the prepared dialogue as a model to collaboratively write one of their own. When finished, have pairs exchange their dialogues with another dyad and give another few minutes for learners A and B to interact. Challenge them to find different nonverbal and vocalic ways to communicate the lines written in capital letters. (5) De-brief this technique by asking learners to share some of the successful and unsuccessful nonverbal cues they used to negotiate their interactions. Did it take several attempts to get their partners to understand? What did their partners do to make the negotiation successful or unsuccessful?

CM 19: Embodied Completions for Mutual Elaboration Words should be used as tools of communication and not as a substitute for action. – Mae West Communicative aim: To increase discourse and strategic competence through mutual elaboration and recipient design. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface by explaining that this technique will give learners practice in using ‘action’ gestures to finish verbal utterances. (2) Give each learner six slips of paper. Ask each learner to write down three continuous tense verbs (ex. rolling, falling, blowing) and three nouns (ex. cat, grass, ball) on their separate slips of paper. Collect the slips, shuffle them up, and place them in two different hats or boxes, one labeled ‘verbs’ and the other ‘nouns.’ (3) Ask each learner to draw one paper from each box and create a brief story around the two words that they will tell to a partner. Give them creative license with one caveat: The final sentence of the story must be an ‘embodied completion.’ Provide this example: Imagine that you have drawn the noun, ‘cat,’ and the adjective ‘sleeping.’ Your story could go something like this … There once was a fat cat named Herbert. His favorite thing to do in life was to eat, but his second favorite thing to do was to stretch out in the sun that streamed through the window. That means that most of his days were spent (this is where the teacher embodies the ongoing action of ‘sleeping’).

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(4) Place learners in groups of four and have them pair off to tell their stories and allow their interlocutor to fill in the ‘missing blank’ of their embodied completion. Invite learners to have fun with this exercise as some of their stories might be quite outrageous if the nouns they draw are not commonly linked to the verbs they have drawn. (5) Repeat this exercise two more times using the remaining slips of paper with the other two pairings in their groups of four. (6) De-brief this technique by asking learners what this technique taught them about how embodied completions are used to finish verbal utterances. Do they find themselves using them in natural discourse while interacting in the TL?

CM 20: Recipients Redefine by Design So, when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it. – Jiddu Krishnamurti Communicative aim: To increase discourse competence through fostering nonverbal recipient design. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Write each of the following scenarios on different slips of paper. (a) You are United Nations (UN) delegates from Sumitapupu (a fictional country) and this is your first meeting at the UN. You DON’T SPEAK ANY ENGLISH. You have just arrived at the UN building from the airport and you need to know how to arrive at the room where your first session is being held. (b) You are United Nations (UN) delegates from Ghubawala (a fictional country) and you have been to the UN several times. Although you speak SOME ENGLISH, it is limited to simple present tense, basic syntax and minimal vocabulary. Someone stole the iPhone from one of your delegation members and you need to inform the police. (c) You are United Nations (UN) delegates from Ziote (a fictional country) and you all have many years of UN experience. You SPEAK FLAWLESS ENGLISH. You have just been assigned to a new UN committee on refugee affairs and you would like a copy of the minutes from the previous meetings going back one year.

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Procedure (1) Preface this technique by asking learners about their exchanges with other interactants from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Inquire as to whether they have ever been in a conversation situation where they continually evaluated the kinds of verbal and nonverbal resources that they shared with their interlocutor in order to have a successful exchange. Explain that this improvisation technique is going to give them that opportunity. (2) Divide the class into groups of five. Tell them that they will be role playing scenes at the ‘Information Desk’ at the United Nations and they need to assign one person to be the native-speaking ‘Information Consultant,’ three people to be visiting ‘UN Delegates’ (who will act according to the information provided on the slip of paper they receive which defines who they are, where they are from, and what information they need from the Information Desk) and one person to be a ‘UN Journalist’ (who will carefully note and later report how the nonverbal behavior of the respondents changes from person to person). (3) Distribute the three prepared scenarios to the learners in each group who were assigned to be the visiting ‘UN Delegates.’ (4) Invite the ‘Information Consultants’ and the ‘UN Delegates’ from Sumitapupu in each group to begin role playing their scene at the UN Information Desk. Remind the ‘UN Journalists’ to take careful notes – especially on the nonverbal behavior. Allow each pair a minute or so to resolve the ‘UN Delegate’s’ dilemma. (5) Call time and invite the ‘UN Delegates’ from Ghubawala to approach the information desk and present their inquiry, followed several minutes later by the delegates from Ziote. (6) Bring the whole group back together and ask the ‘UN Journalists’ to report on what they observed. Write their responses on the board. (7) De-brief this technique by asking learners whether they notice a pattern in the way that the ‘Information Consultants’ modified their nonverbal behavior to accommodate for the different language proficiencies of the ‘UN Delegates.’ Explain that this process is called ‘recipient design’ and it is a form of building rapport in interpersonal intercultural interactions.

CM 21: An Assassin Among Us An eye can threaten like a loaded and levelled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking, or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Communicative aim: To increase learners’ discourse competency by experimenting with the functions of gaze behavior in initiating an interactive encounter or closing someone out. Level: All

Preparation Put as many slips of paper into a hat/box as there are learners in the class. Mark only one with an ‘X.’

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the purpose of this game is to demonstrate how eye contact indicates that two people are attending to each other or on the other hand, closing someone out of interaction. (2) Place learners in a large circle. Invite each one to draw a slip of paper from the hat/box and not to let anyone see it. The learner who drew the ‘X’ is ‘it’; i.e. the ‘assassin.’ (3) Explain that the object is for the ‘assassin’ to wink at group members. When a learner is winked at, he or she is ‘dead’ and is out of the game. (4) Learners can accuse the ‘assassin’ if they suspect or catch the killer in action, but if they are wrong, they are ‘dead,’ too. (5) Repeat the game several times keeping record of how many people each ‘assassin’ was able to ‘kill’ before he or she was justly accused. (6) De-brief this technique by discussing the function of a mutual gaze. Ask learners what they discovered about using mutual gaze to open up and to shut down interaction. Reinforce the idea that eye contact is often a necessary nonverbal feature for interaction to begin or be sustained. Discuss whether they have encountered this in their home cultures.

CM 22: Group Ten Count Be slow of tongue and quick of eye.

– Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Communicative aim: To increase learners’ discourse competency by employing turn-taking cues to regulate who speaks and who stays quiet; whose request to speak is granted and who yields the turn. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the eyes (among other cues) perform an important role in turn-taking: through eye contact interactants

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indicate who gets to speak, who needs to stay silent, whose requests to speak are granted, and who yields to others. (2) Invite learners to form one large group and stand side-by-side. Explain that the objective of the exercise is to count to ten as a group, but that each person is only permitted to say one number. Also, to avoid that the participants just number off consecutively down the line, the learner next to the one who just spoke cannot say the next number. (3) If two people speak at the same time, the whole group must start over again. The same person cannot start the exercise twice in a row. Tell learners to count to ten as many times as possible within three minutes. (4) De-brief this technique by asking learners how this exercise mirrors real communication. Invite them to share experiences when they have been involved in exchanges where silences became uncomfortable or when interactants overlapped in speaking. Ask learners what cues they used among themselves to signal who speaks and who stays quiet.

CM 23: Silence is Not Golden In human intercourse, the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood. – Henry David Thoreau Communicative aim: To increase learners’ discourse competence by increasing their awareness of just how uncomfortable silences can be in conversation. Level: All

Preparations Copy enough of the following template so that each learner has one. If preferable, write it on the board and have learners copy it into their notebooks. With whom were you in conversation?

What was the last thing you said?

How long did it take for listener to comment?

What comment did he/she make?

How did the silence make your listener feel?

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that although speakers often use pauses to signal that they are yielding their speaking turn, if they allow pauses to go on too long, uncomfortable silences often result (Richmond et al., 2012). (2) Tell learners to initiate five conversations over the next few days with any friends or acquaintances outside of class. Tell them to insert a pause after one of their comments to see how long their interactant lets the pause go unfilled before they begin speaking. At the end of their conversation, tell learners to ask their interactant how they felt with the silence. (3) In the first column of the template, ask learners to identify their interactant. (a) In the second column, ask learners to jot down what the last comment they made was. (b) In the third column, ask learners to estimate how long it took their interactant to respond. (c) In the fourth column, ask learners to note what comment their interactant made to disrupt the silence. (d) In the fifth column, ask learners to write a short blurb about how their interactant felt with the silence. (4) When learners have completed the assignment, put them in pairs to discuss their findings. (5) De-brief this technique by asking learners whether they perceived the silences they created as being uncomfortable. Did some interactants fill the pauses faster than others? How many of the interactants’ commentaries were made just to fill the pauses? Were most interactants uneasy with longer-than-normal silences? Did they discover any differences based on intercultural comparisons?

CM 24: Elucidating Linguistic Limitations through Compensation Cues Strategy is born when a calculated risk meets an educated guess. – Samer Chidiac Communicative aim: To increase strategic competence by using nonverbal cues to compensate for linguistic limitations. Level: All

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that TL interactants can compensate for their language limitations by using nonverbal strategies to keep communication flowing and that many of these cues are easily recognizable (Gullberg, 2008). (2) Divide the class into two groups. Blindfold learners in Group A and have them line up in front of the class. Instruct them to use nonverbal cues as they are presented with TL communication scenarios. Tell learners in Group B to watch their blindfolded counterparts and look for consistency among the ways in which they respond. (3) Read these scenarios one by one: (a) Compensation strategies to solve lexical dilemmas (using circumlocution): Take turns acting out this scenario: You are conversing with a friend about a boy riding a bicycle and you want to use the word ‘pedal’ but you cannot remember it. Without using the word ‘pedal,’ use gestures and repeat the following sentence to communicate that the boy was pedaling his bike: ‘The boy was moving his feet on the bicycle.’ (b) Compensation strategies to elicit lexical help: You are describing to me how much you love your dog and want to communicate that the relationship you have with your dog is therapeutic in that he helps you calm down, but you cannot remember the word ‘therapeutic’ nor can you think of another way to say it. Take turns one by one using both your voices and your hands, to ask me for help. (c) Compensation strategies to overcome grammatical difficulties: You are talking to a classmate about your breakfast but cannot recall how to use the irregular verb ‘to eat’ in the past tense. Without conjugating the verb ‘to eat,’ use gestures and repeat the following sentence to signal that breakfast occurred earlier in the morning: ‘I eat eggs for breakfast.’ (d) Compensation strategies to signal an ongoing word search: You are having a conversation about the weather with a stranger sitting next to you on the bus and in mid-sentence, you realize you need some time to retrieve the word ‘stormy.’ Using a gesture to communicate to the stranger that you need a moment to think, repeat the following sentence with the pause: ‘The weather outside is really … ah … ah … stormy.’ (e) Compensation strategies to move on without resolution: You are chatting with your neighbor about a science program you watched last night on television that was broadcast in your first language, but you realize after struggling with the first sentence that the topic is way beyond your current vocabulary. Act out your part of the scenario.

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(4) Instruct learners in Group A to remove their blindfolds. Go through the five scenarios again but this time ask learners in Group B to demonstrate the most popular nonverbal cues used by members of Group A to compensate for their linguistic limitations. (5) De-brief this technique by discussing whether or not learners used similar gestures. Were some nonverbal cues more easily ‘read’ than others? Why or why not? What did this technique reveal about using nonverbal cues to compensate for linguistic limitations? What role did listeners play in helping to overcome difficulties?

CM 25: Optimal Input/Masking Shortcomings Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory. – Emily Post Level: All Communicative aim: To enhance learners’ strategic competence by masking their verbal limitations and give the impression through nonverbal behavior that they are proficient TL communicators.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining to learners that when they make their communication partners think they have higher TL proficiency than they actually do, they may receive more and better input (Lazaraton, 2004). (2) Instruct learners that for the next class, each person is to bring two personal artifacts from home: one that represents ‘My Greatest Joy’ and the other that represents ‘My Best Moment.’ (3) Pair learners. Tell them to take turns presenting their first artifacts to each other. The initial exchange (‘My Greatest Joy’) is to be done in the learner’s first language. It does not matter if they do not understand one another! The important thing is that they carefully OBSERVE each other and the nonverbal cues that demonstrate their enthusiasm and confidence. (4) Tell dyads to take turns presenting their second artifacts (‘My Best Moment’). This time instruct them to present in the TL, and to be sure that they use the same nonverbal cues as they did the first time – with as similar as possible enthusiasm and confidence – even if they have to pretend!! Tell the listener to coach the speaker with encouraging reminders concerning how they had presented the first time, with specific pointers on gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, posture and vocal cues.

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(5) De-brief this technique by asking learners to share their experiences. Were they able to carry over the same nonverbal behavior and mask the linguistic shortcomings they may have had? Were their performances credible? Conclude the de-briefing by asking learners whether they think masking their linguistic limitations is important to them and to the communication process.

CM 26: Breaking the News: Complement or Qualify? People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. – John C. Maxwell Communicative aim: To increase strategic competence by providing opportunities for TL learners to explore how their facial expressions can complement or qualify their verbal messages. Level: All

Preparation (1) Write the following words on the board: underscore, amplify, minimize and contradict. (2) Prepare slips of paper with messages like those in continuation. Be sure to have one for each student. Invent your own if need be. ○ Tell me I got a bad grade on my quiz. Use your face to underscore the sadness of the message. ○ Tell me I got a bad grade on my quiz. Use your face to minimize the sadness of the message. ○ Tell me I got a bad grade on my quiz. Use your face to amplify the sadness of the message. ○ Tell me I got a bad grade on my quiz. Use your face to contradict the sadness of the message. ○

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Tell me you left your book at home. Use your face to underscore the frustration of the message. Tell me you left your book at home. Use your face to minimize the frustration of the message. Tell me you left your book at home. Use your face to amplify the frustration of the message. Tell me you left your book at home. Use your face to contradict the frustration of the message.

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Tell me your homework is not done. Use your face to underscore your self-annoyance. Tell me your homework is not done. Use your face to minimize your self-annoyance. Tell me your homework is not done. Use your face to amplify your self-annoyance. Tell me your homework is not done. Use your face to contradict your self-annoyance. Tell me that my score on the last test was the best. Use your face to underscore the happiness of the message. Tell me that my score on the last test was the best. Use your face to minimize the happiness of the message. Tell me that my score on the last test was the best. Use your face to amplify the happiness of the message. Tell me that my score on the last test was the best. Use your face to contradict the happiness of the message.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that what we do with our faces can underscore, amplify, minimize or contradict our verbal messages (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Provide the example of a speaker who has an unhappy message to communicate and in wanting to complement that message describe how the interactant’s brows might furrow in sadness. Then offer a contradictory example of that same speaker with the same unhappy message, but in this case, wants to temper that message, so he accompanies his words with a small smile. (2) Draw learners’ attention to the words written on the board and demonstrate how communicators might use their faces to complement or qualify their verbal messages. Ask learners to turn to their closest neighbor to share an experience they have had in the past with each of the four types of expressions (emphasize, amplify, minimize and contradict). Bring learners back to the whole group and ask them to share their partners’ stories. (3) Stick one of the prepared messages on each learner’s back. Everyone will be clueless as to what message is on their own backs, but they will be able to read all others. Invite learners on command to mingle and talk to each other, but to follow the instructions on their partner’s back. After a minute, call time and ask them to change partners and again follow the instructions written on their partners’ backs. Switch partners at least five times.

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(4) Bring learners back to whole group and ask them if they can guess what instructions are written on their backs (i.e. whether their interlocutor was underscoring, amplifying, minimizing or contradicting their verbal messages). Invite them to remove their message. Were they correct? What helped them reach that conclusion? What cues may have misled them? (5) De-brief this technique by asking learners whether they learned something new about complementing or qualifying their verbal messages with their facial cues. Ask them if they think facial cues can limit miscommunication.

CM 27: Illustrator Improvisations (Adapted from Improve Encyclopedia (2000)) Some people use language to express thought, some to conceal thought, and others instead of thoughts. – Vikrant Parsai Communicative aim: To increase learners’ strategic competence by exploring the practice of using gestural and facial illustrators to form a visual picture of their words. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that learners can use their faces to illustrate whatever they want to convey verbally by using their gestures and facial expressions to reinforce their message. Tell them that facial illustrators are similar to gestural illustrators in the sense that they are at least partially redundant with the information communicated by the verbal content and form a visual picture of the speaker’s words. Provide the example of a learner who says ‘How gross!’ while simultaneously displaying a face of disgust (Chovil, 1989). (2) Place learners into groups of six and subdivide each group into Group A and Group B. Assign one learner from Group A to a learner from Group B so that each group of six has three pairs. Tell Group A that they are the actors, but they are prohibited from speaking (although they can move their mouths as if they were). Their partners from Group B provide the oral dialogue but are not to act. In other words, the actors and the speakers improvise to co-create a scene without planning. (3) Tell learners from Group B to sit ‘off stage’ where they can still be seen by both the actors and the audience. (4) The remaining members of the class are the audience. Ask them to come up with a scenario where they define a location, characters and problem.

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(5) Provide the audience’s details to the actors and speakers to perform in an improvised drama and instruct them to act and react to what their partners say and do – with no preparation. Draw all learners’ (actors, speakers and audience) attention to the importance of having gestures and facial expressions align with their words to create a coherent verbal/ nonverbal alliance. (6) Switch audience and participant roles and repeat the procedure until all of the learners have had a chance to act, speak and observe. (7) De-brief this technique by asking learners to assess the cohesion of their classmates’ verbal and nonverbal messages. Did the actors’ gestural and facial display illustrators match the words provided by the speakers? What happened to the totality of the message when the nonverbal actions did not reinforce the oral utterances? How difficult was this activity? Was it easier to be the ‘speaker’ or the ‘actor’? Conclude the de-briefing by asking learners whether using their gestures and facial expressions to reinforce their message is an important goal to work on.

CM 28: Listening Unleashed There’s more than one way to tell each other things, and there’s more than one way to listen, too. – Katherine Hannigan Communicative aim: To increase strategic competence by providing opportunities for TL learners to experiment with different ways in which their facial expressions and bodily and vocal cues can show their interactants that they are listening. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by asking learners to brainstorm as a whole group the many ways that their faces, bodies and voices can show their interlocutor that they are actively listening. As they come up with examples, invite all of them to mirror the cues. These might include leaning forward, making eye contact, nodding their heads and voicing inconsequential verbal utterances. (2) Explain to learners that there are several displays that listeners can use in response to a speaker: (a) Backchannelling displays reveal that they are following the conversation; (b) Motor mimicry displays are reactions that look as if the same thing the speaker is saying is actually happening to them; and

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(c) Understanding displays are nonverbal ways of saying, ‘I know what you mean.’ Divide the class into threes and assign each member of the triad a role: speaker, listener and observer. (a) Invite speakers to talk about a topic recently covered in class. (b) Tell listeners to use their bodies, faces and voices to demonstrate that they are listening by using the cues discussed in the brainstorming session. (c) Ask observers to watch the listeners for the bodily cues, facial expressions and verbalizations that demonstrate active listening and to observe speakers for any reactions that being listened to in this way may provoke. Invite the triads to discuss what each of them saw and heard. Were listeners more attentive and speakers more eager? Next, add the element of oral listener feedback to the listening practice. Tell learners to stay in their same groups, but this time during the speakers’ commentaries, tell listeners to repeat the last two or three words from speakers’ utterances but without providing their own opinions or advice. Provide the following example: if the speaker said, ‘I had grapefruit for breakfast,’ the listener might respond with, ‘hmmm, for breakfast?’ To de-brief this technique, ask the observers in each small group for what they saw. Were the listeners providing adequate verbal and nonverbal feedback? Did it make them seem more attentive and empathetic? How did this influence the speakers? Conclude the conversation by asking learners whether providing listener feedback is something they perceive as an important goal to work on.

CM 29: Speak-Eazy Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

– John Wayne

Communicative aim: To increase learners’ strategic competence by practicing language chunks at normal speaking rates in order to strike a balance between speaking slowly enough to be understood and yet fast enough to be perceived as credible and competent. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation (1) Find a written text of approximately 160 words that is age and proficiency level appropriate. Make enough copies so that each pair of learners has one. (2) For the second phase of this technique, each dyad will need a recording device.

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by asking learners to guess how many words they think an average native speaker of a language produces in 30 seconds. Once volunteers have guessed, tell them that on average, the answer is 100, but that if they can get up to 80 words in 30 seconds that is usually considered the norm for language learners (Brown, 2014). Explain that this technique is meant for them to practice finding that ‘sweet spot’ where they speak slowly enough to be understood but quickly enough to be perceived as competent. (2) Place learners in pairs and hand out the 160-word written text. Tell one of the learners in each pair to read the text aloud to the other with the goal of getting through the entire 160 words before a minute is up. Watching the clock, tell learners to begin. When the minute is up, have the dyads count the number of words the first learner was able to read. Invite learners to switch roles and repeat the exercise. (3) Have learner take turns several more times. Ask if their times are getting closer to the mark. Explain that this technique is to give them a ‘feeling’ of how fast they must speak to be perceived as generally fluent by most listeners. Invite learners to find other texts of similar length and keep track in their notebooks of how many tries it took before they could finish in 60 seconds. Practice should make perfect! (4) To carry out the next steps in this technique, dyads will need to have a recording device (e.g. mobile phone). The purpose is for learners to practice their everyday speaking speed and to acquire a realistic understanding of how quickly they speak compared to normal L1 speaker rates. (5) Tell one learner in each dyad to spend 60 seconds carrying out a simple speaking activity (ex. a description of their day), and record it. When time is up, tell them to stop recording and listen to what was said. Tell them to note the clarity of the speaking and to do a word count. (6) Exchange roles and repeat the exercise. To increase fluency and speaking rate, carry out this activity several times throughout the next several class periods. (7) De-brief this exercise by asking learners whether their word counts were increasing with more practice. After participating several times, do they feel they have a realistic understanding of what fluency means and the rate with which competent speakers speak? Remind learners that on the one hand, effective speakers do not speak excessively fast, especially if their listeners are not native speakers, if the topic is technical or if they have a big audience – in which case loudness should be increased and speed decreased. On the other hand, suggest that speech rate is not only an indicator of fluency, but also of perceived intensity, credibility and competency (Hecht & LaFrance, 1995). Conclude the conversation by asking learners whether speech rate is an important goal in their own learning.

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CM 30: Gestures to Jest By … Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much. – Robert Greenleaf Level: All Communicative aim: To increase grammatical competency by recognizing the important role of accurate gestural equivalents in low-codability material, like size and shape.

Preparation Create and distribute drawings with a variety of shapes in different sizes and variable positioning, like the example we provide in continuation. You will need to provide enough copies to cover the number of groups that are formed when the class is divided into groups of three. The idea is to do the exercise twice so two different drawings will be necessary for each group.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that although some language material is easy to describe in words, communicating about elements such as size and shape is more difficult and hence is facilitated by the use of gestures (Graham & Argyle, 1975). (2) Divide learners into groups of three and assign the roles of ‘seer,’ ‘sprinter,’ and ‘sketcher.’ Separate the seer and the sketcher into different parts of the room (or different rooms, if possible). Tell the seer that in this first part of the game, he or she must sit on his or her hands to make sure that they are not used. (3) Distribute a drawing to the seer in each group. Tell the class that only the seer is permitted to see the drawing and that he or she must communicate using only the verbal channel (no gestures) to the sprinter.

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(4) The sprinter communicates the instructions from the seer to the sketcher. Only the sprinter is permitted to speak with the sketcher whose task it is to recreate the drawing based on the instructions conveyed by the sprinter. The sketcher is not allowed to speak at all. (5) Ask the sketcher to put aside the first drawing. Distribute the second drawing to the seer in each group. Carry out the activity again but this time allow learners to use gestures to communicate among themselves. (6) In their groups of three, ask learners to compare the accuracy of their first and second recreated drawings with the original that had been distributed. (7) De-brief this technique by asking which drawing was more accurate. Was one process more complicated than the other? Why or why not? What does this technique tell us about using gesture for low-codability language material?

CM 31: The Sculptor and his Lump of Clay: Positioning by Pointing What sculptors do is represent the essence of gesture. What is important in mime is attitude. – Marcel Marceau Communicative aim: To increase grammatical competence by using deictic (pointing) gestures to spatially position people and objects. Level: All

Preparation Find photos of three people posing in an interesting way from a magazine, newspaper or other printed material that can be recreated.

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Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that by using pointing (deictic) gestures, learners can make themselves better understood because they will be able to spatially position people and objects. (2) Divide learners into groups of five and assign the roles of one ‘sculptor,’ three ‘chisels,’ and one ‘lump of clay.’ Explain that the ‘sculptor’ is the only one who can look at the photo that will be distributed and this person may NOT touch or communicate with the ‘lump of clay.’ Tell the three ‘chisels’ that they will follow the ‘sculptor’s’ directives to move the ‘lump of clay’ so that it resembles the photo. The ‘lumps of clay’ CANNOT reposition themselves but must stay posed and change position only as the ‘chisels’ tell them. FOR THIS FIRST ROUND, NEITHER THE ‘SCULPTOR’ NOR THE THREE ‘CHISELS’ CAN USE THEIR HANDS WHILE COMMUNICATING. (3) Distribute the photos to the ‘sculptors’ in each group and instruct them to look at the photo. Start a timer and tell them to begin. Instruct teams to indicate when their ‘lump of clay’ has become the statue that resembles the pose in the photo. Let each group know how much time it took to complete this first task so they can compare it with the second round. (4) When all of the groups have completed the first round, distribute a different photo of another group pose to each team. Have them repeat the same exercise, but this time, allow everyone to use pointing gestures as they carry out their ‘artwork.’ (5) Upon completion of the second round, instruct teams to compare the amount of time consumed between the first and second task. (6) De-brief this technique by asking whether being able to use pointing gestures to spatially position their ‘lump of clay’ made the ‘sculpting’ more efficient. Was it exasperating to see one thing in the photo and then have the ‘chisels’ do something else? What does this technique tell us about the use of gesture to make ourselves understood?

CM 32: Ready … Set … Action! To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. – Bruce Lee Communicative aim: To increase grammatical competency by using concurrent illustrative gestures and vocal cues along with spoken language to bring out the nature of action verbs, particularly when communicating perceived distance and speed. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

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Preparation (1) Write each of the following sentences on the board or make them available to learners on a handout: (a) The rock fell swiftly down the hill. (b) The rock slowly rolled along the path. (c) The feather drifted aimlessly in the breeze. (d) The feather fluttered about in the wind. (e) The bee flew quickly from one flower to another. (f) The bee lazily hovered above a flower. (g) The wheel spun out of control. (h) The wheel gradually rolled a short distance and suddenly stopped. (i) (j)

The seed sprouted slowly toward the sky. The seed laid dormant through winter.

(k) The rain pummeled the pavement. (l) The rain sprinkled sporadically throughout the afternoon. (2) Put the letters ‘a’ through ‘l’ on slips of paper. Make two complete sets. Put each set in two different containers from which learners can draw. If there are more than 24 learners (12 to a team), invent more pairs of sentences – enough so each learner can draw one.

Procedure (1) Preface this activity by explaining that gestures often help to clarify action verbs. Illustrate for them the word ‘fall’: Say in a monotone way – without gesture or intonation, ‘The stone fell off the cliff.’ Then say it again by showing with your hands that the stone fell fast from a high place while simultaneously varying your pitch from high to low. Ask learners if they had any idea about how the stone fell until they ‘saw’ it. (2) Tell learners that particularly with action verbs, gestures help in communicating speed and distance more precisely (McCafferty, 1998). To allow learners to envision this, ask for two volunteers at a time. Ask the first volunteer to read a sentence from Column A aloud in a monotone voice without gestures. Next, have the second volunteer recite the corresponding sentence from Column B, but this time with accompanying gestures. A (a) The leaves wafted slowly downward. (b) The clouds floated aimlessly. (c) The wind blew in long gusts.

B The leaves swirled in all directions. The clouds swelled into giant towers. The wind whispered in the trees.

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(d) The chair overturned in slow motion. (e) The door slammed shut. (f) The car smashed into a wall.

The chair skid across the floor. The door creaked open. The car slid on the ice.

(3) Discuss what information the gestures communicated that was not comprehensible with monotone nongestured reading only. (4) Divide learners into two teams. Ask each learner to draw a letter from the container and not to share the corresponding sentence he or she drew. In the case that there are words that someone does not understand, allow individuals to consult their dictionaries. (5) Instruct learners that each team will take turns having one of its members act out the verb and adverb in the sentence – BUT WITH ONLY ONE HAND GESTURE! They may not repeat the hand movement nor may they use vocal cues or any other nonverbal cues such as facial expression. The rest of that team’s members can look at the list provided, confer with one another and then guess which sentence was enacted. Only one guess is allowed before the actor divulges whether or not the team was correct. One person on each team keeps score of the correct answers. (6) De-brief this technique by discussing what made one action verb and adverb easier to decode than others. Which were the most difficult? Why do they think this was so? Explain that because gesture can be used to express communicative intention, interactants can heighten their TL communication of action words and words of low ‘codability’ (such as distance and speed) by using gestures.

CM 33: Storytelling Signals The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. – Ralph G. Nichols Communicative aim: To increase grammatical competency through enhanced listening comprehension gained from accompanying iconic gestures and vocal variety in storytelling. Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that expressive storytellers are often successful communicating the main ideas in their stories when they accompany their words with gestures and vocal variation (including pitch, rhythm, stress, intonation, rate and volume) – even when their

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listeners do not share the same language! This is particularly the case when they use iconic gestures (those that resemble their referents in some way) and utilize intonation that supports the story line (Tellier, 2006). This activity will give learners experience in storytelling with gestures. Invite learners to work independently to create a list of their five favorite stories from their childhoods. When their lists are complete, have them review their lists and choose the one that would provide the most opportunity to use their gestures and voice to aid audience comprehension. Instruct learners to make an outline of the main events in their stories so that subsequently they can tell it to a partner using both verbal and nonverbal channels – BUT IN A LANGUAGE THEIR AUDIENCE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND!!! In multilingual classes with the possibility to pair learners who do not share a language, divide the class into couples with mutual linguistic incomprehensibility. If learners only speak common languages among themselves, their task will be a bit more out-of-the box as they will tell their stories in their own made-up gibberish language. In dyads, have one of the learners narrate their ‘verbally unintelligible but nonverbally comprehensible’ stories. Have the listener re-tell it again in the TL. Invite the storytellers to compare their partners’ versions and provide feedback. Switch roles and repeat the tasks. De-brief this technique by asking for comments concerning how learners felt as storytellers and listeners. As storytellers, could they make themselves understood? As listeners, what lessons did they take away? How important is it for interactants to understand the two-way responsibility of effective communication?

CM 34: Redoubling Redundancy There is a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak. – Simon Sinek Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence by facilitating listening comprehension through increased redundancy from visual feedback. Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by asking whether learners think that talking by telephone is more challenging than talking face-to-face. Most will

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probably respond affirmatively. Explain that one of the reasons for this difficulty is that interlocutors acquire information from nonverbal cues such as gestures and facial expressions and from clues provided in the context, so when visual elements are removed from the communicative equation and listeners are supplied with less redundancy, they suffer ‘listener fatigue’ (von Raffler-Engel, 1980). Would this fatigue also occur when the auditory channel is stripped away? Let’s experiment with both … Pair learners and have them place their chairs back to back. Give partners five minutes to interview each other about their favorite outdoor activities (or other topics you are covering that would also normally stimulate some nonverbal cues). Come back to whole group and have partners share the information they gleaned from their interviews. Pair the same learners again but this time have them facing one another. Give partners another five minutes to interview each other about their summer plans (or other topics) BUT DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO SPEAK – even to clarify information. Everything is to be mimed. Again, bring the whole group back in and have partners share what they learned from their nonverbal ‘conversation.’ De-brief this activity by asking which of the scenarios was the most ‘fatiguing.’ Was the ‘conversation’ easier or more accurate with one or the other channels (visual or auditory)? What did learners take away from this technique?

CM 35: With Only One Finger! – Reducing Listening Ambiguity I have five fingers for a reason: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

My pinky finger: For my best friend and the promises I will never break; My ring finger: For that special boy when the time is right; My middle finger for that [sic] person who pushes me too far; My pointer finger to pick out my dearest family members; My thumb to show the rest of the world I’m going to be OK. – Author unknown

Communicative aim: To increase listeners’ grammatical competency by disambiguating vague referents in a verbal message. Level: All

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Preparation Create a large empty space where learners have room to move about. Randomly scatter coins, napkins or any other small item that can be used as ‘obstacles’ on the floor.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that a large part of our communication is done through deictic gestures and that interactants often use pointing cues to clarify vague references such as ‘here’ or ‘there’ (Kellerman, 1992). Explain that this friendly competition offers an opportunity for learners to compare verbal vs nonverbal skills in providing directions. (2) Divide the class into two groups (the Pointers and the Chatters) and within each group ask learners to pair off. Instruct members of the Chatters Group that one member of each dyad will be blindfolded and will only receive verbal instructions from their partners using the directions ‘left,’ ‘right’ ‘forward’ or ‘back.’ One member of each Pointer Group pair will give only visual directions with the other walking backwards (and never looking down) toward the opposite side of the room while the other indicates through pointing which way to go. (3) Instruct learners that on your signal, the direction-givers in the pair must start providing instructions to steer their partners across the room without stepping on any of the obstacles. If an obstacle is touched, the pair must begin again. Tally which of the groups had all of their pairs pass the finish line first. (4) De-brief this technique by asking which kind of instructions – the verbal commands or the pointing cues – seemed to be more effective. Did vocal variety also play a role? How will what learners experienced today influence the way they use pointing cues in their conversations in the future?

CM 36: Better to Beat It! (Adapted from jazzchants.net and www.teachingvillage.net which showcases the creative work of Carolyn Graham) The real dance is a spontaneous body movement that beats in harmony with the beats of the music in your heart. – Toba Beta Communicative aim: To increase listeners’ grammatical competency by using beat gestures to enhance the auditory prominence of vocalic stress, pitch patterns, and overall rhythm. Level: All

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Preparation (1) Provide the following ‘jazz chant’ (our humble attempt to draw attention to using both verbal and nonverbal elements in communicating) to learners, either through a photocopy or writing it on the board. If you prefer to create your own, by all means, try your hand using the same directions outlined in the procedures section!!! Listen, examine, heed Listen, examine, heed Listen, examine, listen, examine Listen, examine, heed Talkers listen Hearers watch Heed both eyes and ears (2) Choose a theme of interest to learners and decide on a vocabulary or grammar focus (or both) making certain that the language selected is useful, appropriate and authentic.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by describing beat gestures as small, quick hand movements that act much like an orchestra conductor’s baton that keeps the musical rhythm. Explain that listening can be enhanced when learners overtly direct their attention to them because vocal and gesture beats highlight speech’s phonological elements and thus make it more comprehensible (Allen, 2000; McNeill & Levy, 1982; Pedelty & McNeill, 1986). (2) Share the above ‘jazz chant’ or one that you have composed. Read it aloud to the class. Read one line at a time and invite learners to repeat it until they can say all of the words. Then include rhythm by directing learners to clap their hands, tap the table or tap their feet. Ask for volunteers to say it alone or in small duets or trios while the rest of the class taps it out or claps. (3) Next, place learners in pairs to create their own jazz chants. If the purpose is a focus on vocabulary, ask learners to choose three words and arrange them in this order: (a) a two-syllable word; (b) a three-syllable word; and (c) a one-syllable word (as exemplified in the first stanza of the sample). If grammar is the emphasis, have learners add the pattern being taught (for example, the second part of the sample stanza illustrates present tense third person plural). (4) Provide an opportunity for each dyad to share their jazz chant creations with the rest of the class, making sure that as the class listens, learners are also keeping the beat with some kind of hand movements such as tapping, clapping or ‘air drumming.’

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(5) De-brief this technique by talking about what it means to get a ‘feel’ for a TL and whether creating jazz chants and participating in performing them was helpful in absorbing a bit more about the stress, rhythm and intonation of their TL.

CM 37: Practicing Syntactic Displays through Readers’ Theater Our intonations contain our philosophy of life, what each of us is constantly telling himself about things. – Marcel Proust Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competency by raising their awareness of the role of facial expression and intonation as nonverbal markers of the syntactical features of verbal output. Level: All

Preparation (1) In Readers’ Theater, learners read stories that have been scripted like a play, and they act out the story together. Readers rehearse their roles numerous times before performing it in front of their peers. Instead of an elaborate stage and set up, learners concentrate on their vocal cues, facial expression and body language to become absorbed with the script and their assigned role. (2) Find or prepare an age- and proficiency- appropriate script for a Reader’s Theater. These can be found on the internet or in specific books dedicated to Readers’ Theater. (The one that is performed on our accompanying video, ‘The Boy Who Wanted the Willies’ is taken from www. aaronshep.com/rt where there are many from which to choose.) (3) Teachers can also prepare their own or have their learners do it as a written exercise where they write a script on a self-selected topic or summarize the main points of a book or story and then create a dialogue in script format. (4) This technique can also reinforce content that has been covered in class. For example, if learners have just covered a notional-functional lesson on shopping (notion) and asking prices (function), student can enact a scene in a market.

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that interactants can link their facial movements to their intonation and other syntactical features to make a coherent verbal/nonverbal message. Draw learners’ attention to how a

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speaker’s eyebrow movements often occur simultaneously with stressed words and question markers. Hand out the prepared ‘Readers’ Theater’ scripts. Read the entire script aloud for learners. Pay close attention to matching facial expression and vocal cues with the words and phrases, particularly when reinforcing the syntactical elements of the script (see Table F2 in the ‘Tenet’ section of the ‘Facial Expression’ chapter). Assign roles. Have learners highlight their apportioned lines. Provide ample time for the group(s) to practice the play and read their parts. Next, ask learners to rehearse on their own by taking out their hand-held mirrors to practice matching their facial expression and vocal cues to their words. Circulate throughout the room providing feedback to learners as they practice. If learners are reading without vocal and/or facial expression, prompt them to perform the line with more emotion. In their casts, invite learners to practice staging their reading. Tell them to create or bring to class any simple props that will enhance their story. Finally, ask each group to present their version of the story, reminding them once again to pay attention to their syntactical facial displays and vocal cues. De-brief this technique by asking learners to compare and contrast the vocal and facial interpretations that readers expressed. What were the most appropriate and convincing nonverbal cues? What elements made learners voices and faces convincing?

CM 38: Emblematic Faces Few realize how loud their expressions really are. Be kind with what you wordlessly say. – Richelle E. Goodrich Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competency through greater awareness of how to use ‘speaker comments’ (e.g. nonverbal facial displays that add information to the communication context that are not redundant with what they say verbally). Level: All

Preparation Place three to five chairs at the front of the room

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that like emblems that interactants can make through gesture, they can also use the same communication tactic with their faces. That is to say, they can use a facial expression without words to communicate their ideas. These are facial expressions

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that do not illustrate or repeat what is being said, rather they are nonverbal ways of expressing an idea or thought (Chovil, 1989). Ask for volunteers to come and sit in the chairs at the front of the room. Have them bow their heads and close their eyes. Inform the class that they will hear a verbal message and that on the count of three, the volunteers will raise their heads with a facial expression that they feel best communicates the given message. Tell the volunteers that they must freeze their faces so that the class can vote on which person portrayed the message most accurately. After each round, ask the volunteers who did not win to take a seat with the class and ask for a new set of volunteers. Continue until all learners have had a chance. Following are a list of commonly recognized speaker comment facial displays that do not need words to be understood and that can be given to the volunteers: (a) ‘Well, now what do we do?’ (b) ‘Eeeeew, that tastes terrible!’ (c) ‘Wow that is a sour lemon!’ (d) ‘I don’t know.’ (e) ‘Let me think.’ (f) ‘I’m just kidding.’ (g) ‘…you know?’ (h) ‘Yes!’ Place learners in small groups and ask them to create a list of their own speaker comment facial displays and write each one on a small separate piece of paper and place them in a pile. Tell groups to exchange their piles. Ask learners to take turns drawing a speaker comment and to perform it nonverbally in their groups. Have the remaining group members guess the message the learner is trying to communicate. De-brief this technique by asking what kind of messages were more easily communicated nonverbally. Which were the most difficult? Why do they think this was the case?

CM 39: Grammar Gapping (Jokes adapted from: http://iteslj.org/c/jokes-short.html) When speaking aloud, you punctuate constantly – with body language. Your listener hears commas, dashes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks as you shout, whisper, pause, wave your arms, roll your eyes, wrinkle your brow. In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear the way you want to be heard. – Russell Baker

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Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence by experimenting with thought groups and discovering the most effectual junctures at which to pause. Level: All

Preparation (1) Provide enough copies of the following jokes so that each dyad receives a set. The first set does not contain punctuation and the second set is punctuated accurately. (a) The teacher speaking to a student said Juan name two pronouns Juan who suddenly woke up said Who me (b) The teacher speaking to the class said Today we’re going to talk about the tenses Now if I say I am beautiful which tense is it A clever student at the back of the room raised his hand and said Obviously it is the past tense (c) The ESL teacher told his students You must never begin a sentence I is … A smart student responded Please Sir whats wrong with I is a vowel (d) A family of mice were surprised by a big cat Father Mouse jumped and said Bow-wow The cat ran away What was that Father asked Baby Mouse Well son thats why its important to learn a second language (a) The teacher speaking to a student said, ‘Juan, name two pronouns.’ Juan who suddenly woke up, said, ‘Who, me?’ (b) The teacher speaking to the class said, ‘Today, we’re going to talk about the tenses. Now, if I say ‘I am beautiful,’ which tense is it? A clever student at the back of the room raised his hand and said, ‘Obviously it is the past tense.’ (c) The ESL teacher told his students, ‘You must never begin a sentence ‘I is …’.’ A smart student responded, ‘Please Sir, what’s wrong with ‘I is a vowel?’ (d) A family of mice were surprised by a big cat. Father Mouse jumped and said, ‘Bow-wow!’ The cat ran away. ‘What was that, Father?’ asked Baby Mouse. ‘Well, son, that’s why it’s important to learn a second language.’

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining to learners that pauses divide their speech into manageable chunks and function much like oral punctuation.

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They are located at the boundaries of speech units and work to the advantage of both speakers and listeners (Brown, 2014). Read aloud the following two sentences, pausing where the slashes are: (a) The teacher together/with her students ate/lunch and then went to/class. (b) The teacher/together with her students/ate lunch and then went to class. Ask learners which sentence, when read aloud, sounded more fluid and easier to process (the answer is supposed to be ‘b’). Explain that punctuation and grammar indicate points at which learners need to pause. Those natural breaks are called ‘thought groups’ and occur at natural punctuation points like the end of a sentence, immediately preceding a conjunction (but, and, or) or a relative or interrogative pronouns (who, which, why), in association with an indirect or implied question (You think so), immediately preceding adverbial clauses of time, manner and place (I will leave when I’m ready), and when whole parenthetical references are used (I am sure that you, a very responsible student, will have the video watched before class tomorrow). Place learners in pairs. Hand out the first set of four unpunctuated jokes and ask learners to read them aloud to each other. Tell learners to work together to punctuate the jokes correctly. Hand out the second set of correctly punctuated jokes and ask learners to check their answers against the correct ones. Invite learners to read the jokes aloud again, pausing where the punctuation indicates. De-brief this technique by asking whether it was easier to tell the jokes as speakers and understand the jokes as listeners when the jokes contained pauses where the thought groups within the jokes indicated. What does this teach them about the appropriate use of pauses?

CM 40: Take Pause (Letters from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4583594.stm) Whatever phase of life you are in, make time to pause and reflect where you are heading to. It is a good time to insert a comma now and realign yourself to your inner self before your life ends in a full stop. – Roopleen Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competency by exploring how the placement of pauses can drastically change meaning. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

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Preparation Make two copies of the following passages: Dear Mother,

Dear Mother-in-Law,

In law, there is nothing to make me say thank you, but the quality of your gifts compels me at least to write to tell you how I feel. Thank you so much for the presents! I was expecting nothing more than a token yet, again, you have exceeded even your own incredible standards.

There is nothing to make me say thank you, but the quality of your gifts compels me at least to write to tell you how I feel. Thank you? So much for the presents I was expecting. Nothing more than a token, yet again! You have exceeded even your own incredible standards.

It was a shame you had to stay here for such a short time. I thought I might have coped, but it was unbearable seeing you leave. The relief was immense when I heard we might see you again soon. I wanted to end it all by saying goodbye now. I hope I will not have to say it to you again for a long time. If you have the opportunity to spend Christmas elsewhere next year, please do not.

It was a shame you had to stay here. For such a short time, I thought I might have coped, but it was unbearable. Seeing you leave, the relief was immense. When I heard we might see you again soon, I wanted to end it all. By saying goodbye now, I hope I will not have to say it to you again for a long time. If you have the opportunity to spend Christmas elsewhere next year, please do.

Much love Matthew

Not much love Matthew

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,

You really made my year! When I heard you had fallen from your sleigh, I was sad. To see such wonderful gifts lined up under my Christmas tree, my eyes lit up. When I unwrapped your gifts I knew that the spirit of Christmas was still alive. It was terrible hearing about your accident. The best piece of news all year is your safe return. Things yet to come, you say! Christmas is a time to love and share, I disagree with Scrooges. Everywhere Christmas is slowly fading. Thanks for making it so fantastic.

You really made my year when I heard you had fallen from your sleigh! I was sad to see such wonderful gifts lined up under my Christmas tree. My eyes lit up when I unwrapped your gifts. I knew the spirit of Christmas was still alive – it was terrible. Hearing about your accident? The best piece of news all year. Is your safe return a sign of things yet to come? You say Christmas is a time to love and share, I disagree. With Scrooges everywhere, Christmas is slowly fading. Thanks for making it so. Fantastic.

Matt

Matt

Dear Aunt Agatha,

Dear Aunt Agatha,

Sorry it has taken me so long to write telling you how much I liked your Christmas present this year, only I didn’t have the time. To take it back and get another would be out of the question! I suppose for you to be so kind shouldn’t come as a surprise after what you bought me last year. It was splendid! News about Uncle Brian? Dying to see you again in the New Year. Would be awful to lose touch.

Sorry it has taken me so long to write telling you how much I liked your Christmas present this year, only I didn’t. Have the time to take it back and get another? Would be out of the question, I suppose, for you to be so kind. Shouldn’t come as a surprise after what you bought me last year. It was splendid news about Uncle Brian dying. To see you again in the New Year would be awful.

Mark

To lose touch, Mark

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by sharing the following two jokes: Watch out – man eating apes Watch out – man-eating apes! When I sing well, ladies feel sick. When I sing, well ladies feel sick. (2) Ask for six volunteers, place them in pairs, give them each a letter from above and invite dyads to take turns reading their passages while paying very close attention to the punctuation in their respective texts. Upon completion of the readings, ask the class if they agree that pauses transform meaning. (3) Place learners in groups. Give every group one of the following utterances: (a) Let’s eat Grandma (b) A woman without her man is nothing (c) When I sing well ladies feel sick (d) Rachel Ray feels inspiration in cooking her family and her dog (e) Thank you your donation just helped someone get a job (f) The man dropped the bullet in his mouth (4) Instruct learners to find at least two ways to integrate pauses in their assigned passages and quickly sketch two drawings that show the difference in meaning. (5) Invite two people from each group to show their drawings and demonstrate how their passage could have different meanings depending upon placement of pauses. (6) De-brief this technique by explaining that interactants use pauses to divide their utterances into manageable chunks called thought groups. They can think about it as oral punctuation. Like the comma in a written text, pauses facilitate listeners’ processing of the stream of speech and they indicate what elements fit together grammatically and therefore are located at the boundaries of speech units corresponding to phrases (Brown, 2014).

CM 41: Pausing to Persuade Punctuation is to words as cartilage is to bone, permitting articulation and bearing stress. – John Lennard Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence by using pauses to enhance persuasiveness. Level: All

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Preparation Provide each learner with the following vocal guidelines and rubric: GUIDELINES: (a) Pitch – Use the highs and lows of your voice to create variation and above all else, avoid a monotone. (b) Speed – Control your pace (between 140–160 words per minute is normal for a persuasive speech). Too fast and you sound glib; too slow and you sound preachy. (c) Pauses – Use pauses to emphasize a certain word. Pause for one second before to underscore the word. To really punch it, pause before and after the word. However, inadvertent pauses suggest nervousness and are perceived as nonfluencies. (d) Volume – Project your voice to the whole audience by speaking to classmates in the back but without screaming. A few strategic shouts, however, can be effective. RUBRIC: PITCH --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------No variation (monotone)

Effective variation

Too much variation

SPEED --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Too fast

Effective speed

Too slow

PAUSES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------None

Strategically used

Too many

VOLUME --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Too loud

Effective volume

Too quiet

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that vocal cues (particularly in the form of pitch variation, adequate speed and volume and strategically placed grammatical pauses) can be used to add emphasis which ultimately

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makes speech more persuasive. Pauses, strategically placed, draw listeners’ attention to specific words. Explain that people make decisions based on what they see AND hear and that interactants must use verbal and nonverbal skills to convince others about their positions. In pairs, ask learners to recall and enumerate their own experiences in attempting to persuade others about something, and then invite them to share these with the class. Hand out the prepared ‘guidelines.’ Ask learners to choose a topic that not everyone would agree with, like censorship, and to write a 3- to 5-minute speech in outline form to persuade the group of their position. Tell them that they are to assume from the outset that not all will agree and it is their objective to make the group see things their way. To do this, they must pay attention to their body language and vocal cues. Draw learners’ attention to the guidelines. Invite learners to give their persuasive speeches one by one. Before each begins, hand out a rubric to the rest of the learners in the class. Tell them that they are to listen carefully to the speaker and put an ‘X’ on the continuum where they believe the speaker performed. When the speaker is done, collect the anonymous peer feedback and give them to the speaker. De-brief this technique by asking learners if they thought that there was a relation between the vocal cues of the speakers and the persuasiveness of their words and whether vocal cues are an important part of communication. If so, invite them to provide specific examples.

CM 42: Practicing Pauses; Pause to Practice (Passages adapted from: http://www.inspire21.com/stories/educationstories/ education) The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. – Mark Twain Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence through practicing pauses that aid both speakers and listeners to process information. Level: All

Preparation (1) For beginning learners, choose shorter, more proficiency-appropriate texts than the ones we provide.

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(2) For more advanced learners, have enough copies of the following two excerpts for every two learners: TEXT 1: A big dog saw a puppy chasing its tail and asked, ‘Why are you chasing your tail that way?’ ‘I have studied philosophy and solved the problem of the universe, which no other dog before me had ever solved,’ the puppy answered, ‘and I have found out that the best thing for a dog in life – is happiness, and that my happiness is in my tail. That is why I am chasing it, and when I catch it, I will reach happiness.’ ‘Son,’ the dog said, ‘in my young days I was also interested in the questions of the universe. I also thought that happiness is in the tail. In the beginning, I was also chasing it. But later I noticed that anywhere I go and whatever I do, the tail was following behind me. And then I understood that I don’t need to chase it. TEXT 2: Two men were seriously ill. They occupied the same room in the hospital. One of them was lying in the bed near the only window in their room. Every day he spent time sitting up in bed to help drain the fluid from lungs. The other man was forced to spend his entire days flat on his back. They talked a lot about their lives, families, jobs and vacations. Every time, when the first man was sitting by the window, he described in detail all that he saw outside the window. His roommate always looked forward to those moments, when his world was broadened and brightened up by the beautiful world outside. Amazing views of a park with a beautiful lake could be seen from the window of their room. Children delightfully played among ducks and swans. Couples walked arm-in-arm among colorful flowers. The stunning city skyline could be seen. When the man by the window had thoroughly described all that was happening outside the window, his roommate would close his eyes and imagine all the beautiful scenes of life that he had been told. One night, the man whose bed was near the window died peacefully during sleep and his roommate was very sad. After some time, when the nurse came to visit him, he asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse agreed and kindly made the switch. When she left, the man slowly and painfully propped himself up on one elbow and took his first look at the world outside. He was stunned. The window faced a blank wall. When the nurse came to visit him the next time, he told her about the beautiful things outside the window that his roommate had described. Surprised, the nurse replied, ‘Why, your roommate had been blind!’

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that grammatical pauses can be used to benefit both speakers and listeners. For speakers, a pause in the right place provides time to: breathe, consider what is going to be said next (i.e. syntactically order words), receive and digest listeners’ feedback, gain control over pacing, convey emotion, or emphasize information or a punch line. That same pause allows listeners time to: breathe, allow images or ideas to grow, summarize information, prepare for what comes next, and ponder speakers’ intentions (Brown, 2014). (2) Pair learners. Hand out Text 1. Tell them to use the following punctuation counting system to guide their use of grammatical pauses throughout the reading of their script: Punctuation mark a. Period b. Comma c. Semi-colon d. Colon e. End of one paragraph, start of next

Count 1, 2 1 1 1, 2 1, 2, 3

(3) Tell dyads to read the passage through silently, noting the natural places to pause and breathe. Then while one partner listens, tell the other to read the text aloud several times trying out several variations and using the counting method as a guide. Remind learners to use the periods to take a breath. When the first partner has read through the passage, tell the listener to provide feedback about which rendition sounded the most natural. (4) Exchange roles and repeat the exercise. (5) With Text 2, explain to learners that they will be doing a ‘shadow reading.’ That is to say, tell learners that they are to try to read aloud along with you, keeping the same speed and rhythm. (6) Chorally rehearse until learners have attained the appropriate speed and rhythm. Next, begin directing the passage again but this time, stop leading the oration while they continue speaking. In your own mind, continue silently by yourself. Begin directing again towards the end of the dialogue to see if the students are still speaking in time with what you would have done. (7) In pairs, ask learners to read the passage aloud to each other. (8) De-brief this technique by asking whether using ‘shadow reading’ to experience speaking at a natural speed boosted their confidence and gave them an idea concerning how to integrate natural pauses and speak at a fluent rate.

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CM 43: Halting Hesitation Audacity augments courage; hesitation, fear.

– Publilius Syrus

Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence by decreasing affect-related hesitation pauses that detract from effective speaking. Level: All

Preparation Provide the following table either in handouts or written on the board: Pausing/Thinking language

Sentence stems/ Fixed social phrases/ Conversation starters

Throwing it back language

‘Well …’ ‘Let me see …’ ‘Interesting question …’

‘I think …’ ‘Do you think so …?’ ‘I’ve never had the pleasure …’ ‘I am pleased to …’ ‘I (dis)agree because …’ ‘Really …?’

‘What do you think …?’ ‘How do you feel …?’ ‘Don’t you agree …?’

‘Hmmmm …’ ‘I hadn’t thought of that …’ ‘Let me give that some thought …’

‘Why don’t you explain ...?’ ‘I don’t understand …’ ‘How can that be …?’

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that some speakers occasionally include uncomfortable and often ungrammatical pauses in their speech that are triggered by anxiety or uncertainty about what to say next. Called ‘hesitation pauses’ these silences might be eliminated, or at least limited, through the use of formulaic and/or standard utterances that provide time to plan and fill unwanted silences. Ask learners for real life instances when they have had to suffer through uncomfortable silences. (2) Show learners the table with the fixed phrases. Draw their attention to the first column. Explain that these phrases can be used in response to a question. Invite learners to turn to their neighbor and take turns asking and answering questions of each other, making sure to begin their answers with one of the phrases from column 1. (3) Next, demonstrate how the phrases in the second column are utterances that can be used socially. Invite neighboring learners to create a short dialogue using at least three of the phrases from column 2. Put two pairs

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of learners together and have them take turns reciting their role plays to each other. (4) Finally, explain that the utterances in the third column provide a means for listeners to throw the conversation back into the court of the speaker. Demonstrate with a volunteer how any of the phrases can be used to ‘buy time’ to think about and plan something to say by questioning their interactant. (5) De-brief this technique by asking whether having a formulaic or standard answer seems like an effective alternative to uncomfortable pauses. If learners respond affirmatively, challenge them to utilize one or two of them a day to become more familiarized with their use in naturalistic communication settings.

CM 44: Under-a-Minute Pause-in-Interaction Role Plays Speech is the voice of the heart.

– Anna Quindlen

Communicative aim: To raise learners’ grammatical competence by increasing their awareness that the nature of interactants’ relationships cause different types of pauses to occur during interaction. Level: All

Preparation Invite learners to bring three photos from home, explaining that they must be of two people who are paused in conversation. Tell them to use the internet, magazines or other print media.

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Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that pauses in interpersonal exchanges often stem from the interactive process and convey a variety of meanings about the nature of the relationship between and among the people involved (Argyle, 1999; Lalljee & Cook, 1969). Ask learners to compare the silence shared between loving spouses after a romantic dinner and one endured by diabolically opposed political candidates after a public debate. (2) Place learners in dyads. Ask them to envision that they are the characters in the two following vignettes and to strike the pose they imagine the two individuals would have: (a) A pause in conversation resulting from a parent disciplining a pouting child. (b) A pause during a coffee break after one happy colleague tells his jealous co-worker about his job promotion. (3) Ask learners to describe how the two pauses would be different considering the relationship of the interactants. (4) Invite dyads to exchange the photos they brought to class with another pair. Tell learners to imagine that they are the two people in the pictures and create three different under-a-minute role plays that would result in the silent moments found in the pictures. That is to say, the final moment of the role play must resemble the instant that the photo was taken. (5) Ask each dyad to select their favorite of the three under-a-minute role plays and take turns presenting to the class. After each performance, ask the audience to discuss how the nature of the relationship between the two characters ‘on stage’ influenced the final silence. (6) De-brief this technique by challenging learners to ‘people watch’ over the next week and ponder the nature of the relationships between interactants when they pause to share a silent moment. Do learners think that having this contextual information will better equip them to effectively interpret situations?

CM 45: Practicing Pitch Patterns Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. – Maya Angelou Communicative aim: To improve learners’ grammatical competence by using intonation to convey meaning in particular contexts through practicing several common generalized patterns. Level: All

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Preparation (1) Preface this technique by explaining that intonation (aka, pitch patterns using an assortment of tones) varies with contextual meaning but that there are still a few generalized patterns that once mastered, will provide them with some basic options for communication in the TL. Depending upon what speakers want to express, they can make their voices go up, down, remain at the same pitch level, or incorporate any combination of the three (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). (2) To demonstrate this idea, ask two volunteers to come up and act out the following role play. Tell the audience to listen closely to the three different ways that the word yes is spoken. Learner A answers a knock at a door without a peephole. Before opening it, Learner A asks: Yes? Learner B mumbles something incomprehensible. Learner A hears a voice respond, but he/she didn’t quite hear the name. Learner A thinks he/she recognizes the voice of his/her good friend (Learner B), so Learner A says, ‘Is that you (Name of Learner B)? Learner B responds with, Yes! Learner A then opens the door and says, Would you like to come in? Learner B responds with, Yes! (3) Ask the audience what kind of yeses they heard. Explain that if the volunteers had used the generalized pitch variation found in most English conversations of this nature, the first yes would have had a rising upward glide, the second would have had a downward glide or falling tone and the third would have been held constant. (4) Place learners in pairs. Using the above interchange as an example, have them create their own short dialogues using a one-word utterance (like oh or really) with three different intonation patterns and no grammar or further lexis that would make meaning clear. Tell them to select their tone based upon their desire to express something specific. (5) Invite learners to share their short dialogues. (6) De-brief this technique by explaining that intonation also functions beyond single words and can also be used over longer stretches of conversation. Ask learners to share examples. Are learners aware of intonational patterns in their L1s that are similar or different to those they were exposed to in this technique?

CM 46: Intonation Idioms: Music to the Ears False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis. – William R. Alger

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Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical ability to appropriately intone phrases that use formulaic pitch patterns by experimenting with melody and song. Level: All

Preparation Write the following expressions on the board without distinguishing the emphasized nucleus (they are bolded here for the benefit of your pronunciation in Step 3 below): (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h)

Now there’s a thought! You must be joking! I see what you mean! So what! What a good idea! What’s that supposed to mean? You can say that again! There’s a cool cat!

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by tapping into learners’ schema concerning the nature of idioms. Ask them to think of some expressions in their own native languages that cannot be defined by breaking them down into their component parts. To illustrate, show how the sentence: That movie turned me on! cannot be understood without having memorized the idiomatic nature of the expression, to be turned on. Write TL literal translations of their native language examples and their idiomatic meaning on the board. (2) Explain to learners that some phrases follow formulaic stress patterns that do not conform to regular standard rules for intonation. In these cases, much like idioms whose semantic meaning cannot be gleaned from breaking the expression down into its component parts, ‘intonational idioms’ must also be learned (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). Provide the example of the following short dialogue: John says, ‘Let’s go to a movie.’ Lois agrees and exclaims, ‘Now there’s a thought!’ If Lois’ commentary was intoned using standard stress pattern rules, the word thought would be the nucleus as the only lexical item in the phrase. However, most English speakers would know that emphasis is placed on the word there’s. Ask learners whether there are intonational idioms in their native languages and if so, invite them to share their pronunciation.

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(3) Carry out the following sequence with each of the phrases that are written on the board: (a) Hum the intoned phrases while learners tap the rhythm and stress with their hands and feet of each pattern. (b) Invite learners to join in the humming while continuing to beat the rhythms. (c) Sing the intoned phrases and ask learners to repeat them. After several repetitions, tell learners to wait for twenty seconds before repeating the phrase or sentence in order to increase their word retrieval ability. (d) Have learners transition to normal speech, keeping the same melody as the intoned sentence of the proceeding step, except that the constant pitch of the intoned words is replaced by the variable pitch of speech (Carroll, 1996; Roper, 2003). (4) De-brief this technique by challenging learners to listen for intonational idioms in naturalistic TL situations and share them periodically with the class.

CM 47: Stressing Stress (Adapted from: http://www.learnenglish.de/pronunciation/intonation expression.html#sthash.XlSGfZma.dpuf) I try to write conversationally; I try to write like people speak and put the emphasis on the right syllable. – Don Henley (The Eagles) Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence by experimenting with very specific situations where misplaced stress completely changes the meaning of the utterance. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Provide the following list of phrases either on photocopies or written on the board: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g)

A nice watch vs A wrist watch A sticky web vs A spider web A clean cup vs A coffee cup A toy gun vs A water gun A bright star vs A movie star A new ball vs A foot ball A sharp knife vs A steak knife

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(h) (i) (j) (k) (l)

An old brush vs A hair brush A dry leaf vs A fig leaf A pointy tack vs A thumb tack A blackboard vs A black board A greenhouse vs A green house

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that there are very specific situations in English that if stress is misplaced, it changes the meaning of the entire utterance. Explain that the purpose of the exercise is to demonstrate that incorrectly placed stress heightens a listener’s processing time and increases comprehension difficulties (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). (2) Provide the following example: (a) I went to the White House (Stress on White). Meaning: The home of the President of the United States. (b) I went to the white house (Stress on house). Meaning: Any white house. (3) Write the following sentences on the board and have learners practice repeating them with the correct stress, understanding which stress pattern is associated with which meaning: (a) Light bulb (shines with electricity) vs Light bulb (A bulb that is not heavy) (b) Dark room (where photos are developed) vs Dark room (where there is no light) (c) A cold fish vs A gold fish (d) The paper box (box made out of paper) vs The paper box (box where papers are put) (4) Ask learners to look at the prepared list of phrases. In pairs, have them create juxtaposed sentences that show the differences in the meaning between the two examples by using the appropriate intonation. Allow them to practice. (5) Invite volunteers to share their sentences in whole group. (6) De-brief this technique by asking learners if different word stress can cause intelligibility problems in their own first languages. Explain that if they can pick up on the word stress of others and can accurately produce stress in their own speaking, their intelligibility will increase.

CM 48: Connecting with Connected Speech Knock. Knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana who? Knock. Knock. Who’s there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

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Communicative aim: To increase learners’ grammatical competence by familiarizing them with reduced spoken forms and their respective formal written forms. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Prepare enough copies of the following chart so that each learner receives one: Farewells

Modals + TO

Modals + HAVE

G’bye (Goodbye ‘bye (Goodbye) Seeya (See you) S’long (So long) Goin’ta (going to) Shortened Gonna (going to) phrases Gotta (got to) Hafta (have to) Otta (ought to) Wanna (want to) Coulda (could have) Mighta (might have) Shoulda (should have)

Shortened words ‘bout (about) ‘nother (another) ‘round (around) ‘cause (because) ‘in (-ing) Jus’ (just) Ol’ (old) Yu (you) Yur (your) Words + OF

How’ja (How would you) Jawanna (Do you want to) Yawanna (Do you want to) Whaddya (What do you) Whatduzzee (What does he) Whaja (What did you) Whaja (What would you) Whad’ll (What will) Whatser (What is her) Whatsiz (What is his) Wheraya (Where are you) When d’ya (When do you) Where j’eat (Where did you eat?) J’eat jet (Did you eat yet?) J’ev (Did you have) J’ever (Did you ever) Wouldja (Would you)

Kinda (kind of) Sorta (sort of) Type-a (type of) A-lotta (a lot of) Infruna (in front of) Outa (out of)

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by asking learners how many of them have ever complained about native speakers or teachers speaking so quickly that they were unable to understand the TL speech or to segment it into

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(2) (3)

(4)

(5)

words. Explain that part of their frustration might stem from connected speech processes, linking and reduced forms (Brown, 2014; Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011). Hand out the chart to each learner. Tell them to refer to it to create a dialogue that they will later read to a partner. Place learners in pairs. Tell Learner A to read his/her dialogue with reduced forms aloud to Learner B as a dictation exercise. However, rather than writing the reduced form that is heard, tell Learner B to write out the formal unreduced form. Switch roles and repeat the dictation using Learner B’s created dialogue. Invite partners to exchange written dictations and ask learners to check each other’s work against their original dialogues, providing written feedback when necessary. Pass dictations back to the original writers and have them review their partners’ feedback. De-brief this technique by challenging learners to listen carefully and notice reduced forms when they encounter them in natural communication. Ask them whether it is important for them to transition from the simplified speech often found in the classroom to the more authentic speaking rate and reduced forms found in naturalistic interaction.

Note (1) The 3Cs is from Long (1980). We extended his ideas by adding the ‘A.’

Affective Techniques

AF 1: Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall … Mirrors have three purposes. To show you who you are. To show you who you were. And to show you who you want to be. – Dan Pearce Affective aim: To deepen rapport between TL learners through imitation, mirroring and interactional synchrony. Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this activity by explaining that its purpose is to sensitize interactants to the details of body movement and expression and to show them how ‘mirroring’ an interlocutor’s nonverbal behavior builds rapport and demonstrates that two people are thinking and communicating in sync (Andersen & Guerrero, 1998). (2) Place learners in pairs and instruct them to remain standing. Tell one of the partners to take the lead, remain completely silent and begin moving in any way desired, making sure to use both subtle and obvious actions. Tell the other partner to follow or mimic everything the leader does. (3) Continue this for two minutes and then switch roles and follow the same instructions. (4) After two more minutes, direct the dyads to carry out the activity again but this time there are no assigned leader or follower roles and both must try to move in unison, mirroring each other. (5) Switch partners. Instruct pairs to carry out the entire series of tasks again, but this time, add facial expression to the body movements. (6) De-brief this technique by asking what dyads did in order to move in unison. Was it easier with one partner or the other? Did anyone prefer to lead as opposed to follow? Did learners sense that positive feelings were being generated among partners? Do learners think that building rapport is an important emotional skill to manage in their TL interactions? 235

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AF 2: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Blabbery Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery – it’s the sincerest form of learning. – George Bernard Shaw Affective aim: To increase learners’ comfort and mimicking accuracy with imitation and mirroring. Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that it is meant to further raise interactants’ comfort level with imitation and mirroring in a fun and engaging game. (2) Ask for four volunteers. Instruct all other learners to sit down in a big circle. Send three of the volunteers out of the room. (3) Tell the remaining volunteer to perform the task of chasing a chicken. Tell the rest of the class that they are not allowed to say anything. (4) Retrieve one of the other volunteers from outside the room and without saying what the task is, instruct him or her to help the first player do their task. Then bring in the second volunteer and then the third. (5) After a couple minutes, stop the task and inquire as to what the third volunteer thought he or she was doing. Ask the same question to the second, and then to the first. (6) After the class stops laughing, de-brief this activity by asking what the class learned about the interpretation of nonverbal behavior. Draw their attention to the fact that while the learners in the room were told not to speak, the volunteers were not given that restriction. Did the volunteers ask for clarification? Why not?

AF 3: Halt! Improvising Zones of Proximal Development (ZPDs) The heart of a human being is no different from the soul of heaven and earth. In your practice always keep in your thoughts the interaction of heaven and earth, water and fire, yin and yang. – Morihei Ueshiba Affective aim: To heighten learners’ sensitivity to the role of gesture in creating ZPDs (and the resultant rapport) by participating and observing gesture use in improvised language learning interactions. Level: All

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Procedure (1) Preface this improvisation technique by explaining that ZPDs are interactional opportunities that work to promote language learning wherein one person is a bit further advanced and helps the other achieve progress toward his or her potential. Share the suggestion by researchers that gestures are important in the creation of ZPDs because they help create shared social, symbolic, physical and mental spaces that deepen the rapport between interactants. Not only does it improve affect, but it also is implicated in improved vocabulary comprehension, illustrating ideas and imitation (McCafferty, 2002). (2) Provide the following scenario for an improvisational role play to be carried out at the front of the class: One of you is a native speaker of (the TL you are teaching), and the other is a visitor to (a country where the TL is spoken) with limited language skills. You have met only once before, but on that occasion you agreed to meet at the restaurant where you now find yourselves. (3) As the class observes, invite members to take notes on the actors’ nonverbal behavior, paying particular attention to the actors’ gestures, the uniformity among interactants, the inconsistency in their cues and the vibes they felt about the actors’ affect and communication as the participants changed. (4) Invite two learners to begin the role play. As they adlib the interaction, at any instant another learner can say ‘Halt’ and the actors must freeze in position. The learner who halted the conversation walks to the front, taps one of the role players’ shoulders and replaces him or her in the scene. (5) The new actor now resumes the scene by initiating the talk, but can introduce anything new he or she wants by altering the scene slightly, by changing it up quite a bit, or by completely shifting the conversation. (6) The role players continue to improvise the new scene until another learner yells ‘halt!’ and steps in to amend the interaction again. Continue the process of adlibbing, halting and changing the scene until as many learners as possible have contributed to the improvisation. (7) De-brief this technique by placing learners in pairs. Consulting their notes as well as their memories, ask partners to focus their attention on the ZPDs that the role players were or were not able to create. Did observers see gestures that were mirrored and/or imitated between the interactants? Did the observers see any instances of shared social, symbolic, physical or mental spaces? Were any of the gestures used to aid in vocabulary comprehension, illustrations, references or other linguistic support? Do they think that ZPDs are effective creations to promote learning?

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AF 4: Emotional Illustrations Deafness has left me acutely aware of both the duplicity that language is capable of and the many expressions the body cannot hide. – Terry Galloway Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to decode and encode speechrelated gestures and vocalic cues that carry emotional messages.

Preparation (1) Write each of the quotes (Verbal Group) and gesture instructions (Nonverbal Group) found below on separate slips of paper. Place them in two separate hats from which learners can draw. We have provided enough slips for 10 learners, so if your class is larger, repeat each quote several times so that the number of quotes in the Verbal Group hat corresponds to the number of learners in the class (subtracting the five learners who will draw from the Nonverbal Group hat). It will actually be a lot of fun if different learners have the same quote as individuals will most likely interpret the quote differently and hence choose different gestures. (2) For the Verbal Group hat, write these quotes: ‘I have this much of my assignment left to do’ ‘My attention span yesterday was like this’ ‘I am another year older’ ‘My best friend got married’ ‘I’m here’ ‘My mother-in-law is coming this weekend’ ‘My language teacher cancelled class’ (3) In the Nonverbal Group hat, write these gesture instructions: Form both hands into fists and quickly extend them back and forth high into the air as if you are lifting a barbell in the weight room at the gym. ∗Wring your hands together slowly as if you are carefully washing them under running water. ∗Fingers extended and palms facing each other, extend both of your hands out in front of your body as wide as you can like you are inviting someone to give you a big hug. ∗Keep one hand at your side. Bring the other near the front of your face and extend only your forefinger and thumb so that they show a distance of about three centimeters. ∗Form one hand into a fist and keep the other one open. Continually hit your closed fist into your open hand. ∗

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Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that its purpose is to demonstrate how the gestures that interactants use to accompany their language provide revealing emotional clues that often provide important information for interpreting and expressing ideas in the TL (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). (2) Divide the class into two groups: the Verbal Group and the Nonverbal Group. Tell learners from each group to draw a slip from their respective hats. (3) Tell learners in the Nonverbal Group to line up across the front of the class and on your indication, begin performing the gestures that are written on the slips of paper they drew. (4) Tell the learners in the Verbal Group to carefully observe the gestures of the Nonverbal Group members and find the person whose gesture best matches the words that are written on their slips. Instruct them go to the front of the class and line up behind that person. (5) When all of the members of the Verbal Group have found their accompanying Nonverbal companion, tell learners from the Verbal Group to take turns saying their quote aloud – using the appropriate vocal cues – while the learner from the Nonverbal Group performs the speech-related gesture. (6) Draw learners’ attention to the fact that you did not ask members of the Verbal Group to change their intonation nor did you ask members of the Nonverbal Group to modify their facial expressions, yet it is most likely the case that many learners did. Elicit feedback from members of both groups as to why this happened, asking specifically for what individuals who made the adaptations were thinking. (7) De-brief this technique by questioning Verbal Group members about the original decision each made concerning which Nonverbal Group member to stand behind. Of particular interest might be the feedback from two Verbal Group members who drew the same quote but chose different Nonverbal Group members to accompany them. Discuss whether or not learners are aware of the gestures they use to complement their vocal expression and whether this technique sensitized them to their use. Is the emotional role that gesture and voice play important to them and their future interactions?

AF 5: Display your Dismay Words are a wonderful form of communication, but they will never replace kisses and punches. – Ashleigh Brilliant

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Affective aim: To strengthen learners’ interpretive skills relating to emotional intensity when decoding affect displays in the form of gestures, posture, body movements, facial expression and voice. Level: Intermediate/Advanced (due to low-frequency vocabulary)

Preparation Write the following words describing emotion on small slips of paper and put them in a hat or box from which learners can draw: ecstatic, overjoyed, delighted, thrilled, elated, blissful, euphoric, jubilant, joyful, happy, disinterested, indifferent, ambivalent, sad, miserable, depressed, gloomy, wretched, dejected, desolate, forlorn, sorrowful.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that affective displays can be any kind of nonverbal cue that conveys an individual’s emotional reactions to whatever is going on. Our body movements (such as gesture and posture) are the most accurate indicators of the intensity of our emotion (but not necessarily the type – that is more effectively observed in the face). Additionally, posture tends to communicate emotion more effectively than gesture, and the rate with which we move our bodies tends to be a more consistent manifestation of general emotional arousal (or lack thereof) than an indicator of a specific emotion (Collier, 1985; Leathers & Eaves, 2008). (2) Ask learners to draw an ‘emotion’ adjective from the hat. Instruct them to line up on a ‘happy-sad continuum’ across the front of the room in order of the intensity of the emotion that is written on their slip of paper. The trick is that they are only permitted to use nonverbal cues: NO SPEAKING ALLOWED. Tell them to pay particular attention to their gestures, postures, body movements and face. (Note: Many of the adjectives are so close in meaning as to be synonymous. This should not be problematic as this will hopefully enhance the conversation during de-briefing.) (3) Once all learners are lined up, have them go down the line from one end to the other, saying their adjective aloud with the accompanying vocal cues while acting out the emotion as they had during the exercise. Have the majority rule and allow individuals to change places on the continuum. (4) De-brief this technique by asking what body movements, gestures and postures were particularly telling in learners’ process of defining emotional intensity. What role did facial expression play in defining the type of feelings being expressed? How did vocal cues play out? Did the

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discussion about the nuanced semantic features among the adjectives during the final line up help them distinguish the lexical items better? Do they think that this is an important skill to take into consideration in their own communication?

AF 6: Becoming Attuned: Notice, Associate, Respond When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen. – Stephen Covey Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to notice their interactants’ nonverbal expressive cues and to associate these behaviors with their interactants’ internal states so that learners can respond more appropriately and effectively. Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that when interlocutors become attuned to their interactants’ nonverbal behavior, they take mental ‘snapshots’ in real time during conversation. Explain that as interactants improve their understanding of the differences in an individual’s nonverbal cues when positive versus negative information is processed, they will be able to better follow their interlocutors’ thought processes (Churches & Terry, 2007). (2) Place learners in pairs and inform them that they will take turns being the ‘observer’ and the ‘expresser.’ (3) Tell observers to use a warm and friendly voice to invite their partner to think of someone he/she really likes, imagine that person coming into the room and envisage his/her voice, movements, etc. Instruct the observers to notice what their expresser is doing with his/her eyes, lips, facial muscles, skin, breathing, posture, movement and voice and to take a mental snapshot. (4) Tell observers to use an impersonal vocal tone and elicit a neutral state in their partner by asking some unrelated superficial questions about the weather, their clothes, etc. (5) Next, instruct observers to use tougher, harsher vocal tones to ask their partner to think of a time when they became angry or had a negative reaction to something and to re-experience the feelings attached to this unpleasant circumstance. Ask observers to again take a second mental snapshot of their partner’s nonverbal cues.

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(6) Tell observers that they will now check how attuned they are to their partner’s nonverbal cues by taking their expresser back to the first experience, asking them to think about the person he/she likes, followed by eliciting a neutral state and then remembering an unpleasant situation. (7) Have partners switch roles and carry out the same sequence of activities. (8) De-brief this technique by dividing learners into small groups to discuss their findings. Ask members of each group to take turns sharing their experiences and answering the following questions: (a) What did you learn about your ability to judge your partner’s internal states? (b) What was the most accurate predictor of your partner’s thoughts (e.g., eyes, lips, facial muscles, etc.)? (c) Which behaviors were the most confusing? (d) Do you think this technique gave you some insight into further developing your emotional intelligence? Is this important to you?

AF 7: Deceit Detectives: Affect Cues as Clues Fie, fie upon her! There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip! Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out at every joint and motive of her body. – William Shakespeare Affective aim: To heighten learners’ awareness and interpretation of unintentionally conveyed nonverbal cues. Level: All

Procedure (1) Do not preface this technique with any explanations as it will work best if learners are initially unaware of its purpose. (2) Place learners in pairs. Tell one learner from each dyad to remove a small object from their pencil cases or purses that will fit within a clamped fist. Instruct them to place the object in one hand behind their backs and present their fists to their partners. (3) Tell the other learner in the dyads to observe their partners carefully and try to detect in which hand the object is located. Do this five times. (4) Switch roles and repeat the exercise. (5) At this juncture, explain that affect displays are nonverbal cues that are used with less awareness and intentionality than other gestures and thus provide personal information about the communicator that he or she might not be inclined to divulge willingly. According to experts, encoding and decoding unintentional emotion is very individual: some people

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more than others unintentionally ‘leak’ their secrets while a body language savvy person (as opposed to one who is not) would have been able to detect where the coin was in this exercise (Richmond et al., 2012). (6) Optional step: Ask if any of the class members perceives themselves adept at ‘reading’ others. If so, ask him or her to come to the front and demonstrate with numerous coin-hiding volunteers. At the end of this particular step, ask learners if the ‘adept reader’ would make a good detective, if the ‘coin-hiders’ would make good gamblers, or if both seem to be true. (7) De-brief this technique by asking what learners were looking for when they attempted to ‘read’ what hand the object was in. Which cues led to success? Which led to being incorrect?

AF 8: Tracking Tell-Tale Truths In a battle of believability, the winner is the one with the best body language, not the clearest logic. – Jarod Kintz Affective aim: To heighten learners’ awareness and interpretation of unintentionally conveyed nonverbal cues (e.g. affect displays). Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that many people unintentionally show tell-tale signs in their body language that indicate they are not being completely truthful (Richmond et al., 2012). This activity provides experience in hunting for those clues. (2) Place learners in groups of five or six. Ask them to generate a list of five things that they think other group members do not know about them. (3) Instruct learners to choose one to alter so that it becomes a false statement. (4) Tell group members to take turns one by one sharing their five statements while the rest of the group listens and observes carefully. Have the group guess which is false and tally which person was the best ‘liar.’ (5) Bring the groups back together and have the ‘winning liars’ come to the front of the room, repeat the exercise and have the whole class guess. (6) De-brief this technique by asking the class what the tell-tale signs of deceit were that the ‘losers’ most often exhibited that gave away their lie. What did the winners do or how did they say their statements that made them so believable? What did this technique teach learners about unintentionally conveyed cues?

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AF 9: The Gesture Police Emotion always has its roots in the unconscious and manifests itself in the body. – Irene Claremont de Castillejo Affective aim: To raise learners’ awareness of their idiosyncratic unintentional adaptor gestures. Level: All

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that adaptor gestures are unintentional highly idiosyncratic movements that individuals exhibit when they are experiencing negative affect such as boredom or anxiety. Because of their unintentional nature, most of us do not even know we are doing them. This activity will provide an opportunity for awareness raising. Explain that adaptors can be ‘self’ adaptive or ‘other’ adaptive. For example, a learner giving a public TL presentation may be found ‘self-touching’ such as when a person with long hair twirls it around a finger. Likewise, she could also perform ‘other-adaptive’ behaviors which include playing with a ring on her finger or fidgeting with a pen. Both self-adaptive and other-adaptive gestures convey some kind of discomfort with whatever is going on at the moment (Knapp & Hall, 2010). These unintended nonverbal cues are common among language learners suffering from foreign language anxiety. The first step to freeing up learners’ hands so that they can be used in meaning-enhancing ways when communicating in the TL is to be made aware of those moments when they are actually exhibiting them (Gregersen, 2005; Gregersen et al., 2009). (2) Ask learners to pair up. It is very important that they choose someone with whom they feel an affinity as this technique needs to be carried out in a supportive and non-threatening relationship. (3) Ask learners to divide a sheet of paper into two columns. Write the following two headings: ‘Type of Adaptive Gesture’ and ‘Conditions that Provoked Adaptive Gestures.’ Instruct learners to observe their partners over the next week and keep a running count of what kind of adaptive gesture their classmates exhibited (i.e. twisting hair or fidgeting with paper) and under what conditions (i.e. participating in a role play in small group or while answering the teacher’s question in whole group). (4) Give pairs the opportunity to interact for a few minutes to talk about what they are currently aware of in terms of their own adaptive behaviors in order to define a point of comparison for discussion in one week’s time.

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(5) After a week, have learners consult their tallies and share their observations with each other. Ask them to consider whether they were aware of these cues. (6) De-brief this technique by discussing whether learners think that having their awareness raised about how and when they use adaptive gestures will be helpful in gaining control over these cues. Allow learners to share some of the strategies that they use to limit their negative feelings. (See Gregersen and MacIntyre (2014) for detailed measures that TL learners and teachers can take to create positive-broadening emotions in the place of negative-narrowing ones.)

AF 10: Fractions of Facial Factions Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears.

– Heraclitus of Ephesus

Affective aim: To increase learners’ understanding concerning how different parts of the face and eyes communicate emotions. Level: All

Preparation (1) Find full-face photos and/or drawings from magazines or other print sources that show the following five emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, anger and worry. (2) Cut each one into three sections: the forehead and brow area; the eye area and the mouth/chin area.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that decoding others’ facial cues is a significant part of emotional intelligence because our faces are the principle means by which we express distinct emotions nonverbally and that awareness is the first step to increasing facial decoding accuracy and ultimately EI. Explain that interactants who may be subliminally cognizant of – but are not attending to – a given facial expression have minimal possibilities of effectively decoding it (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). (2) Divide the class into five groups and assign one prepared cut-up image to each but do not let them see the whole image all at once. Provide one of the three portions of the facial images at a time and ask learners to come to a consensus concerning the emotion that that specific zone expresses. Tell them to keep track of their answers.

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(3) Have groups exchange the pieces and repeat the process of having them analyze the facial portions one at a time until all five groups have seen all five images. (4) Show the class the images in their entirety and provide the ‘correct’ answer as to what emotion each total image conveys. Ask groups to determine the percentage of right answers according to facial regions. Summarize the findings of the entire class. (5) De-brief this technique by asking whether learners can hypothesize about whether one portion of the face provides more accurate emotional information. Were some individuals or groups better than others at making the distinctions based on facial zones? Is this a skill that learners will try to improve?

AF 11: Feeling Frenzy The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart. – St. Jerome Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to identify their own feelings and those of others through nonverbally communicating a variety of emotional messages. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that we often feel emotions without being cognizant of them and that people have unique ways of expressing them. Learners who are aware of their feelings are better able to regulate them. This process begins with paying attention to our nonverbal behavior. (2) Ask learners to listen to the following set of statements and to imagine what they would feel if it was directly addressed at them: (a) ‘Incredibly good quiz score!’ (b) ‘Two minutes left to finish your test.’ (c) ‘It sounds like you did not look over your vocab list last night!’ (d) ‘Wow, what a wonderful paper you wrote!’ (e) ‘You need to reconsider how you did that assignment.’ (f) ‘With your scores, you will need to study much harder.’ (g) ‘It looks like everyone in the class wants to partner with you!’ (3) Invite learners to share what they felt. What physiological evidence did they experience? (4) Tell learners to space themselves out around the room. Tell them that as you read out the following universal emotions one at a time, you want

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them to act it out and to be aware of their posture (e.g. tension vs relaxed), facial expression (including lips, eyes, etc.) and gestures. After calling out each emotion, choose one particularly expressive learner and ask him or her to freeze. Draw the attention of the other learners to the nonverbal cues. (a) Sadness (b) Joy (c) Anger (d) Surprise and (e) Fear (5) Divide the class in two. Ask one group of learners to sit down and observe while the other group again communicates using nonverbal cues, but this time with the messages written below. Tell the observers to watch the way the actors, without speaking, move their bodies, use facial expression, make eye contact, gesture and maintain their posture. (a) ‘I am sooooo bored!’ (b) ‘Gosh, that was fun!’ (c) ‘What an awful test!’ (d) ‘I quit!’ (e) ‘You are my best friend!’ (f) ‘I love you.’ (g) ‘I’m really nervous!’ (h) ‘Don’t you love my new outfit?’ (6) Next, ask the two groups to switch actor/observer roles. Tell the learners who are now seated to take turns providing messages for their actor peers to perform. At the height of the performance of each message, tell actors to freeze. Ask observers to look closely and define the specific similarities and differences in the way that the actors expressed their feelings. (7) De-brief this technique by discussing whether this activity increased learners’ awareness of the way they personally express emotion. What differences and similarities did they notice in their own expression as opposed to that of their peers?

AF 12: Walk the Talk Respect the emotions in someone’s heart rather than the expression on someone’s face. Because expression is just a formality, but emotions are reality. – Nishan Panwar Affective aim: To enhance learners’ ability to understand both the kind and intensity of given emotions through the observation of nonverbal and vocal behavior.

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Level: All

Preparation Remove all the desks/tables from the middle of the room so that there is a wide open space through which students can walk.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that individuals in many cultures show what they are feeling by the expressions on their faces, the frequency and intensity of eye contact, their posture and the way they move and their vocal expression (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). (2) Divide the class in two and ask each group to line up on opposite sides of the room facing each other. Tell learners in one group (without letting the other group hear) that they are to walk half way across the room expressing with their faces and bodies the underlying emotion that you tell them. At the halfway point, they are to stop and say ‘good day’ in unison in a way that expresses the same idea through their voices. Have them finish the walk to the other side still conveying the same feelings. (3) As the first group crosses the room, tell the other group to try to determine what the emotion is, searching for specific ways that the feelings are expressed through body language, facial expression, eye contact and voice. (4) Here are some sample ideas: (a) ‘As I walk across the room, everyone will know I am nervous and that will make me even more anxious.’ (b) ‘As I walk across the room, everyone will see how gorgeous my new clothes are and that will make me feel even more confident.’ (5) Ask groups to change roles. The walking group now observes and vice versa. (6) Here are some more ideas: (a) ‘As I walk across the room, I know that everyone will hear my accent when I say “good day” and that will make me want to concentrate even harder on saying it right.’ (b) ‘As I walk across the room, everyone will understand how well I speak, and that will make me feel so happy!’ (7) De-brief this technique by asking what codes were the most helpful in interpreting the kind and intensity of emotion being expressed. How did the amount and intensity of eye contact and blinking behavior differ? What were the indicators observers were looking at to make their hypotheses? Did vocal expression play a role? Ask learners how much they think this varies among cultures and whether this is an important nonverbal skill for them to focus on.

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AF 13: Urge and Surge (Adapted from Ciarrochi & Mayer, 2007) I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past. – Virginia Woolf Affective aim: To increase learners’ perception of how emotions can cause them to act, react and think in dynamic, constantly changing ways. Level: All

Preparation Reproduce the following chart, providing one to each learner and leaving enough room for the learner to respond: Emotion

Causes

Nonverbal Behavior

Physiological Reaction

Thoughts/Urges

Excited (example)

Good grade on oral presentation

Smile, eyes crinkle, springy step, relaxed posture

Heart races, breathing quickens

‘I want to do that again!’

Happy Angry Surprised Afraid Disgusted Sad Confidence

Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that we often have competing emotions, and these cause different reactions: nonverbally, physiologically and cognitively. Additionally, the emotions we feel bring on different urges to act. Fredrickson (2002) believes that positive emotions open up and broaden our thoughts and actions while negative emotions narrow our perspectives and close up our options to act.

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(2) Give a copy of the above chart to each learner. Review the emotions in the first column with them and tell them to be alert over the next week for occasions when they arise. Ask them to fill in the row corresponding to the emotion as soon as possible after feeling it. This includes indicating the cause of the emotion, the nonverbal behavior that was exhibited, the physiological reaction that ensued and the kinds of thoughts that the emotion sparked. (3) The following week, ask learners to put themselves in small groups to share the information in their charts. Invite them to compare and contrast their answers and to fill in a Venn diagram like the one below with similarities and differences.

(4) De-brief this technique by asking learners to share any tendencies that they observe between the thoughts that are evoked when they are feeling negative-narrowing emotions as opposed to the thoughts that are conjured up with positive broadening ones. What does this suggest to learners?

AF 14: Grin and Bear it! (Adapted from: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0502/22. smile.html) Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. – Nhat Hanh Affective aim: To increase learners’ cognizance that their smiles have a variety of different emotional and social functions.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that people often assign different meanings to the same facial expression, particularly as concerns smiling.

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Remind learners that the encoding and decoding of emotions is complex and full of potential contradictions, especially when considering the meaning and emotion behind a smile (Gregersen, 2009). Invite learners to spend a moment brainstorming and writing down all of the different words they associate with the word ‘smile.’ Tell them to turn to a partner and compare lists. Ask learners throughout the next two days to write down every time they find themselves smiling. Tell them to make a note of the reason and the situation in which it occurred. After the two-day journaling, place learners in pairs and invite them to interview their partners and record their responses to the following questions. Encourage the interviewee to consult their two-day smiling journal. (a) Do you like smiling? (b) What percentage of your day do you smile? (c) How many different smiles do you have? (d) Do you have different smiles for different people? (e) Do you ever fake a smile? (f) Who has the best smile of anyone you know? What is it that makes this one special? (g) Do you always smile in photographs? (h) Do you think you can you spend a whole day without smiling? (i) What kind of things make you smile to yourself? De-brief this technique by asking learners what they discovered about themselves and the reasons behind why they smile. Will these discoveries influence their future interactions? If so, how?

AF 15: Smile: Does the World Smile with Me? A smile abroad is often a scowl at home.

– Alfred Lord Tennyson

Affective aim: To increase learners’ affective competence by understanding that culture influences the manner and frequency of smiling and that what seems natural and genuine in one social milieu may be perceived as ‘fake’ in another. Level: All

Preparation Learners will need a hand-held mirror for this technique. Remind them to bring one to class.

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that language learners from different cultures have distinct expectations about the form and frequency of smiling (Gregersen, 2006). Ask the group whether they have evidence of these differences and what might be the repercussions or consequences of violating the smiling norms of a culture. (2) Ask learners if they have ever heard of a person having an ‘easy smile.’ Explain that these are people who break into a grin effortlessly and usually make those around them feel happy (Jaffe, 2010). Take a poll asking learners if they think that practicing smiling will result in it becoming easier and looking less strained. (3) Explain that a genuine smile (often dubbed the ‘duchenne smile’) naturally extends to the eyes and that it’s hard to fake (Jaffe, 2010). Take a poll asking learners whether they find it hard to smile for photos. Ask them to share their experiences. (4) Have learners look at themselves in their mirrors and smile in different ways. Tell them to ask themselves whether they like their smile best when their mouths are opened or closed. Invite them to check their smiles out from different angles. Which smiles and poses make their faces light up the most? Which smile comes across as the most natural? (5) With mirrors still in hand, tell learners to continue practicing different smiles, but now to concentrate on their eyes by covering the lower part of their faces with a piece of paper. Invite them to experiment, making their mouth smile with and without their eyes. In pairs, have learners comment about which muscles are working and how. (6) Ask learners to partner up and share their smiles and their self-assessments. Do partners agree? Have learners comment about which muscles are working and how with both fake and genuine smiles. (7) Tell learners for the next day to make brief eye contact and smile at random strangers – being as genuine as possible. Have learners take notes in their ‘smiling journal’ (from the previous technique) of the strangers’ reactions. (8) Consulting their smiling journals, ask pairs to discuss whether smiling at random strangers violated the cultural norms where they are. Did the reactions of others tend to be more positive or negative? That is, did people smile back? Did they return the learners’ smiles with strange looks? (9) Share the following list of potential benefits of a smile: (adapted from: http://www.wikihow.com/Smile) (a) Smiles enhance our appearance. Charles Gordy once quipped: ‘A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks.’ Just envision an individual who is scowling and another who is smiling – who tends to outshine the other?

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(b) Smiles make things right again and say much more than words can. When we make a mistake, assume something not so flattering, feel lost, lonely or low, a smile can restore balance. It communicates to others that we desire openness and are prepared to amend the situation. (c) Smiles build trust and rapport. Smiles effectively establish mutual feelings of being on the same page with others, whether we are relating one-to-one or giving a public presentation. Smiles say, ‘Let’s enjoy one another’s company.’ (d) Smiles increase our well-being. Even if we are a bit sad, it is possible to insert happy thoughts into our minds and produce a smile. We can trick our minds into feeling contentment, as endorphins are released to ease physical or emotional stress. (e) Smiles incite others to feel good. We can see toothy smiles from further away than a frown, providing a guarantee that we come in peace. (f) As wrinkles, smile lines are better than frown lines. Take it from Mark Twain who once said: ‘Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.’ With Twain’s perspective, smiles indicate an element of our whole character, which becomes more ostensibly apparent as we age. (g) Smiling is an effective long-term predictor of positive-broadening life outcomes as it is correlated with health, happiness, friends, success and a longer life. (10) De-brief this technique by asking learners how many of these benefits are applicable to their own cultures. How do these benefits compare and contrast?

AF 16: Infectious Expressions A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles. – Washington Irving Affective aim: To increase learners’ firsthand experience with the infectiousness of their facial expressions. Level: All

Preparation Find four images of happy people smiling and four images of angry people frowning. Have enough so that each pair of learners receives the complete set of eight.

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by taking a poll about whether learners are influenced by the moods of others – particularly when their interactants’ feelings are displayed obviously on their faces. (2) Pair learners and hand out the eight images (four smiling, four frowning) to each dyad and instruct each learner to take two of each. Learners will take turns being the ‘presenter/observer’ and the ‘receiver/expresser.’ (3) Tell the presenter/observer in each pair to observe their partner’s face carefully as they: (a) Show a ‘happy’ image to the receiver/expresser while telling him/ her to smile back at the image (b) Show another ‘happy’ image to the receiver/expresser while telling him/her to frown back at the image (c) Show an ‘angry’ image to the receiver/expresser while telling him/ her to frown back at the image (d) Show another ‘angry’ image to the receiver/expresser while telling him her to smile back at the image (4) Tell learners to switch roles and repeat the four stages from step 3. (5) Ask learners whether it took more, less, or the same amount of effort to return a contradictory facial expression compared to a reciprocated one when observing the images. Tally up the whole group responses. (6) De-brief this technique by telling learners that researchers who used specialized instruments to measure facial muscle movement discovered that participants in their study did not have complete control over their facial muscles even when they consciously attempted to exert control over them. Explain that this technique was meant to demonstrate that being able to smile, even when they do not feel like it, is a positive behavior as it directly influences other people’s attitudes and their responses to them. In a nutshell, scientists have demonstrated that the more we smile, the more positive reactions others will give to us (Dimberg et al., 2002). Ask learners whether this is an important feature in their own communication.

AF 17: Anxious Al Meets Nervous Nelly Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment. – J. Donald Walters Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to combat negative-narrowing affect by exploring their nonverbal and vocal reactions to language anxiety. Level: All

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Preparation Prepare a hand-out with five blank anxometers (MacIntyre & Gardner, 2011) like the image below and leave a space for learners to write. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that although individuals might manifest emotions in different ways, there tend to be some similarities in what provokes language anxiety and the ways that language learners manifest it (Gregersen, 2005). Tell them that this technique will provide an opportunity to explore the group’s anxiety triggers and displays. (2) Form pairs. Ask each dyad to brainstorm a list of those activities or situations in language class that cause them concern, worry or anxiety. These might include things like giving an oral presentation, being called upon to answer, etc. Combine two dyads, ask them to merge their lists and then come to a consensus concerning their top five most anxietyproducing circumstances. Allow them to prioritize for themselves. Repeat this procedure until the entire class has developed their top five solutions. Write those on the board. (These will also be written on the prepared anxometer hand-outs.) (3) Form small groups of four to five learners. Ask them to create a list of physical manifestations that their bodies and voices do when they are anxious and to act each of them out. Examples might be things like increased blinking, lack of eye contact, stuttering, shaking, forgetting what they wanted to say, having dry mouth, or getting a headache.

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(4) Form a large whole group circle. Ask for one volunteer to act as if he/she is gazing into a large mirror while experiencing one of the anxiety provoking situations written on the board. Invite the volunteer to slowly and methodically move different parts of his/her body while the remaining learners create the mirror by precisely following the volunteer’s movements. (5) Hand out the anxometers. Ask learners to write one of each of the five most anxiety-provoking situations from step 2 next to each of the anxometers and then to rate their own personal anxiety response when they encounter that situation. Invite learners to turn to the person next to them in the circle and share their responses. (6) De-brief this technique by asking what participants learned about the causes of language anxiety and how it is nonverbally and vocally manifest. Does it make them feel better knowing that they are not alone when they feel anxious in the classroom? Ask learners to share any strategies that they have developed for reducing their own anxiety or that of their interlocutor.

AF 18: Avoiding the Resting Witch Face and Improving Initial Impressions (Adapted from Goman, 2007) Early impressions are hard to eradicate from the mind. When once wool has been dyed purple, who can restore it to its previous whiteness? – St. Jerome Affective aim: To increase learners’ discernment of the initial impressions they give to new acquaintances through roleplaying first encounters. Level: All

Preparation Ask learners to bring their hand-held mirrors to class.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that some researchers believe that within the first milliseconds of meeting someone, this person has already formed an opinion. Often, before we even speak our first word, our interlocutors have already made up their minds about us (Willis & Todorov, 2006). Explain that facial expressions, gestures, posture and

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the way we gaze signal our emotions to people, so it is important that we send the messages that we want people to see. First impressions are more heavily influenced by nonverbal cues than verbal ones, and in fact studies have found that nonverbal cues have over four times the impact on the impression we make than anything we say. Explain that a tense face is often expressionless and that one way to loosen up to convey less nervousness through facial expression is to do a few warm up exercises. Tell learners to shake off their scared faces by smiling as big as they can until they laugh out loud. Explain that when individuals lack confidence, they will often refrain from making eye contact. Have them close and widen their eyes, move their lips, open their mouths and then close them. Ask them to finish this first warm up by wiggling their tongues around. Reiterate to learners that every culture has its own idiosyncratic norms for making positive impressions upon first meetings. Explain that the activities in which they are about to participate are only but one way to greet others and that the wisest behavior to perform when in a new environment is to observe, notice and then act. Ask learners to share greeting rituals and behaviors that are important in other cultures. Place learners in pairs. Explain that they will take turns acting as each other’s mirror, so that as Learner A carries out the actions, Learner B will mimic his/her peer as closely as possible and vice versa. Begin by focusing learners’ attention on their eyes and mouths. Explain that in many cultures a face that is perceived as ‘friendly’ and ‘approachable’ has smiling eyes and mouth and that the wrinkle lines on the sides of the eyes and corners of the mouth are indicators of a natural, true smile. Tell Learner A to smile as authentically as possible and for Learner B to imitate A’s expression. Ask them to look for the tell-tale wrinkle lines in one another’s faces. Next have Learner B smile naturally and A imitate. Invite learners to take out their handheld mirrors and look at themselves. Explain that in many cultures – albeit not all – looking at someone’s eyes transmits energy and trust, indicates interest and openness, and demonstrates confidence. Ask partners to make eye contact with one another. Explain that a good strategy for making eye contact is to make a practice of noticing the other person’s eye color every time they meet someone. At the same time as they make eye contact, tell partners to also raise their eyebrows and open their eyes slightly more than normal. Explain that this ‘eyebrow flash’ is a signal of recognition and acknowledgement. Explain that many cultures (particularly Western cultures) also use the handshake upon initial greeting/meeting and that research has demonstrated that for members of these cultures, this is the quickest most

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effective way to establish rapport – in fact by some accounts, it takes an average of three hours of continuous interaction to develop the same level of rapport that we can achieve with a single handshake. Ask learners to add this to their growing repertoire of initial greeting behaviors by practicing it with their partners. As each pair shakes hands, tell them to lean slightly into their partner while still respecting their space. Explain that leaning forward shows engagement and interest. Turn learners’ attention to their posture. Explain that competence and confidence are often conveyed through use of height and space. Invite learners to repeat the mirror/imitation exercise again. Have Learner A stand tall, pull shoulders back and hold the head straight. Tell Learner B to imitate. Switch roles. Next, focus pairs’ attention on attitude. Explain that this is a vibe that people pick up on almost instantly. Ask pairs to make a list of situations in which they may realistically find themselves. Have them consciously think of the choices about the attitude they want to embody in each circumstance and to write that down next to it. Ask learners to form two concentric circles, one inside the other. Tell the circles to move in opposite directions, and as they meet the next person: (a) To make eye contact and flash the eyebrow; (b) To smile as authentically as possible; (c) To lean in slightly while shaking hands; and (d) To move to the next person, paying attention to posture and attitude. Continue this impression management activity until learners have made the complete circle, finishing where they began. De-brief this activity by asking whether any of these behaviors were more difficult or unnatural than others. Did any learners feel they were being ‘phony’? How important do learners think it is to make a good impression?

AF 19: Everyone Emotes Feelings or emotions are the universal language and are to be honored. They are the authentic expression of who you are at your deepest place. – Judith Wright Affective aim: To increase learners’ appreciation of the universality of emotions. Level: All

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Preparation (1) If you have access to a large quantity of print material or online sources from which students can print, Step 2 below can be done in class. Otherwise, it might be more effective to assign it as homework. (2) Write the words anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise (the six universal emotions) on separate slips of paper and make enough sets so that everyone in the class has one (i.e. if you have 30 learners, make five of each). Place them in a hat/bag/box.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that as far back as Darwin in 1892, researchers were discussing the notion there are six emotions that ALL cultures around the world express in similar ways. (2) Write the six universal emotions on the board or provide them on a sheet of paper: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. Tell learners to find photos in print material or through online sources of individuals expressing each of the six emotions to cut out and share with the class. (3) Divide learners into six groups. Ask them to take turns showing their images and having group members guess which emotion the person sharing the picture thought was being expressed. Keep a tally of how many the group guessed correctly. (4) In whole group, invite groups to share their guessing success rate. Upon completion, ask learners if they are surprised by their success. (5) Assign each group one of the six emotions. Ask classmates to hand over the image they selected for each emotion to the group that was assigned that emotion. For example, the group assigned to ‘happy’ have all of the ‘happy’ images/photos that their classmates shared. (6) Provide a large sheet of paper or newsprint to each group. Have them paste all of the images they were given into a collage and ask them to label their posters with their assigned emotion. Hang these around the room. Invite groups to walk around looking at the collages looking for the similarities among the photos/images within each poster. (7) Next, invite learners to space themselves out around the room. Go around the room asking each learner to draw from the hat a prepared slip of paper with an emotion written upon it. Tell them to ‘paste on their faces’ their assigned emotion and in complete silence, find the other members of the class who drew the same one. The first group to become complete ‘wins.’ (8) De-brief this technique by asking learners to speculate as to why, if there are universal facial expressions of emotion, that there is still so much difficulty in ‘reading’ people from other cultures. Tell them to ‘stay tuned’ for the next couple activities where the reasons will hopefully become more clear.

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AF 20: Facial Freedom? No Such Luck (Adapted from Cushner & Brislin, 1996) We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society. – Alan W. Watts Affective aim: To increase learners’ cross-cultural sensitivity by exploring the variance among the cultural norms that dictate which circumstances evoke emotions, the consequences of expressing them, and the display rules that govern them. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Make a copy of the following vignette and the subsequent questions for each group of four learners.

Smiling and Humor: Japanese and American Cultures John has just arrived in Japan from the United States. He has been hired as a manager in an American company and has over 500 Japanese employees working under him. Aki has been hired as his administrative assistant and interpreter because John’s Japanese language skills were minimal. Before John’s arrival, he had read a moderate amount of material about Japan, the people, their traditions and their culture. Despite this groundwork, numerous puzzling and frustrating incidents transpired during his first weeks in Japan. First, John noticed that whenever he told a joke, his employees did not laugh. He had always prided himself on a great sense of humor. He was not sure whether the problem was that Aki was not even interpreting his jokes or whether his employees just did not think he was funny. In fact, he thought that his self-deprecating humor would endear him to his employees as in the US it had always been the best way for him to show his humility and his ability to laugh at himself. As a person who had a happy, out-going personality, he always smiled at the employees that he passed in the hall. Aki’s response was to return his happy smile with a masked one, with the corners of her mouth turned down, and laugh embarrassedly.

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After his third week in Japan, John’s Japanese boss told him that Aki asked to be transferred to another division in the company because she could not trust his leadership. (1) What motivated John to act the way he did? (a) Americans in general tend to use a lot of put-down humor. (b) Americans love to poke fun at themselves and others. (c) In American culture, there is a big difference between a wry smile and happy smile and since John was a happy person, he smiled often. (d) John thought himself above his employees and used his smile to put them in their places. (2) What attitudes or values seem to be important in American society based upon John’s actions? (a) Americans are individualistic and self-confident, so selfdeprecating humor is appreciated. (b) American society is ‘low context’ which means that people expect things to be explicitly stated rather than depending on the interpretation of nonverbal behavior. (c) Americans joke and use put-down humor because they are insensitive. (d) Americans smile less than most other cultures, so John was an anomaly. (3) Why do you think Aki behaved the way she did? (a) A wise language interpreter will avoid translating humor for the good reason that jokes and sarcasm do not translate well across cultures. (b) In some cultures, humor can even be seen as aggression or dominance. (c) John’s position automatically conveyed status, so poking fun at himself confused her. (d) Aki was politely letting John know that his humor was inappropriate by using a masked smile. (4) What attitudes or values appear to be important in Japanese society based on Aki’s and John’s boss’ behavior? (a) In many Asian cultures, laughter can be a sign of embarrassment rather than a response to humor. (b) People in Asian cultures pay close attention to ‘saving face’ (i.e. preserving the dignity of all people in a given interaction). (c) Japan is a high context culture, which means that reading facial expressions, body language, etc. is second nature. (d) Japanese society has a low power distance, which means that people in authority are treated like all of the workers.

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(5) What could have been done differently to avoid this cross-cultural misunderstanding? Answers: (1) (2) (3) (4)

a, b and c are true. a and b are true. All are true. a, b and c are true.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that three aspects are primarily responsible for the culture-specific variances that emerge in facial expressions: the circumstances that elicit emotions; the consequences that follow after certain emotions are expressed; and the learned display rules that govern the use of facial behavior (Knapp & Hall, 2010). (2) Divide the class into groups of four. Hand out the prepared vignette and questions. Tell learners that the handout includes a ‘critical incident’ that contains some type of cross-cultural miscommunication and is followed by a set of questions from which they will discuss the interpretation of the characters’ actions. (3) Tell groups to exchange their responses and suggested interpretations with another group. Discuss the similarities and differences among the responses. (4) Invite groups to brainstorm a list of other cross-cultural examples where miscommunication arose because of how, when and why a person misused their facial expressions in the conveyance of emotion. For each example, include in the discussion the possible interpretations as to why it may have happened. Tell groups to choose one and, using the example of the vignette on the hand-out, write their own critical incident to exchange with another group. (5) Ask groups to exchange their critical incidents and rate the interpretations following the same steps as above. (6) De-brief this technique by asking if learners have ever had an experience where they felt their facial expressions had been misinterpreted or if they had misconstrued someone else’s nonverbal cues. Was this technique helpful in giving them experience in looking for alternative reasons as to why people in cross-cultural situations behave as they do?

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AF 21: Display Dilemmas: With Whom and Where? In this world, emotion has become suspect – the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless. – Joe Biden Affective aim: To increase learners’ insight into the cultural display rules that govern people’s emotional expressiveness. Level: All

Preparation Hang six large sheets of paper or newsprint in different locations around the room. In large letters, title each with one of the following universal emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. Draw a line down the middle of each poster and write the following sub-titles over each column: ‘Culturally Appropriate’ and ‘Culturally Inappropriate.’

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that every culture has affect display rules that govern when and how much emotion people are permitted to express to stay within the confines of appropriateness. Explain that such facial management techniques are learned, but not always consciously invoked. Tell them that this technique explores affect displays that are appropriate in some places but not in others, for some status and role positions but not in others, and for one gender but not the other (Knapp & Hall, 2010; Richmond et al., 2012). (2) Tell learners that they are going on a ‘Gallery Walk.’ Remind them of the previous activities that introduced them to the six universal emotions and draw their attention to each of the titles on the posters. (3) Divide the class into six groups, invite each group to stand in front of a different poster, and give each group a different colored marker. Tell them to discuss as a group the scenarios in which the emotion written on their poster would be appropriate and/or inappropriate in their own home cultures. Ask them to include elements of place, status position and gender in their answers. (4) Invite them to write those scenarios down. For example, the group assigned the ‘happiness’ poster might write in the ‘Culturally Appropriate’ column: ‘when we receive a gift’ and in the ‘Culturally Inappropriate’ column: ‘when someone is embarrassed.’ Allow them to write as many scenarios as there are different cultures in their small group. (5) Ask learners to move on to the next poster and repeat the process. Continue the Gallery Walk until all the groups have written on all the posters.

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(6) De-brief this technique when groups are back where they started. Ask a member of each group to read off the scenarios in both columns on their poster. Discuss with the whole class how the location of the communication and the status and gender of the people involved in the communication might influence how emotion is conveyed. Have learners compare and contrast responses between and among different cultures. Are there a lot of similarities and differences?

AF 22: Mingling with Masks All emotion is involuntary when genuine.

– Mark Twain

Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to manage their emotional expression via feedback from others. Level: All

Preparation Write the following messages on slips of paper: (a) (b) (c) (d)

Mask your emotion Intensify your emotion Neutralize your emotion Deintensify your emotion Prepare enough sets so that each learner in the class has one.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by reminding learners about the importance of cultural norms in how we manage our facial expressions. Explain that the four most common facial management techniques are masking, intensification, neutralization and deintensification (Ekman & Friesen, 1969, 1975). Tell them that we gain competence at managing our emotions through the continual feedback we receive about our facial expressions from our interlocutors (Knapp & Hall, 2010). (2) Present the following emotional management techniques one by one. Explain what each means and then ask for volunteers to provide examples of when they might need it. (a) MASKING: stifling the expression we really feel and replacing it with a more acceptable one (i.e. the faker) (b) INTENSIFYING: exaggerating what we feel (i.e. the drama queen)

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(c) NEUTRALIZING: removing any semblance of emotion (i.e. the poker face) (d) DE-INTENSIFYING: diminishing the intensity and minimizing our true feeling (i.e. the quasi-stoic) (Richmond et al., 2012). Attach one of the prepared slips of paper to the back of each learner without permitting him or her to see what it says. Instruct learners to mingle and find a partner. Tell the dyads to converse about the topics you say, but to talk and use the facial management technique attached to their partners’ backs. For example tell Learners A and B to talk about the upcoming weekend. If Learner A’s back says ‘mask your emotion,’ Learner B is to use that facial management technique as they converse. Invite learners to exchange partners at least four times, calling out different topics of conversation related to what has been covered in class and that would normally incite learners to feel strong emotions. Other topics might be ‘your classmate just won the “best student” award’ or ‘everyone failed miserably on the last grammar quiz.’ Ask learners whether they can guess what facial management technique is written on their backs. De-brief this technique by asking learners with different messages how it felt when others talked to them. Did students with ‘masking’ instructions feel differently than those with ‘neutralizing’ messages? Were some learners better than others at managing their facial expressions of emotion? How important is it for them to understand the display rules of the interactants with whom they are communicating?

AF 23: Seeing Eye to Eye (Adapted from: http://www.creativeyouthideas.com) Eye contact is more intimate than words will ever be.

– Faraaz Kazi

Affective aim: To increase learners’ mindfulness concerning how eye behavior establishes initial contact and is often the catalyst for further interaction. Level: All

Preparation (1) Place all the chairs in a large circle facing inward. (2) Reflect upon an age and proficiency-appropriate question that learners can answer in a large group.

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that in many cultures when an individual catches the eye of another and the gaze is reciprocated, a sort of ‘relationship’ is established; but if the receiver averts his gaze away from the original sender, the exchange ends there. Ask learners if they have had experiences with this idea (Richmond et al., 2012). (2) Ask learners to take a seat. Tell them that throughout the following activity, an emotion (e.g. love, anger, disappointment, honesty, encouragement, sadness, forgiveness, trust, hope, joy) will be called out which they must try to express with their eyes. (3) Have each answer the prepared question. Meanwhile, learners are to look across the circle at another person. When eye contact is established, they both say the name of the other person and, while maintaining continual eye contact, move leisurely but decisively across the circle to exchange places. Several pairs can be exchanging places at the same time. (4) After switching, tell learners to look around the circle again and when they make mutual eye contact, they repeat the process. No two people can exchange places twice in a row. (5) De-brief this technique by asking whether learners felt any discomfort while maintaining continual eye contact. Why or why not? Did any learners break eye contact? What did that do to the exchange? Did learners have different feelings with different class members? Why or why not? What things do a person’s eyes reveal? Do learners think the eyes are accurate revealers of emotion?

AF 24: An Eye toward Interaction There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t yet met. – William Butler Yeats Affective aim: To increase learners’ understanding of the force of eye behavior as a means of creating social connections. Level: All Reflect first: This technique may not fit the culture in which learners are acquiring the TL, so skip this one if making eye contact with strangers is frowned upon in any way.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that feeling socially connected has been demonstrated as being important for an individual’s health and

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well-being and that in some cultures, eye behavior is an important element in creating social connections – even if it is merely making eye contact with a stranger (Wesselmann et al., 2012). Tell them that, through this next activity, they will be attempting to replicate the research that makes this claim. (2) Place learners in pairs and assign each a role: ‘contactor’ and ‘observer.’ Instruct pairs to find a busy place where the ‘contactor’ will identify an unknowing person and either: (a) meet the person’s eyes, (b) meet the person’s eyes and smile, (c) look in the direction of the person’s eyes but look past them as if they are not even there. (3) Instruct learners that after passing each person, the ‘contactor’ is to signal to the ‘observer’ to stop that person and ask how disconnected they feel from other people. Tell the observer to keep track of their participants’ answers. (4) De-brief this technique by asking learners to share their responses with the rest of the class. What did they learn about eye contact and feelings of social connectedness? Do learners think that their results would differ in other cultures besides the one in which this was carried out?

AF 25: Gaze Away the Gray He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. – Sigmund Freud Affective aim: To increase learners’ attentiveness to the ways that eye contact impacts their emotional states and their emotional connections with others. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that when we make eye contact with others, our own emotional states are impacted in tandem with the emotional connection we share with our interactant(s). Suggest that sustained eye contact frequently communicates a desire for increased familiarity and additional interaction but it can also signal antagonism and negativity (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Let learners know that this

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technique will provide exposure to the impact of eye contact in silent interaction with others. Ask learners to spread themselves out throughout the room and imagine that they are in a crowded library. Invite learners for the next two minutes to mingle throughout the public space WITHOUT making eye contact with anyone. Give each learner a small piece of paper on which they write down the feelings they experienced during their meanderings. Collect them. Instruct the group to circulate around the space again for the next two minutes but this time to seek out eye contact with others. However, tell them to immediately look away each time eye contact is made. Provide another small piece of paper to write responses and then collect. In the final walk about the room, ask learners to seek out another’s gaze, pair up with the first person who reciprocates and walk side-by-side with that partner but NOT make eye contact with anyone else. Ask learners to record their feelings and collect once more. Instruct learners to make a large circle and to keep their eyes cast down staring at their shoes. When you say, ‘look up,’ everyone obeys, seeks eye contact with someone, and upon the first instance, gaze partners come into the middle and ‘high five.’ De-brief this technique by asking how learners felt during each phase. Are the same feelings evoked in real life? That is to say, how do learners feel when people look away rather than make eye contact or what reactions were incited when eye contact was sustained? How does the way people look at each other impact their exchanges? How might this differ in other cultures?

AF 26: I Dare You Not to Laugh Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the color in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty and your animal spirits. – William Hazlitt Affective aim: To increase learners’ awareness of how gaze behavior triggers positive emotional contagion. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the eyes are an important instrument in emotional contagion – that is, in this case, infectious laughter (Hatfield et al., 1994).

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(2) Pair learners and have them stand back to back. Tell them that on the count of three, everyone must face their partners, look each other squarely in the eye and attempt to remain solemn and serious. NO SPEAKING ALLOWED! (3) The first one to smile or laugh sits down. All who remain standing take a new partner. Repeat the sequence until only one person is left. (4) If it occurs that at the end there are learners who can all keep a straight face, invite the rest of the group to act as hecklers to disrupt them. (5) De-brief this technique by asking about the infectious nature of emotion and the role of the eyes. Why were some learners more immune to it than others? Do they believe this is more cultural or individual or both?

AF 27: Playing with Persuasion The key for any speaker is to establish his own point of view for the audience, so they can see the game through his eyes. – Ronald Reagan Affective aim: To practice and assess the role of nonverbal behavior in the power of persuasion. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Write the following criteria for learners’ ‘observation checklist/score sheet’ on the board or ask them to write it down on paper but do not disclose it until Step 5. (a) (b) (c) (d)

_____ Made eye contact with the audience _____ Used gestures naturally and persuasively _____ Made facial expressions that looked convincing _____ Used a variety of vocal cues, including pausing before important words (e) _____ Maintained an erect yet relaxed posture

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by asking if learners usually win or lose arguments – whether they be with family, friends, or classmates. Follow up by asking why they think some people win and some lose. Discuss. Make sure that the idea of nonverbal behavior, particularly eye contact, is part of the conversation. (2) Divide learners into small groups. Tell each group to take out a piece of paper and divide it into two length-wise columns. In the first column,

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ask them to prepare a list of instances of when someone attempted to persuade them or times when they tried to persuade someone else. Tell them to include things such as commercials and advertisements, people running for a position who wanted their votes, or teachers who tried to persuade them to think of an issue in another way. In the second column, have them write the kind of nonverbal behavior the ‘persuader’ used – including eye contact, facial expression, gestures and vocal cues. Explain to students that their group will engage in an argument in an attempt to persuade others to take their position. Each group will generate an argument and discuss ideas. Invite each group to choose a recorder and a speaker. The recorder will write down the team’s arguments and the speaker will persuasively present those arguments using the most persuasive nonverbal cues possible. Give groups 20 minutes to come up with a topic and write their arguments. Inform them that their speakers will have 3 minutes to present. Provide the prepared observation checklist/score card to the class. Explain each item and its importance in persuasion. Tell the speaker in each group to rehearse the speech while group members listen, and watch for the criteria on the checklist. Tell group members that their main purpose in this step is to provide pointers on how the speaker should use nonverbal behavior to the best of his or her advantage. Invite speakers to present their argument to the class. As the persuader is speaking, tell each class member to rank each speaker on each of the nonverbal persuasive criteria on a scale from 1 (excellent) to 5 (opportunity for improvement). Pass the feedback back to each speaker. Discuss what class members learned while listening to each argument and whether or not they sided with the speaker’s perspective. Why or why not? De-brief this technique by reviewing the notion that people are not persuasive solely because of the facts they present but also because of their nonverbal cues. Draw learners’ attention once again to the idea of the persuasiveness of eye contact and the way that leaders use it to their advantage (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). How does this notion differ interculturally?

AF 28: Gaze your Way to Status, Power and Control As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers. – William Blake Affective aim: To increase learners’ sensitivity to the ways eye behavior reflects relational issues such as status, dominance and power.

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Level: All

Preparation Prepare an equal amount of the following three cards. Make enough so that each learner in the class receives one card: (a) High dominance (b) Moderate dominance (c) Low dominance

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that one way to reliably and accurately gauge the status, power and desire for control of an interactant is the visual dominance ratio: the ratio of the percentage of speaking time spent looking at the other to the percentage of listening time spent looking at the other (Dovidio & Ellyson, 1985). (2) Take a poll of learners to find out if they think powerful, controlling people gaze more while speaking or listening. (3) Tell learners that individuals with higher status or dominance gaze comparatively more while speaking and less while listening, compared to those with lower status or dominance. (4) Put the following percentages on the board (Dovidio & Ellyson, 1985): (a) Communicators who display a high visual dominance ratio (55% looking while speaking versus 45% looking while listening) are viewed as considerably more powerful than: (b) Communicators who display a moderate visual dominance ratio (40% versus 60%) or (c) Communicators with a low visual dominance ratio (25% versus 75%). (5) Hand out a previously prepared card to each learner. Tell them to converse while mingling and to use the eye behavior defined on the card but not to disclose its value verbally. The objective is to find all of the other members of the class with the same power ratio. At the end, all of the high visual dominant, the moderate visual dominant and the low visual dominant should be in separate groups. (6) De-brief this technique by asking whether learners felt the power and control of those who sustained their gaze. What type of response did this elicit? Did other ‘powerful’ people stare back and defy? Did less powerful and less controlling learners use gaze avoidance to escape? Do they think that this is a universal behavior among powerful people or does it differ among cultures?

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AF 29: Believe Me! Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?

– Groucho Marx

Affective aim: To explore how nonverbal behavior combines with the vocal channel to establish credibility and manage impressions within different cultures. Level: All

Preparation Instruct learners to bring to class a picture of a person whose credibility and trustworthiness they admire. Tell them that the image they choose must manifest those personal qualities.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that in many cultures (but not necessarily all), those who desire to be esteemed as trustworthy and credible are expected to sustain eye contact during interactions. That is to say, people assume that speakers who look directly at their listeners know what they are talking about and are being honest while those who avert their eyes before speaking or answering a question are presumed to be less trustworthy, less credible and thus less persuasive (Burgoon et al., 1986; Burgoon & Saine 1978). Furthermore, explain that in terms of vocal features, credible people generally pause momentarily before replying, speak fluently, utilize appropriate variation in pitch and loudness and speak relatively quickly (Street & Brady, 1982). (2) Ask learners to take out the picture of the person they brought to class who they believe embodies trustworthiness and credibility. Tell them that they are now going to participate in a rolestorming activity where they take on the role of that person’s identity. (3) Invite one volunteer to show their picture to the whole class. Tell the class to briefly think about what they would like to ask the person in the picture. (4) Tell the volunteer to take a good look at the nonverbal cues – particularly the eyes and posture – of the trusted person in the picture and to take on that same persona. Instruct them also to listen in their minds to the way their model speaks so they can attempt to imitate it. (5) Tell the class to ask questions to the person in the picture. Ask the volunteer to answer them, paying attention to vocal cues of confidence while speaking from the perspective of the person in the picture, taking particular care to embody his or her chosen person’s posture and eye contact with the audience.

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(6) Once such rolestorming has been modeled, place learners in groups of four and ask them to take turns being the trusted and credible person in their pictures while the other group members ask questions. (7) De-brief this technique by asking what nonverbal cues – particularly posture, eye contact and vocal cues – were useful for establishing and maintaining the trustworthiness of the people that were ‘rolestormed.’ Were some learners better at managing the credible image of their revered person? Have a conversation about whether the people chosen would have been perceived as credible in some or all of the cultures represented by learners in the class. Why or why not?

AF 30: Dealing with Dissonance When we talk about emotion, we really talk about a collection of behaviors that are produced by the brain. You can look at a person in the throes of an emotion and observe changes in the face, in the body posture, in the coloration of the skin and so on. – Antonio Damasio Affective aim: To raise learners’ awareness of the diversity with which individuals interpret the same nonverbal cue and how mind/body dissonance can be created when their senses are in conflict. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the same postural cue can often be emotionally interpreted in different ways by individuals (Gregersen, 2007, 2009), and that the mixed verbal/nonverbal messages they receive and send might result in cognitive dissonance. (2) Invite learners to form a large circle. Choose the first learner, ask him/ her to step into the middle of the circle and begin miming an activity. Once the meaning of the activity is clear, tell the second learner in the circle to ask the first person what he/she is doing. Instruct the first learner to respond with something that has nothing to do with what he/she is really doing. That is to say, if the first learner is acting out drinking a cup of coffee, he might respond with, ‘I’m mowing the grass.’ (3) Tell the second learner to start miming the activity that was stated by the first learner. Instruct the third learner to ask what he/she is doing and continue the game until everyone has mimed something but claimed to be doing something else. (4) De-brief this technique by asking what it was like to observe one thing but be told that it was something else. Ask learners to connect this activity to their experiences with encoding and decoding nonverbal

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cues. Invite them to share their stories of when they thought they had accurately interpreted an interactant’s emotional state through their nonverbal behavior as one thing when in reality it was something totally different. Have they ever experienced this dissonance as the person being interpreted rather than as the one doing the interpretation? Does their ability differ if they are interacting with someone in their own culture as opposed to one different from their own?

AF 31: Peek a Boo You Two: Your Posture Speaks Volumes The social brain is in its natural habitat when we’re talking with someone face-to-face in real time. – Daniel Goleman Affective aim: To increase learners’ insight into how postural orientation reflects relational elements between two people in conversation. Level: All

Preparation Arrange the classroom with tables or desks so that half of the class can be divided into groups of four with two students on each side facing one another.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that our postural positions vis-à-vis our interactants communicate the nature of our relationships (Scheflen, 1964). (2) Ask two volunteers to come to the front of the class. First, ask them to face one another at an appropriate social distance. Next, ask them to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. Poll the class by asking which of the body orientations transmits more intimacy. (3) Use this example to explain to learners that the way people position their posture vis-à-vis others provides evidence about the intimacy and formality of the relationships. Inform them that interactants who converse face-to-face are perceived as more intimate and lively, whereas those who assume parallel positioning (e.g. shoulder-to-shoulder) are seemingly more neutral or passive. (4) Divide the class in half. With one half, further divide them into groups of four and place them around a table/desk so that everyone has someone adjacent to them and in front of them. Provide the groups of four

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with the following activity: Instruct each of the four learners in the group to take a minute to tell something about themselves to those on their team, quickly discuss some of their likes, dislikes, life adventures, etc. After these short presentations, tell them that it will be each group’s job to discover how the team should classify themselves into two subgroups; for example, night owls and early birds, pizza and hamburger lovers, etc. (5) Assign four people to observe each group of four. Without letting the first group hear the instructions, assign one learner from the second group to observe one learner from the first. Tell the second group that they are to watch how the first group interacts and their job is to count the number of times their assigned person interacts with the others and to note with whom that interaction took place. Ask them also to note down any changes in posture. (6) Instruct the first groups of four learners to begin their task. Call time at the end of ten minutes. Explain to the first group what the task of the second group was. Ask members of the second group to reveal their results, explicitly denoting where the people were around the table. Tally up the outcomes to see if indeed it was true that people tend to talk more to people when they are face-to-face rather than adjacent. (7) De-brief this technique by asking members of the second group about any changes in posture by their assigned person. Were there any tendencies in the postural changes of the first group members that drew their attention; i.e. leaning forward when speaking or a more relaxed posture by those who led the conversation or spoke more?

AF 32: Energize Yourself through Posture How you carry yourself speaks volumes about how you feel about yourself.’ – Cindy Ann Peterson Affective aim: To increase learners’ consciousness concerning how posture influences their well-being and reveals their feelings about themselves at any given time. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that our postures often reveal our overall degree of emotional arousal and the intensity of our feelings and that this is important information to know so that we can respond appropriately to our own emotions and those displayed by our interlocutors (Rossberg-Gempton & Poole, 1993).

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(2) Ask learners to close their eyes and become aware of their body posture in different milieus: (a) How do you sit at the family meal table? (b) How do you stand while waiting in line at the grocery store? (c) How is your body positioned in your desk in class? Ask the group for other important situations where their postures might vary. Do they see any differences or patterns? (3) Tell learners to get out of their seats and slowly walk around the room with a slouched posture for the next minute. Next, tell them to skip around the room with erect posture for the same amount of time. After inviting them to take their seats again, ask them if they felt emotionally and/or energetically different while assuming the two different postures. Inform them that if they are like the participants in Peper and Mei Lin’s (2012) study, they felt more negative-narrowing affect and less energy while slouching. (4) Explain that these researchers discovered that simply choosing to alter one’s posture to a more upright position can improve mood and energy levels because individuals can consciously access more positivebroadening affect and more energy when they choose upright open body postures. (5) Armed with this information, ask learners to stand up once again and imagine that there is a headlight in front of their chests at the breast bone. Tell them that this headlight should always shine forward. Now, keeping their heads centered over their shoulders, ask them to extend their heads toward the ceiling without lifting their chins (http://www. prevention.com/health/healthy-living/how-bad-posture-affects-yourhealth-and-happiness/1-deepens-depression). (6) Ask learners to keep an ‘energy/affect’ log over the next week. Tell them to consciously invoke the upright posture from Step 5 three times a day and write about where they shifted their posture and what affect/ energy outcome resulted. (7) De-brief this activity at the end of the week. Ask learners to share their experiences from their affect/energy logs. Did learners experience any significant improvements after the intervention?

AF 33: ‘Dissing’ with Distance Create inclusion – with the simple mindfulness that others might have a different reality from your own. – Patti Digh Affective aim: To increase learners’ understanding relative to how posture and physical proximity communicate (non)inclusiveness and emotional distance.

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Level: All

Preparation Choose several age- and proficiency-appropriate topics that could be seen from two sides. It may be a conflict that has already been covered in class or one in which your learners have expressed interest. It could be as simple as whether dogs or cats are better or something more complicated like the causes of global warming.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the way we position our bodies in relation to others visibly conveys our intention to restrict or invite interaction with another person as well as our emotional distance and defensiveness or lack thereof (Scheflen, 1964). (2) Ask for six volunteers. Send them out of the room while the remaining audience members are told to observe the nonverbal behavior of the interactants while they debate a conflictive issue. Tell them to pay particular attention to the volunteers’ posture and proxemics. (3) Call the volunteers back and place them in two groups of three. Set up the prepared conflict and have them stand facing each other a few feet apart. Tell each team to make positive statements about their position in an effort to persuade members of the other team. Instruct learners that when something convincing is said, learners who are persuaded are to move closer to the person who made the statement and when something is unconvincing, those who are unpersuaded take a step back from the person making the claim. (4) When the ‘debate’ has finished, have audience members share the postural cues evidenced by the volunteers involved in the conflict. Were their body positions more open on those occasions when they showed agreement to what was being said? Were they more rigid when they disagreed? (5) Place all learners in groups of three, set up other conflicts between every two groups, and tell teams to repeat the instructions from the previous debate of taking steps forward and backward. Allow time for the teams to debate and position themselves accordingly. (6) De-brief this technique by asking what it felt like when team members moved closer to the other team but they themselves were not convinced? Did proxemics or posture demonstrate exclusion or intentions to restrict or avoid interaction on different occasions with specific members? What did learners take away from this technique concerning posture and interactions with others?

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AF 34: Chameleon Challenge (Adapted from Chartrand & Bargh, 1999) Studies show that in a phenomenon called ‘emotional contagion,’ we unconsciously catch emotions from other people – whether good moods or bad ones. Taking the time to be silly means that we’re infecting one another with good cheer, and people who enjoy silliness are one third more likely to be happy. – Gretchen Rubin Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to develop rapport and interpersonal cohesion with their interactants through enacting congruent postures. Level: All

Preparation Have enough photographs on hand to give two to each group (four learners per group) in Step 5. Ensure that they contain proficiency-appropriate content for learners to be able to comfortably discuss.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining to learners that its purpose will remain a mystery to them until the class discusses it at the end – a preview would ruin the surprise and potentially influence the outcomes. (2) Divide learners into groups of four and assign each team member one of the following roles: Interviewer 1 (aka, Foot wiggler), Interviewer 2 (aka, Face toucher), Observer and Interviewee. (3) Call aside all of the Interviewers (both 1 and 2) and all the Observers and describe Phase 1 of the ‘experiment’ (without allowing Interviewees to hear): Explain that the interviewee in each group will have a one-onone talk with the foot wiggler first and then the face toucher on a topic familiar to the learners. During the first conversation, the foot wigglers will talk while continually wiggling their feet; during the second dialogue, the face touchers will chat while often touching their own faces. Observers will secretly note how often the Interviewee wiggled his or her feet when conversing with the foot wiggler and the frequency with which he or she touched the face with the face toucher. Send the learners back to their groups. (4) Tell all Interviewer 1s (foot wigglers) and Interviewees to start their conversations. Give them a few minutes to talk. Call time and repeat

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(6) (7)

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the process with Interviewer 2s (face touchers). Observers are covertly making notes. Again, call aside all of the Interviewers (both 1 and 2) and all the Observers and explain Phase 2 of the ‘experiment’ (without allowing Interviewees to hear): Explain that the interviewee in each group will again participate in a conversation with both interviewers one at a time, but for this round dyads will talk about a photo. Hand one photo to each Interviewer 1 and each Interviewer 2. Tell Interviewer 1s that during the conversation, they will maintain a neutral and relaxed seated position. However, Interviewer 2s will subtly mimic the posture, movements and mannerisms of their Interviewees (i.e. crossing their legs, twirling their hair, etc.). Observers may just sit back and enjoy the show. Tell all Interviewer 1s and Interviewees to begin their conversation over the photograph. Provide a few minutes for them to talk. Call time and repeat the process with Interviewer 2s. Tell all of the Interviewees to take out two slips of paper to mark the answer to two questions. Their responses will be anonymous. On the first slip ask them to respond by writing the number ‘1’ or ‘2,’ to which of the Interviewers they enjoyed talking to more. Collect the papers. On the second slip, ask them to write another number, but this time to answer the question as to which interview went more smoothly (i.e. ‘1’ or ‘2’). Collect the papers. Ask all of the Observers from each group to share their results from Phase 1 of the ‘experiment.’ Did Interviewees wiggle their feet and touch their faces more often when interacting with the foot wigglers and face touchers? Explain the concept of ‘mirroring’ and the ‘chameleon effect’: that interactants who have developed rapport often mimic each other’s postures and movements. Count up the responses from the Interviewees to Phase 2 of the ‘experiment.’ Explain to the class that if their participation in this experiment replicated the results of a famous study (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999), the Interviewees would have written ‘2’ on their slips of paper in response to both of the questions. Explain that individuals whose moves are imitated tend to like their interactant more than those who remain in a neutral position. De-brief this technique by explaining that when two people in a communication exchange assume similar postures, this usually signals agreement, equality and liking between them and that ‘postural mirroring’ (assuming the same postures as one’s interaction partners) also facilitates cooperation and rapport (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). Ask learners if they have ever heard the phrase, ‘Imitation is the best form of flattery’ and whether they now believe it is true.

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AF 35: Windows to Openness (Adapted from: www.theinnovationcenter.org) To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength. – Criss Jami Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to strengthen interpersonal relationships through postures that communicate openness and by using selfdisclosure as a strategy for sharing information. Level: All

Preparation Reproduce the following Johari Window (Luft & Ingham, 1955) either by having a hand-out or asking learners to copy it from the board.

Known to others Not known To others

Known to self

Not known to self

OPEN HIDDEN

BLIND UNKNOWN

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that when we communicate openness with our posture and our statements, we are signaling to our interlocutor that we are making a sincere self-disclosing effort to honestly express our feelings. In turn, these cues often trigger reciprocal behaviors in others. The following technique, grounded in the idea that people from different cultures can interact effectively, is a tool to help learners understand and trust each other. (2) Make a copy of the Johari Window available to each learner. Tell them that according to one of its inventors, the four-paned window divides personal awareness into open, hidden, blind and unknown panes. Like window shades, they change as an interaction progresses. Learners build trust by opening their personal shades to others so that the window opens (Luft, 1969). (3) Invite learners to fill in their blank Johari Window using the following instructions: (a) OPEN: Things we know about ourselves and others know about us (ex. Hair color, height). (b) HIDDEN: Things we know about ourselves and others don’t know (ex. dreams, ambitions and religious beliefs). When learners open this window to share something about themselves, they invite others in, thus building trust and rapport.

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(c) BLIND: Things we don’t know about ourselves but others do (ex. your mascara is running, you talk too much). When learners allow someone to open this window on them, they create trust between themselves and that person. They decide when, where, how and how often they want to receive this feedback. When they want to open this window on someone else and give feedback, they need to ask permission first – not just say it as that destroys trust. Opening this window requires compassion and kindness. (d) UNKNOWN: Things we don’t know and you don’t know either (ex. hidden talents). This is the area of mutual discovery, collaboration and surprise. This is what learners will discover in one another and themselves by interacting and building relationships. (4) Ask learners to find someone in the class that they do not know as well as they would like to and pair up. Ask them to talk about the following questions: (a) What is something in their ‘hidden’ window that they would be willing to share to build trust with that person? (b) What is something on which they might provide feedback to their partner if he or she is open to it? What kind of language would be used? (c) What is some feedback that each learner would like about him/ herself? (5) De-brief this technique by asking learners to share ways that they might use what they learned from their windows or from the conversations. Was self-disclosing and being open to others easy? Scary? Productive?

AF 36: Striking the Assertiveness Balance (Adapted from: http://changingminds.org) Assertiveness is not what you do – it’s who you are! – Cal le Mon Affective aim: To increase learners’ understanding about how posture communicates assertiveness. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation (1) Prepare a poster or a template on the blackboard with three columns. Label them: The Passive Person; The Aggressive Person; and The Assertive Person. (2) On sticky notes or small slips of paper that can be taped to the poster or blackboard, write one of the following phrases on each and place them all in a box.

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(Passive person)

(Aggressive person)

(Assertive person)

Is afraid to speak up Speaks softly Avoids looking at people Shows little or no expression Slouches

Interrupts/talks over others Speaks loudly Glares and stares at others Intimidates others with expressiveness Stands rigidly, crosses arms, invades personal space Control groups Only considers own feelings, and or demands of others Value self more than others Hurts others to avoid being hurt Reaches goals but hurts others in the process I’m okay, you’re not

Speaks openly Speaks conversationally Makes good eye contact Shows expressions that match the message Relaxes and adopts an open posture and expressions Participates in groups Speaks to the point

Isolates self from groups Agrees with others, despite feelings Values self less than others Hurts self to avoid hurting others Does not reach goals and may not know goals You’re okay, I’m not

Values self equal to others Tries to hurt no one (including self) Usually reaches goals without alienating others I’m okay, you’re okay

(3) Prepare a handout with the following belief statements. (a) I am equal to others with the same fundamental rights* (b) Others are more important, more intelligent or otherwise better than me+ (c) I am cleverer and more powerful than other people~ (d) I am free to think, choose and make decisions for myself* (e) Other people do not like me because I do not deserve to be liked+ (f) Other people cannot be trusted to do as they are told~ (g) I am able to try things, make mistakes, learn and improve* (h) My opinion is not of value and will not be valued+ (i) It’s a dog-eat-dog world, I must get other people before they get me~ (j) I am responsible for my own actions and my responses to other people* (k) I must be perfect in everything I do, otherwise I am a complete failure+ (l) The only way to get things done is to tell people. Asking is a sign of weakness~ (m) I do not need permission to take action* (n) It is better to be safe and say nothing rather than say what I think+ (o) People who do not fight hard for what they want get what they deserve~ (p) It is ok to disagree with others. Agreement is not always necessary or possible*

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The key contains the type of belief experts believe the statement characterizes. KEY: *assertive

+passive

~aggressive

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that in order to communicate in a socially sensitive and emotionally intelligent manner, interactants must be assertive without being aggressive – a balance that is largely culturally defined. Explain that IF they want to be perceived as assertive they must take special care to monitor both their verbal and nonverbal cues, including their posture, lest their communication style be perceived as aggressive or passive (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). (2) Divide learners into three or four teams. Instruct a member from each team to take turns drawing one of the slips from the box and to place it in the correct column on the poster or blackboard. Allow team members to consult. If they place it in the correct column, they receive a point; if not, put the slip back in the box. Upon completion of the poster template, read aloud all of the descriptors from each category. (3) Hand out the belief statements. Ask individuals to read each one and to personally judge whether each statement is true (T) or false (F). When complete, allow learners to place themselves into pairs or threes. (4) Invite learners to discuss their responses without making any right/ wrong value judgments. Remind them that ‘assertiveness’ is largely culturally defined and that their current beliefs drive their decisions and actions. Tell groups to discuss: (a) How the assertiveness beliefs they hold drive their decisions and actions. (b) Which assertiveness beliefs each learner wants to change. (c) Which assertiveness beliefs each learner wants to adopt. (5) Tell each learner to choose the three most important ‘assertiveness’ values that they would like to incorporate into their communication style. Ask each learner to write all three on two separate pieces of paper. Tell them to place one copy in a place of prominence at home and the other in a location where they will encounter it often at school or work. (6) Ask learners to begin in relatively simple contexts to act assertively using their three changes over the next week – even if they do not feel like it, to act it. Each time they incorporate the nonverbal and/or verbal cues, tell them to jot down a quick note in their journal about what they did, the reaction they received and the way they felt. Caution them that these types of communication changes may not come easily and comfortably at first.

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(7) De-brief this technique a week later by asking learners whether being assertive is important to them. Ask them to reflect on their assertive communication successes throughout this activity. Discuss whether new beliefs are hard to incorporate and whether they are making a difference in the way people respond to them.

AF 37: On the Hunt for Confidence, Likeability and Power Sometimes it’s not only about being likeable, sometimes it’s all about being true to yourself. – Unknown Affective aim: To increase learners’ mindfulness concerning how posture, facial expression (e.g. smiling) and prosody communicate confidence, likeability and power. Level: All

Preparation Make enough copies of the following table so that each learner receives one or write the categories on the board and have learners copy them into their notebooks: Category

Nonverbal behaviors

Confident Unconfident Likeable Unlikeable Powerful Powerless

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that in this activity learners will become more familiar with the nonverbal behaviors of others that are associated with confidence, likeability and power (Leathers & Eaves, 2008).

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(2) Ask learners to discuss the following questions: (a) Do you think being liked is universally desired? Discuss. (Research suggests ‘yes.’) (b) Does liking someone automatically result in someone liking you back? Discuss. (Research suggests ‘no.’) (c) Do you think being powerful is universally desired? Does it at least compel a lot of people’s actions? Discuss. (Research suggests this might be influenced by culture). (d) How do you think the more powerful person in an interaction would respond if the person with less power used nonverbal cues to assert power? Ask learners to think of their interactions with their teachers. (Research suggests this might cause friction.) (e) Have you ever met someone who wanted to be perceived as powerless? Discuss. (Research suggests that the probable answer is no.) (f) Do you think that men or women demonstrate more nonverbal cues indicative of power? Do you think that smiling has an effect? (Research suggests that smiling demonstrates submissiveness and that women smile more.) (g) What kinds of things do you think people do with their voices that indicate power, likeability and/or confidence? (3) Hand out a chart for each learner. Tell them that for the next week, they are to be on the lookout for people who embody each of the characteristics on the chart and in the space provided to identify the nonverbal behaviors (paying particular attention to posture, smiling and prosody) that make them fit the corresponding category. (4) After a week, place learners in small groups and have them compare their answers. Have them fill in the following group chart: Behaviors on which we agree Confident Unconfident Likeable Unlikeable Powerful Powerless

Behaviors on which we disagree

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(5) As a whole class, create a list of nonverbal behaviors that learners agreed characterized each category. Discuss the lists where disagreements were found. Ask learners to explain why they think different people held different ideas about what confidence, likeability and power look like. Go to the tables in the chapters on Posture (pg. 67, 76, 77 and 79) and Prosody (pg. 144, 146 and 162) to check learners’ findings against those expressed by researchers. (6) De-brief this activity by asking which of the three categories is most important to them. If they had to choose, would they prefer that others perceive them as confident, likeable or powerful? Do they think this might be influenced by culture? Did they encounter any differences between men and women? Did one gender use specific nonverbal cues, like smiling, more than others?

AF 38: Plotting Personal Places Time and space – time to be alone, space to move about – these may well become the great scarcities of tomorrow. – Edwin Way Teale Level: All Affective aim: To increase learners’ ability to use and interpret space appropriately by knowing when a violation of the expectations and norms produce positive results.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that personal preferences and demographic factors (i.e. gender, age, personality, relationship between interactants etc.) are part of the equation that calculates ‘appropriate’ distance zones. Explain that violations of the norms and expectations surrounding the use of space may be distracting, but in some instances, such arousal can potentially produce positive effects (Burgoon & Jones, 1976). Tell learners that this technique gives them an opportunity to experiment with people’s expectations and violations of those expectations. (2) Tell learners that this is an out-of-class activity that they will do in dyads. Ask them to find a partner. As a whole group or in their pairs, ask learners to brainstorm public places where people must arrange themselves and acquiesce to ‘commonly understood’ spacing patterns. They may include such places as school buses, public transportation, doctor or dentist waiting rooms, churches, theaters and classrooms (with or without assigned seating). Share ideas and combine them into a class list.

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(3) Tell learners that they are to (a) choose three of the places on the list (b) observe each place twice (total of six observations) (c) on each occasion, draw a floor plan of the place (d) mark where the first few people sit or stand (e) note the distance between them and the way they face (from the previous ‘popping bubbles’ activity, define interactants as using intimate, personal, social or public distances) (f) record where new arrivals cluster or spread themselves out (g) document the last spaces to be filled. (4) Have learners prepare a report to share with the class about what they observed. Include answers to the following questions: (a) How were the patterns similar? How were they different? What do learners think influenced the differences? (b) When the same space was observed, was the pattern similar each time? (c) Do the interactants seem to know one another? Do they interact or do they avoid eye contact? (d) Were any violations of personal space evidenced? If so, what occurred? How did the invader and invadee respond? (5) After all pairs have had the chance to share their results, de-brief this technique by asking if they were able to separate space expectations that were culturally defined from those that were personally preferred. What important ideas did learners take away from their observations?

AF 39: Space Invasion Man senses distance as other animals do. His perception of space is dynamic because it is related to action – what can be done in a given space – rather than what is seen by passive viewing. – Edward T. Hall Affective aim: To increase learners’ awareness of the cultural norms and personal expectations that guide interactants’ use of space and the consequences of violating those expectations. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that if a person’s expectations of the appropriate amount of personal space have been violated, there is a potential range (from negative to positive) of behavior that they might enact in the moment which also might have lasting effects on future interactions (Afifi & Metts, 1998).

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(2) Place learners in pairs. Tell them to choose four of the following eight scenarios and that over the next week they are to take turns exchanging the role of (a) observer/recorder and (b) violator/actor as they invade the expected spatial distances in the following scenarios: (a) Stand closer than normal to a person you do not know (b) Sit in a space around the dinner table or living room that is customarily occupied by another family member or friend (c) Rummage through the belongings of a classmate or family member (d) Get closer and then further away from a person with whom you are conversing (e) Change the location of some objects that are routinely kept in one place (f) Sit at the table of strangers in a restaurant (g) Sit next to a person on a bus when there are other seats available (h) Stand close to and facing someone in an elevator (3) Tell learners to keep a log in their notebooks about their invadees’ responses. Was the invasion perceived as positive or negative by the invadee? (4) Invite two pairs of learners to make a group of four and share the results of their space invasion experiments. Tell them to come up with a list of reasons that some people behaved differently than others did or might have (for example, was age, gender or the nature of the relationship a variable?). (5) De-brief this technique by asking learners to come up with other scenarios that might cause people proxemics discomfort. Ask learners from a variety of cultures whether they believe compatriots from their respective countries would have responded differently or similarly.

AF 40: Finding Affiliation or Protecting Privacy? Let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. – Khalil Gibran Affective aim: To increase learners’ understanding of how space and touch reflect competing needs for affiliation and privacy. Level: All

Preparation Make enough copies the following sets of instructions so that each learner receives one.

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Group A: Affiliation Finders (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

Stand close to someone when speaking Reach out and touch everyone you speak with Make eye contact with everyone Smile at everyone and laugh often Use a lot of gestures Speak loudly and with expression

Group B: Privacy Protectors (a) Stand at least an arm’s length away from people with whom you speak (b) Keep your hands rigidly at your side except to use your elbows to keep people distant (c) Turn your back to keep individuals from getting too close (d) Do not make eye contact with anyone (e) Do not smile or laugh (f) Speak softly and with little enthusiasm

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that in our use of space, there is often a big difference between what we intend to communicate and what we actually do and that when we use space there is often competition between our desire for privacy and our need for affiliation with others (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). (2) Divide the class in half. Give each group one of the slips of paper that contain the prepared instructions for Group A or Group B. (3) Inform the class that they are going to simulate a party situation and that they are to behave using the instructions they were given. Instruct them to mingle and converse for the next ten minutes. (4) Bring learners back into whole group. Ask if it was obvious which learners had a greater need for affiliation and which guarded their privacy. Invite learners to share personal experiences concerning how nonverbal cues provided them with evidence of whether to approach or avoid specific people in communication situations. (5) De-brief this technique by reminding learners that many cultures often use physical proximity in conjunction with touching while communicating in close interpersonal interactions but tend to protect privacy needs by creating greater distance from others and creating barriers with elbows and backs to keep individuals from getting too close (Leathers & Eaves, 2008). Ask learners to discuss how this might differ among cultures and what might be the consequences if these norms are violated.

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AF 41: Touch-Type Scavenger Hunt Touch has a memory.

– John Keats

Affective aim: To use naturalistic observation to reflect upon the different types and functions of touch. Level: All

Preparation Prepare a copy of the following Scavenger Hunt chart for each learner in the class: Relationship between interactants

Form it took (where and under what conditions)

Nonverbal response of person being touched

Professional/Functional

Social/Polite

Friendship/Warmth

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining the following three types of touch (Richmond et al., 2012): (a) Professional-functional: impersonal and business-like and is most often used to accomplish or perform some task or service, like a brief tap on the shoulder by the language teacher who comes up behind a learner working in a small group to get his attention. Also common in contexts such as trying on shoes in the shoe store, visiting the hair stylist. Physical contact is incidental to the interaction’s purpose. (b) Social-polite: communicates interpersonal involvement and signals that the people interacting are more than mere objects. Defined by strict cultural rules, and as a result, cultures differ widely about

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what is considered proper social touch. For example, some cultures shake hands upon meeting while others might kiss. (c) Friendship-warmth: communicates caring and interest, but because of its ambiguity, it is probably the most difficult form of touch to interpret – for both the receiver of the touch and for anyone observing. One reason for confusion is that relationships in which interactants use this kind of touch are often so close that they can also be mistook as intimacy and sexual attraction cues. (2) Distribute a Scavenger Hunt chart to each learner. Explain that they are to spend the next week observing and looking for four examples of each of the three types of touch. When they find one, tell them to fill in the first column with the relationship of the interactants. (Caution them they might need to speculate.) In the second column, ask them to designate the form it took and in the third, to describe the nonverbal reaction of the person who was being touched. (3) Place learners in small groups. Invite them to share their observations and come up with a list of common attributes for each touch type from among their findings. Ask them to discuss whether some types of touch were more ambiguous and therefore more difficult to define. (4) De-brief this technique by asking how these types of touch might differ between and among cultures. What would be the consequence of inaccurately encoding or decoding touch cues? What are culturally appropriate ways to signal to an interactant that his or her type of touch is not welcomed?

AF 42: Touch Tones See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand that I might touch that cheek! – William Shakespeare Affective aim: To understand that touch can communicate emotions that range from positive to negative. Level: All

Preparation Prepare enough copies of the following ‘Emotions List’ for every learner in the class: Anger Happiness Sympathy

Disgust Sadness Embarrassment

Fear Surprise Love

Envy

Pride

Gratitude

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that its purpose is to increase learners’ awareness of different types of touch and how these types can be used to communicate positive and negative emotions and every one in between. (2) Familiarize learners with the action verbs specific to tactile communication. Model the behaviors while learners enact the following vocabulary, touching themselves with one hand on the opposite arm as the words are read aloud: stroke, squeeze, lift, tremble, shake, tap, push, rub, finger interlock, pat, pull, press, pinch, hit and swing. (3) Next, stop modeling the actions and call out the same verbs in a different order and observe as learners carry them out on their own. Ask for volunteers to take turns calling out the verbs while learners do the action. Ascertain that all learners know the vocabulary. (4) Ask learners to draw a straight line on a piece of paper with 12 points distributed along it so that it creates an ‘Emotion Continuum,’ much like the one reproduced here: _____._____._____._____._____._____._____._____._____._____. (5) Invite learners to work individually and use their own judgment to place each of the emotions from the ‘Emotions List’ on the continuum, starting on the left with the most positive and continuing down the line to the most negative. (6) Place learners in pairs to compare their ‘Emotion Continuums’ and note the similarities and differences. Explain that individuals may vary in their personal definitions of the positivity or negativity of specific emotions. (7) De-brief this technique by reiterating the notion that touch can communicate both negative and positive affect and that in the next activity, they will have the opportunity to test out this idea.

AF 43: Stroke, Squeeze, Shake – Emotion You Can’t Fake Sometimes reaching out and taking someone’s hand is the beginning of a journey. At other times, it is allowing another to take yours. – Vera Nazarian Affective aim: To analyze how touch communicates distinct emotions – whether tactilely communicated or observed. Level: All

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that its purpose is to increase learners’ awareness of how touch can be used to encode distinct emotions and that observers, too, can decode specific emotions by merely watching (Hertenstein et al., 2006). (2) Place learners into groups of three: (a) ‘Toucher’;( b) ‘Feeler’; and (c) ‘Observer.’ Have them sit together in such a way that the ‘Toucher’ can reach out and touch the ‘Feelers’ bare arm from the elbow to the end of the hand while the ‘Observer’ looks on. (3) Have the ‘Toucher’ in every group take out their ‘Emotions List’ from the last activity. Ask them to think about how they want to communicate each emotion by making contact with the ‘Feeler’s’ bare arm. Ask them to take out a pencil and number them in the order that they would like to do them making sure that they scramble them enough so that the sequence is not inferred from the order of their ‘Emotions Continuum.’ Also explain that they must maintain an expressionless face so that the ‘Observers’ cannot use facial expression as a clue. (4) Tell the ‘Feelers’ and the ‘Observers’ to take out a piece of paper and number it from one to twelve. Inform the ‘Feelers’ that they are to keep their eyes closed while the ‘Toucher’ makes physical contact with their arm. As soon as the ‘Touchers’ hand motion stops, the ‘Feelers’ are to open their eyes and write down which emotion from the list the ‘Toucher’ just conveyed. (5) Tell the ‘Observers’ to keep their eyes solely on the arm of the ‘Feeler’ and not to use any other nonverbal cues that the ‘Toucher’ might leak. Have them write down the emotion that they think the ‘Toucher’ was conveying through their tactile contact. (6) Instruct groups to begin with the first emotion: ‘Choose the term that best describes what the “Toucher” is communicating to you.’ Say ‘go,’ give them roughly ten seconds, and then say, ‘stop.’ Repeat this 11 more times until the 12 emotions have been expressed tactilely. (7) Instruct the three members in each group to compare their answers and calculate their accuracy. Compare accuracy among groups. (8) De-brief this technique by explaining that the researchers who originally carried out a relatively similar version of this activity found that the tactile modality can accurately signal emotion, that similar tactile behaviors are used (patting, rubbing, etc.) among interactants, that individuals can from visual observation alone detect emotion in tactile behavior, and that accuracy does not necessarily suffer interculturally.

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AF 44: Defusing Dilemmas and Accenting Affect through Touch It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes. – Thomas Aquinas Affective aim: To increase sensitivity to the different ways touch is used to defuse complicated and/or negative messages or playfully add affection to positive messages. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining to learners that in certain interactions touch can be used to defuse the seriousness of an affective or aggressive message (Knapp & Hall, 2010). (2) Place learners in pairs. Provide the following scenario of a consolingtype touch and give them a minute to take turns roleplaying the parts: Your partner just received a bad grade on yesterday’s grammar quiz. Reach out to him/her, and using both touch and words, attempt to moderate the gravity of the moment. (3) Next, provide another scenario, but this time it is meant to encourage learners to use playful-type touch to add an affectionate element to the message: Your partner just received the best grade in the class on yesterday’s grammar quiz. Reach out to him/her and, using both touch and words, attempt to add playfulness to the happiness of the moment. (4) In the same pairs, tell learners to come up with ten different scenarios: five like the one in Step 2 whose message could be appropriately defused through the use of touch, and five like the one in Step 3 where playful, affectionate touch is added. (5) Invite dyads to exchange their ten scenarios with another pair and practice roleplaying the different ways that touch could be used to modify the verbal message. (6) De-brief this technique by asking each dyad to take turns enacting one of the scenarios on their list. Discuss which types of touch seemed most authentic and easy to incorporate. Ask whether these kinds of touch would be appropriate in their home cultures.

AF 45: Trialing Touch for Compliance The craft of a master is not imposing dominance, but winning submission. – Ann Somerville

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Affective aim: To increase learners’ awareness about how touch can be used as a means of gaining compliance. Level: All

Preparation Copy each of the following two data tables for each learner: Table 1 Data for touched participants Participant/ Relationship

What did you request?

Form touch took (where and what kind?)

Participants’ verbal response

Participants’ nonverbal response

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Table 2 Data for untouched participants Participant/ Relationship 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

What did you request?

Participants’ verbal response

Participants’ nonverbal response

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that touch can be used to gain attention and/or compliance. Control or influencing touches that persuade an interactant to do something wield influence and are called compliance touches (Jones & Yarbrough, 1985). Explain that research has shown that servers in restaurants who touch their diners have received higher tips (Crusco & Wetzel, 1984) and that customers who were touched by a greeter upon entering a store spent more money (Hornik, 1992). Tell learners that this technique will provide the opportunity to test this theory of touch. (2) Distribute the two data tables (for ‘touched’ and ‘untouched’ participants). Explain to learners that they will be gathering data throughout the next week. Instruct them to find 20 different occasions when they request something of someone; ten of which they will accompany their request with a ‘compliance-like’ touch, and ten when they will not touch at all. (3) Instruct learners to fill in the two tables. In the first column, they are to write the relationship they have with the participant (strangers are legitimate subjects). In the second column, have learners write the request they asked for. In the ‘touched participant’ table, the third column is provided to describe the bodily region that was touched (ex. ‘shoulder’) and type of touch (i.e. ‘pat’; see ‘Touch Tones’ activity for complete list). In continuation in both tables are two columns – one for the participant’s verbal response and the other for the participant’s nonverbal response. (4) Provide one final set of instructions: If the response of any of the participants in the data set does not confirm the hypothesis (i.e. if someone touched did NOT comply or someone untouched DID comply), ask learners to attempt to interpret why that happened for each time. For example, if a learner approached his mother and touched her while asking for a small amount of money and she refuses, tell the learner to reflect upon why. In her refusal, the mother may have given an answer such as, ‘I don’t have any change in my purse.’ (5) After a week, when learners have completed their data tables, tally the data of the whole class. How many ‘touched’ participants complied? How many ‘touched’ participants refused? How many ‘untouched’ participants complied? How many ‘untouched’ refused? Did the class’s data support the previous research on compliance touching? (6) Lead a class discussion on learners’ individual interpretations of unsupportive data. Ask them to consult their notes and attempt to answer why some participants did not respond as hypothesized. (7) De-brief this technique by explaining that researchers interpret the reason behind the relationship between touch and compliance as an

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invocation of the positive affect and personal bonding that the receiver may have inferred by the brief and apparently trivial touch between the person touched and the person doing the touching (Knapp & Hall, 2010). Have learners ever experienced this in their home cultures?

AF 46: Daily Touch Diary Touch seems to be as essential as sunlight.

– Diane Ackerman

Affective aim: To deepen learners’ understanding of the complexity of the semantics of touch through keeping a diary of reactions to different types of haptic cues. Level: All

Preparation Make enough copies of the following diary prompts so that each learner has one: Daily Touch Diary Day 1: Use touch to communicate positive affect. Location (where were you?): Describe the touch (bodily region and touch type): Your relationship to the interactant: Your personal reaction: Your interactant’s reaction: Day 2: Use touch to communicate negative affect. Location (where were you?): Describe the touch (bodily region and touch type): Your relationship to the interactant: Your personal reaction: Your interactant’s reaction: Day 3: Use touch to communicate a discreet emotion. Emotion communicated: Location (where were you?): Describe the touch (bodily region and touch type): Your relationship to the interactant: Your personal reaction: Your interactant’s reaction:

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Day 4: Use touch to defuse a negative message. What was the message? Location (where were you?): Describe the touch (bodily region and touch type): Your relationship to the interactant: Your personal reaction: Your interactant’s reaction: Day 5: Use playful touch to communicate aggression or affection. Location (where were you?): Describe the touch (bodily region and touch type): Your relationship to the interactant: Your personal reaction: Your interactant’s reaction: Day 6: Use touch to gain compliance. What did you want? Location (where were you?): Describe the touch (bodily region and touch type): Your relationship to the interactant: Your personal reaction: Your interactant’s reaction:

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by reviewing some of the complexities of the semantics of touch (Knapp & Hall, 2010): (a) Touch communicates positive and negative affect (b) Touch communicates discreet emotions (c) Touch defuses affection or aggression (d) Touch contributes toward gaining compliance (2) Distribute a ‘Diary of Touch’ to each learner. Tell them that during the next six days, they will use the prompts provided to write their reflections. They are to do the touch activity then immediately write down their feelings and reactions as well as those of their interactant. (3) When the ‘Diaries of Touch’ are completed, place learners in small groups to share their reflections. (4) De-brief this technique by asking what learners discovered about themselves and the power of touch by keeping this diary. Help learners work through any negative reactions they may have had.

AF 47: Hypothesizing Contexts of Touch Nothing we use or hear or touch can be expressed in words that equal what is given by the senses. – Hannah Arendt

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Affective aim: To increase learners’ understanding about the frequency of touch in diverse contexts through forming hypotheses and testing them through naturalistic observations. Level: All

Preparation Either make enough copies of the following two lists so that each learner receives two or write them on the board for learners to copy twice into their notebooks (on different pages): (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g)

Persuading Sending ‘concern’ signals Deep exchanges Sending enthusiasm Asking for advice Giving orders Formal professional settings

Being persuaded Receiving ‘concern’ signals Superficial exchanges Receiving enthusiasm Receiving advice Taking orders Informal social settings

Correct answers based upon previous research (Beebe et al., 2014): Persuading; Receiving ‘concern signals; Deep exchanges; Sending enthusiasm; Receiving advice; Giving orders; Informal social settings.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that, like other nonverbal codes, touching is likely to occur more often in some interpersonal communicative contexts than in others (Beebe et al., 2014). Tell learners that this activity will provide the opportunity to form a hypothesis about what contexts provoke more touching and then to compare their educated guess against the data they collect through naturalistic observation. (2) Provide learners with one copy of the seven paired communication contexts written above. Ask them to circle the option that they believe would engender the GREATER frequency of touching. These are their hypotheses about the contexts in which touching would be more likely. Collect their answers for later consultation. (3) Provide learners with the second copy of the paired contexts. Instruct them to use this as an observation checklist and to take notice of any touching that goes on during the next one to two weeks (feel free to manipulate the timeframe) and to match it to one of the seven contexts.

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Upon matching it, tell learners to decide which option of the pair was the person doing the touching and put a checkmark next to it. (4) When the naturalistic observation timeframe is complete, ask learners to tally up their findings for each context. Hand back their original hypotheses and instruct them to compare their observations with what they had originally presupposed. (5) Ask the class how many of the seven pairs were guessed correctly (according to their data). Now show them the answers that research suggests are correct (found in the ‘Preparation’ section above). (6) De-brief this technique by explaining that the ‘correct’ research answers were gathered in a North American context. Ask them if they think that this might differ from culture to culture.

AF 48: Identical Words, Distinct Meanings (Adapted from Dalton & Seidlhofer, 2011) The sound of the words as they’re said is always different from the sound they make when they’re heard, because the speaker hears some of the sound from the inside. – David Levithan Affective aim: To raise learners’ awareness of the complexity of vocalic interpretation by exposing them to two scenarios using the exact same language, but whose context demands completely different vocal cues. Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Prepare enough copies of each of the following dialogues so that each pair of students receives one or the other.

Dialogue 1: A police officer pulls over a driver for speeding

Dialogue 2: The runner up in a running race congratulates the winner

Police (abruptly): You were going so fast! Driver (coyly): Do you think so? Police (assuredly): Yes, I do. Do you have any idea how fast you were going? Driver (insincerely): Well, I’m sure everyone does almost the same! Police (firmly): Not so! You were racing faster than everybody.

Runner up (in awe): You were going so fast! Winner: (humbly): Do you think so? Runner up (excitedly): Yes, I do. Do you have any idea how fast you were going? Winner (unpretentiously): Well, I’m sure everyone does almost the same! Runner up (admiringly): Not so! You were racing faster than everybody.

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that context defines how something is said and that this activity reinforces the care that must be taken in listening for vocal cues (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994). (2) Pair students and distribute Dialogue 1 to half of the pairs and Dialogue 2 to the other half. (3) Spread pairs out around the room so that they are out of the earshot of other dyads. Instruct learners to rehearse their dialogue. (4) Ask pairs to take turns performing their dialogues without providing information on which one they were assigned. Upon the completion of each performance, ask the class which version was being enacted. (5) Instruct pairs to create their own set of dialogues – using the same words but because of the context and the necessary vocal cues, have completely different meanings. (6) Have pairs exchange their dialogues with another pair, tell them to practice it and then perform it for the original writers. (7) De-brief this technique by asking which vocal cues were the most effective for learners to appropriately determine which dialogue their peers were enacting. Were there any vocal behaviors that confused them? What did learners take away from this exercise?

AF 49: Laugh and the World Laughs with You Everybody laughs the same in every language because laughter is a universal connection. – Yakov Smirnoff Affective aim: To raise learners’ awareness concerning how hearing a speaker’s voice express different emotions (in this case, laughter) elicits the corresponding emotions in the listener’s voice. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the emotion expressed in exchanges between interactants is often unconsciously contagious and that hearing voices expressing different emotions elicits corresponding emotional feelings (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999; Neumann, & Strack, 2000). Laughter is particularly contagious! Let learners know that over the next several classes, they will be introduced to various ‘laughter therapy’ exercises. (2) Begin with a ‘lion pose’ by asking the class on the count of three to demonstrate how they would roar if they were lions. Next, ask how they

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(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

would laugh if they were lions. The key is to encourage learners to relate what their bodies are doing with a visual, adding a funny twist to help them laugh. During the next class session, present the ‘ha-ha-ha mountain pose’ with the purpose of encouraging learners to participate by breaking the silence in the room. Instruct learners to stand with their feet together, toes apart, shoulders up tall and with their hands on their bellies. Tell them to inhale and feel their bellies expand and as they exhale invite learners to force out a ‘ha-ha-ha.’ Repeat this action four or five times. Next, ask learners to incorporate stretch poses into their laughing poses. Ask for volunteers to demonstrate different laughs with different poses by asking learners to invent a laugh for each stretch. For example, a butterfly laughs fast, a frog laughs deep, a rag-doll laughs silly. Instruct learners to control their breathing by varying the speed and depth of the laughter. Explain that deep slow laughter will help improve deep breathing, whereas quick light laughter will help improve inhalation through their noses. Keep the laughter sessions as simple as possible, holding one pose for only a minute or so allowing time in between poses. Fill these interim spaces with ‘wiggle-worms’ to get the wiggles out where learners stand frozen like a statue and then upon cue, wiggle as fast as they can. De-brief this technique by explaining that, although learners may have felt a bit silly, the health benefits of laughter and the rapportbuilding that it provides through emotional contagion are well worth it (http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/laughter-isthe-best-medicine.htm): (a) Laughter’s positive effects persist up to 45 minutes, promoting cardiovascular health and lowering blood pressure – it even speeds healing. (b) Laughter eases anxiety and stress and fosters positive attitudes and happiness. (c) Laughter is aerobic, strengthening the heart, diaphragm, abdominal, intercostal, respiratory and facial muscles. Endorphins are also released, instilling feelings of well-being. (d) Laughter rejuvenates. Youngsters laugh up to 300–400 times but this is reduced to a mere 10–15 times a day in adulthood. (e) Laughter increases attractiveness, improves communications and builds relationships.

AF 50: Your Voice is Music in my Ears! You speak and my heart sings to harmonize with the tone of your voice, but I smile at the melody you bring doing what you do. – Yesenia Barkley

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Affective aim: To explore how music generates similar powerful emotional effects to that found in voices. Level: All

Preparation This technique will need some sort of ‘music maker(s)’ like (a) drum(s), whistle(s), kazoo(s), tambourine(s), etc. If instruments can be found that can play pitch variations like a flute or trumpet, even better! On the other hand, if none of these are available, learners can tap out rhythms with their pencils on their notebooks, but the effect will be minimized.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that the expression of emotion in music and in the tones of our voices share many commonalities and that acoustic features like timing, rate, intensity, intonation and pitch provide clues to emotional states like anger, fear, joy and sadness (Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Sundberg, 1998). (2) Write the words anger, fear, joy and sadness on the board. Under them, write the sentence, I have my language class today. Ask one of the more theatrical learners to read the sentence four times, expressing one of the different emotions each time. (3) Ask for several volunteers to one at a time choose one of the emotions from the board and perform the sentence using that emotion. Invite the audience to guess which emotion it was. (4) Lead a choral response in unison with all learners using a monotone to say/sing: Laaaah, laaaah, laaaah, ooooooo, ooooooo, oooooo, eeeeeeee, eeeeeee, eeeeeee (5) Call on volunteers one at a time to use the syllables from the choral response and by invoking variations in timing, rate, intensity, intonation and pitch convey emotional states such as anger, fear, joy or sadness. Invite learners to guess which emotion they were expressing. Ask learners if their success rate at judging emotion from music surprises them. (6) Distribute musical instrument(s). Carry out the same instructions from Step #5, but this time use the instrument(s) rather than voices. If learners have only a pencil to tap on their notebooks, experiment to see if they can convey a specific emotion with just timing, rate and intensity (forgoing pitch variation). Are learners just as successful at judging emotion from instruments? (7) Place learners in small groups. Ask learners to take turns sharing an emotional story from their pasts that conveys one overriding emotion, whether it be joy, sadness, fear or anger. Instruct groups to create music

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to accompany each story, using their voices to produce held-out vowel utterances (like 4 above) and/or their musical instruments. (8) Invite small groups to share their musical emotional creations with the class. (9) De-brief this technique by asking learners about movies, theater performances or television programs that they have seen where the music and voice worked in tandem to create an emotional response from the audience. Ask if they were able to glean that tempo and intensity increase with anger and happiness but decrease with sadness and tenderness.

AF 51: Voice Cues Bingo Don’t underestimate me. With you, all I need is to hear your voice, and I’ll know how you’re doing. – Jinvirle Affective aim: To notice vocal cues as a means of gleaning others’ emotional states and personalities. Level: All

Preparation Make enough of the following chart so that every learner in class receives one: Extrovert

Introvert

Happy

Sad

Surprised

Anxious

Fearful

Angry

High pitch

Low pitch

Speaks fast

Speaks slowly

Intense

Laid back

Varied tones

Monotone

Loud

Low/soft

High confidence

Low confidence

Assertive

Aggressive

Passive

Likeable

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that an individual’s voice provides a wealth of information about his/her emotional state and personality

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and by paying close attention learners will gain greater insight into others’ mood and character (Richmond et al., 2012). (2) Hand out a chart to each learner. Instruct them to spend the next week finding someone who meets the criteria in each box and to write that person’s name in the space provided. (3) After the week is up, place learners in groups of three or four and ask them to discuss the following questions: (a) Was it easier to recognize negative or positive emotions? (b) Was it easier to detect subtle or overt emotions? (c) Evaluate the expertise of all group members (also taking into account their self-assessments) in terms of their ability to encode their emotions in their vocal cues. Were those who were perceived as ‘good encoders’ also ‘good decoders’ in this activity? (d) Evaluate the expertise of all group members (also taking into account their self-assessments) in terms of their ability to control or monitor their own emotions. Were those who were perceived as ‘good monitors’ also ‘good identifiers’ of the emotions of others in this activity? (e) Was it easier for group members to detect the emotional state and personality characteristics of individuals from their same culture? (4) De-brief this technique by explaining that although there is plenty of unpredictability in the ways that individuals convey their emotions, evidence supports the idea that we can recognize negative and overt emotions more readily than positive and subtle ones and that people who are good at encoding and monitoring their own emotions are more accurate at decoding and identifying the feelings of others. Explain, too, that research suggests we are better at assessing the emotion of people from our own cultures compared to people from other cultures (Richmond et al., 2012).

AF 52: Self-monitoring My Inner and Outer Voices Only by glaring into the depths of one’s own reflection can we find our true selves. It is here where the mirrored voices of our souls speak and can be heard. – Paul Morabito Affective aim: To use self-observation and self-reflection for learners to understand their own emotions and resultant vocal behaviors. Level: All

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Preparation Have enough copies of the following two tables so that each learner has his/her own: Table 1 Productive

Destructive

Frustrated Mad Sad Content Afraid Worried Happy Invigorated

Table 2 Event/Activity

Emotion/Intensity

Emotion cue

People present

(SELF)

(OTHERS)

Ex.: Giving a speech in language class

Ex.: Nervous, lacking selfconfidence

Ex.: Cracking voice, many pauses

Strategy invoked Ex.: I try deep breathing before

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that people who are attentive to their own feelings and actions tend to be more sensitive to others’ vocal cues. Self-monitoring teaches people which vocal behaviors contribute to the expression of particular emotions and thus makes them better evaluators concerning how others feel (Richmond et al., 2012). (2) Hand out both charts to each learner. For the first, instruct them to write in each square what they do when they experience the emotion listed. In the first column, tell learners to provide their productive

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behaviors and in the second column, their destructive ones. For the second chart, tell learners to follow the sample provided and in the first column, write down those events or activities that cause strong emotional reactions – either positive or negative. In the second column, ask learners to provide what they feel and in the third, what others might hear in their voices. The last column is to write down the strategies they invoke – if any. (3) Tell learners that they will have a week to complete the assignment and to use this time to pay particular attention to their own emotional reactions and their ensuing behaviors. (4) After a week, ask learners to self-select a partner to discuss their findings. Encourage them to talk about whether this exercise increased their commitment to judging others’ vocal expressions and whether they felt that self-monitoring their own feelings improved their ability to deliberately encode certain emotions into their voices. (5) De-brief this technique by asking how important judging another’s emotion is to the communication process. Challenge learners to continue to be emotionally self-reflective and continually monitor their own vocal cues as this process might aid in their ability to judge others’ emotions as well.

AF 53: I’m Going to Paris! Whooopeee! We know the quality of another’s heart through her voice. – Terry Tempest Williams Affective aim: To encode and decode vocal behaviors that are linked to particular emotions. Level: All

Preparation (1) Reproduce the following table of emotional cues from the Prosody chapter and make one available to each learner: Emotional Cues Table Sadness Anger Disgust

slow rhythm; low pitch; limited harmonics; flat; little activity; drab quick rhythm; high pitch; loud; numerous harmonics; unpleasant; severe slow rhythm; numerous harmonics; flat; hard; limited intonation; repulsed

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Fear Interest Surprise Happiness

pitch contour up; fast rhythm; strident; acrimonious; inharmonious; penetrating leveled pitch; moderate rhythm and harmonics; energetic; attentive Quick rhythm; high variable pitch; numerous harmonics; disconcerted; dazed quick rhythm; high pitch; active; energetic; animated; jovial

(2) Put the words sadness, anger, disgust, fear, interest, surprise and happiness on separate slips of paper and place them in a bag or hat. Have enough slips of paper so that each learner can draw one.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that vocal cues provide important clues about how an interactant feels – often more so than the content of the message – and although identifying these cues is not always precise, there are particular behaviors associated with specific emotions (Scherer & Osinsky, 1977). (2) Hand out the Emotional Cues Table. Invite learners to read through it individually and ask any questions they may have about the meaning of some of the adjectives that describe emotional behavior. Provide dictionaries if necessary. (3) Place learners in pairs with their backs to one another. Using only their voices and no other nonverbal behavior, have them take turns choosing one of the emotions from the chart and saying, ‘I am going to Paris next week’ intoning it with the corresponding vocal cues while the other partner guesses which emotion was being encoded. (4) Have learners draw a slip of paper from the hat. Explain to them that they are going to a party and that they will attend it feeling the emotion that is written on their drawn slip. Instruct learners that they can talk about any topic of their choosing EXCEPT their feelings or emotions. It is through their vocal cues that they must convey their emotional state. Tell them that they are to make a group with the other classmates who are also feeling the same way. The first group to have all of its members wins. (5) De-brief this technique by asking whether it was easier to vocally encode and decode some emotions more than others. Why or why not? Did some learners accompany their vocal cues with other nonverbal cues? Which were the most effective? How much is this process of encoding and decoding influenced by one’s culture? Is it an important nonverbal feature of communication to pay attention to?

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AF 54: Personality Parade There is no index of character as sure as the voice.

– Benjamin Disraeli

Affective aim: To match vocal cues to different personalities and individual differences. Level: All

Preparation (1) Write the following 16 words on the board: masculine, feminine, dominant, weak, extroverted, introverted, confident, doubtful, young, old, fun, boring, sophisticated, shallow, humble, arrogant. (2) Write the following sentences on the board: ‘My name is Terry. I am 20 years old and I live in Tampa, Florida.’

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that the quality of interactants’ voices (such as rate, pitch and nasality), influence the impressions that they make on others, and through changes in their vocal cues, they can affect how others perceive their personalities (Miyake & Zuckerman, 1993). (2) Divide learners into groups of four and have them assign four of the adjectives on the board to each team member. Out of the hearing range of other teams, instruct learners to practice saying the sentence on the board to their team mates inflecting their voices with the cues that they perceive as matching a person who has that particular character trait. (3) Back in whole group, tell the class that the next step is a competition among small groups. Instruct each group to have its members take turns saying the sentence with their assigned trait. Have the rest of the class put their heads down on their desks and without looking (so as not to be clued in by other nonverbal codes), guess which trait was performed. (4) De-brief this technique by tallying up the correct guesses. Ask why the traits with the most correct responses were the easiest to assess. What made the incorrect traits difficult? What vocal features were the most prominent in their decisions?

Cognitive Techniques

CG 1: Grounding Names in Action: I Dub Thee ‘Peculiar Peter’ Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. – Thomas Jefferson Cognitive aim: To improve learners’ comprehension and learning by evoking sensorimotor experience through embodied cognition.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that TL comprehension can improve when it is grounded in action (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002; Hostetter & Alibali, 2004). Give the example of a word such as ‘scissors,’ which activates learners’ knowledge of their extended forefingers and middle fingers consecutively separating and joining. (2) Instruct learners to stand up and form a circle. Ask them to think of the first letter of their name and think of an adjective that begins with the same letter that also describes them (i.e. ‘Peculiar Peter’ or ‘Talkative Tammy’). Then, have them calculate how many syllables are in their adjective and name (i.e. Peculiar Peter has five: pe-cu-liar pe-ter and Talkative Tammy also has five: talk-a-tive tam-my). (3) Tell learners to think of a series of movements so that there is one distinct and repeatable movement for each beat in his/her adjective and name. (4) Begin with one person performing his/her adjective and name and the movements that go along with it. Instruct the whole group to repeat it with the same movements. Repeat the exercise until all class members have acted out their names. (5) Have all of the learners act out everyone’s name in unison. (6) De-brief this technique by asking if learners felt their memories were enhanced by the addition of physical movement. Did the presence of the descriptive adjective help? Explain that this type of movement might also be used to help with TL vocabulary comprehension. 310

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CG 2: ‘Vividifying’ Mental Visions Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it. – Walt Disney Cognitive aim: To increase TL comprehension through physiographic gestures that vividly evoke mental images.

Preparation (1) Make the following paragraph available to learners (i.e. via handouts or writing on the board, etc.) in Step 6 below. If you prefer to write your own using vocabulary more proficiency-appropriate, remember that the objective is to include as many words as possible that incorporate notions of size, speed and directionality (i.e. physiographic). As the large maple leaves floated gradually down through the air, a little boy swiftly skipped diagonally across the park. A tiny bird hastily flew up from the ground, startled. The boy’s tall mother walked leisurely behind him, climbing up the hill. A bicyclist speedily whizzed down the same incline almost crashing into the woman. (2) Notice the words in italics. These are the words that are to be accompanied by gestures.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that physiographic gestures are those that accompany speech and illustrate speed, size and/or directionality (ex.: the italicized words above) and that the use of this kind of gestures may result in greater TL comprehension because they evoke mental images that are stored in memory (Riseborough, 1981). (2) Read the above passage in a monotone voice without any gestures. Then either by asking for verbal responses or having learners write their answers on a piece of scratch paper, ask the following six true/false comprehension questions to gauge how much learners remember without any nonverbal or paraverbal cues: (a) The maple leaves were small (F). (b) The boy was little (T). (c) The boy skipped leisurely across the park (F). (d) The mother followed quickly (F). (e) The mother was going down the hill (F). (f) The bicyclist was going fast (T).

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(3) Take a poll on how learners did on the ‘quiz.’ (4) Ask for a volunteer to come forward and recite the same passage aloud. Stand in front of him/her and as s/he recites, model the gestural patterns for the class by miming the words in italics as the reader is saying them – as if you are the person speaking. (5) Give the quiz again and conduct another informal poll of results. (6) Place learners in pairs and hand each person the passage. Ask them to take turns reading and miming, paying attention to the words in italics, and then switching roles. (7) Once learners have practiced the physiographic gestures using the passage provided, instruct them to write their own. Ask them to use the one provided as a model and compose at least three sentences with each having the notions of speed, shape and directionality incorporated into them. (8) Ask dyads to pass their paragraphs to another pair. Have pairs practice the exchanged paragraph with one learner reading and the other miming. If time permits, have them ‘perform’ their paragraphs in front of the class. (9) De-brief this technique by asking what learners discovered about vocabulary comprehension and memory by paying attention to and using illustrator gestures that convey a sense of shape, speed and directionality. Could they decode the passage better while listening?

CG 3 (Part 1 of 2 Techniques): Squishy Squashy Strong and Sturdy Moods are adjectives of the grammar of life.

– Raheel Farooq

Cognitive aim: To raise learners’ awareness of the role of gesture and facial expression in the comprehension and production of descriptive adjectives – not only as a visual modality but also as a motor modality that leaves a richer trace in memory and facilitates recall. Level: All

Preparation (1) Write each of the descriptive adjectives referring to touch found on the table below on separate slips of paper and place them in a hat or box from which learners can draw. (2) Prepare a separate hat or box with the descriptive adjectives from the table that refer to feelings. (3) Note that in both cases, there are pairs of synonymous adjectives.

Cognit ive Techniques

Synonymous adjectives

Synonymous adjectives

describing TOUCH

describing FEELINGS

spongy strong weak sticky smooth rough slippery sharp

squishy sturdy feeble gooey flat bumpy slick pointed

afraid angry anxious sad envious happy frustrated bored

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fearful mad worried unhappy jealous elated exasperated uninterested

(4) Write the lists on the board so that learners have a ‘word bank’ from which to draw so that learners do not get frustrated with what might seem an infinity of word choices.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that gesture and facial expression do not only aid in comprehension, but also in reproduction as they tap into both visual and motor modalities to improve memory and aid recall (O’Neill et al., 2002; Tellier, 2006). (2) Ask each learner to draw a slip of paper from the hat with the adjectives describing touch, read it and disperse themselves throughout the room. (3) Without making a sound, have learners find the person who drew the synonym to their adjective only through performing the gesture that represents their adjective. When learners have found their partners, have them create a list of ten nouns that their adjective could modify. Collect the lists from each pair for the second phase of this technique. (4) Ask learners to repeat these steps, but this time they are to draw from the hat containing feeling adjectives and rather than using gestures to find their partners, they are only allowed to use facial expressions. Again, collect the list from each pair for the second part of this technique. (5) De-brief this technique by asking whether observing and producing the gestures and facial expressions that accompanied the adjectives helped learners remember the vocabulary better. Were some adjectives more easily represented through gesture and facial expression?

CG 4 (Part 2 of 2 Techniques): Squishy Sponges and Strong Steel A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation. – Mark Twain

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Cognitive aim: To raise learners’ awareness of the role of gesture and facial expression in the comprehension and production of descriptive adjectives as they accompany the nouns they modify. Level: All

Preparation Choose one of the adjectives from the previous technique along with one of the modifying nouns that the pairs of learners produced. On separate quarter sheets of paper, write each word. Make as many pairs of these as there are group members. Put the adjective/noun pairs for touch and the adjective/noun pairs for feelings in separate places so they can be used during two different tasks.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that learners will now be participating in a sequel to the previous tasks by connecting their descriptive adjectives and nouns to experiment with vocabulary retention and recall. (2) Divide the class in half and ask them to stand on different sides of the room. Randomly tape one of the quarter sheets of paper from the touch adjectives portion from the previous lesson on the backs of half of the learners and on the backs of the other half tape the accompanying nouns. Do not let them see the adjectives or nouns that are on their backs. (3) Instruct learners that when you give the ‘go’ signal, they must walk around and find the nouns and adjectives that go together. ‘Noun’ people cannot talk to other ‘noun’ people. The same rule applies to the ‘Adjective’ people. The ‘Noun’ people can only use the gesture that accompanies the adjective on their interactant’s back to clue the Adjective people as to what is on their backs. The ‘Adjective’ people can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any ‘Noun’ people’s questions. Instruct learners that when they find their partner, they can sit down. (4) Repeat the exercise with the ‘Feeling’ adjectives and facial expressions. (5) De-brief this exercise by asking whether any of the adjectives could modify more than one of the nouns. Ask learners to share their feedback concerning how visual and/or motor modalities influence their lexical learning.

CG 5: Foreigner Talk He who speaks a bit of a foreign language has more delight in it than he who speaks it well; pleasure goes along with superficial knowledge. – Friedrich Nietzsche

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Cognitive aim: To capitalize on foreigner/teacher talk speech registers and gestures to make the elements of the TL more salient at linguistic and discursive levels in an attempt to accommodate a perceived lack of proficiency. Level: Beginning

Preparation Make enough copies of the following log so that each learner receives one or write it on the board and have learners copy into their notebooks Representational gestures (Write the word that the gesture represented)

Rhythmic gestures (Write the word that the gesture ‘beat’)

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that representational and rhythmic (beat-like) gestures often emphasize salient elements in the TL and therefore are often incorporated to aid beginning learners’ linguistic limitations (Allen, 2000; Gullberg, 1998). Explain that the purpose of this technique is to make learners more overtly aware of such gestures so they can strategically use them in their attempts to understand the TL. (2) Model beat and representational gestures while giving these instructions. That is to say, move your hand like a baton to the rhythm of your words. At the same time, make purposeful lexical choices so that some words can be accompanied by a gesture that illustrates its meaning (like gesturing the shape of a hat while saying it). Draw learners’ attention to them.

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(3) Instruct learners to be attentive to the gestures used by TL speakers with whom they come into contact in the next three days and to keep a log of the two types of hand movements: those that represent the word being spoken in some way and those that rhythmically follow a ‘beat-like’ movement. In their logs, ask them to write the word that either of the gesture types accompanied. (4) After the three days when learners have completed their logs, place them into groups of four or five and have them compare their word lists. What similarities are there in the group members’ lists? Tell groups to discuss whether TL comprehension was facilitated by being attentive to the gestures that TL speakers used. (5) De-brief this technique by encouraging learners to facilitate their comprehension by paying attention to the beat-like gestures of TL speakers who use their hands (mostly unconsciously). Remind them that beat gestures will mostly emphasize the important parts of the utterance and that representation gestures will illustrate their meaning and provide important nonlinguistic context clues.

CG 6: Act First; Ask Questions Later Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex. – Norman Vincent Peale Cognitive aim: To accelerate learners’ processing and cognitive access of TL material and retain it for a longer time. Level: All

Preparation Create a series of scenarios that can be acted out by 2–3 learners using some of the vocabulary that is currently being covered in class. Make enough so that when the class is divided in half and then again into small groups each person receives a scenario on a small slip of paper (ex. construction workers taking a lunch break).

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that if the TL material being learned is elaborated upon when learners first encounter it, they may be able to process and access the way they have mentally represented it faster and longer (Allen, 1995).

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(2) Divide the class in two and, with one half, place learners in small groups and give each of the small groups a scenario. Instruct a group that has one to come forward and briefly act it out, WITHOUT using any words. They may, however, use meaningless vocalic cues such as ‘la di da’ to provide a modicum of suprasegmental clues. (3) Ask one of the groups that did not receive a scenario to come up and duplicate the actions of the first group, but this time WITH words, making the best guesses possible as to what the first group was doing. (4) Repeat these steps until all of the groups with the scenarios have acted out their situation and all of those without a scenario have reproduced it with words. (5) Quiz the class on the vocabulary that was presented in the skits. (6) De-brief this technique by asking which clues the reproducing groups relied upon to guess the activity. Discuss what made some groups more accurate in their imitations than others. Take a poll to discover whether having vocabulary elaborated upon permitted access to the meaningform connections held in their memories when they first encountered it.

CG 7: Say it with your Hands! My words are the kisses I wish I’d said, but they say kisses don’t last, and words are never dead. – Herman Hesse Cognitive aim: To deepen learners’ processing and internalization of lexical items by adding an emblematic kinesic representation to vocabulary. Level: All

Preparation Make available the following table of 16 gestures to every pair of learners. A-Ok or (‘Okay’ or ‘Everything is good’) ‘Come here’

‘You talk too much’

‘Good luck!’

Connect the thumb and forefinger in a circle and hold the other fingers straight Commonly known as a beckoning gesture, stick the index finger straight out of the fist, palm facing the gesturer; move the finger repeatedly like a hook Commonly known as the ‘blah blah’ gesture, keep fingers straight and together held horizontally with the thumb pointing downwards. Snap finger and thumb together repeatedly (representing a moving mouth) Cross the index finger with the middle finger

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‘He is crazy’ or ‘She has a screw loose’ ‘Congratulations!’ ‘Good job!’

‘Can I have a ride?’

‘You are such a loser’

‘I want money’ ‘Please, give me ____’ ‘So-so’ ‘Talk to the hand’

‘Call me’ or ‘I’ll call you’

‘Good idea’ or ‘Bad idea’

‘How sad’ or ‘Here’s the world’s smallest violin’

‘I’m cold’ or ‘I can’t wait!’

Commonly known as the ‘cuckoo’ gesture, circle the index finger close to the ear Commonly known as a ‘high five’, two people raise their hands and simultaneously slap them in the air Commonly used to hitchhike, stick one thumb outward and point in the direction one wants to go Extend the thumb and forefinger so that it resembles the letter ‘L’ and place it near the forehead Rub thumb repeatedly over the tip of the index and middle fingers Commonly known as a form of begging, outstretch the hand with palm up Hold hand parallel to the ground and slightly rock it back and forth Commonly used to shut someone up, extend palm outward toward the face of the receiver Commonly known as the ‘telephone gesture,’ outstretch thumb and pinky finger with the other tight against the palm and place the thumb close to the ear and the pinky in front of the mouth Commonly known as the ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ gesture, extend the thumb up (good) or down (bad) Commonly known as the ‘world’s smallest violin’ gesture and sarcastically used to express a lack of sympathy, rub the thumb and forefinger together, imitating playing the violin Rub both hands together

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that research has demonstrated that learners can process and retain language better if there is some kind of physical activity that accompanies the hearing, seeing and writing of a vocabulary item (Allen, 1995, 2000). (2) Orally present each of the 16 emblematic gestures while performing them (i.e. while saying the phrases it quotes, use your hands to gesture it simultaneously). Clarify any questions or doubts that learners might have about the situations in which they are used.

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(3) Next, do the same thing but this time have learners repeat the words and gestures. (4) Pair learners and hand the prepared lists of gestures and the phrases they replace to each dyad. Instruct pairs to agree upon a famous person that they would like to interview. (5) Inform learners that the list you just handed them is a list of all of the answers that their famous person gave and that they must formulate the questions that preceded them. Ask them to incorporate at least eight of them in their dialogue. In other words, instruct pairs to make a conversation between a journalist and their chosen famous person that they will enact in front of the rest of the group. (6) When completed, ask pairs to perform their interviews. (7) De-brief this technique during the next class period. Instruct learners to take out a piece of paper and while you enact each emblem again, have them write the words that the gesture replaces. This will provide a record of their internalization and retention of the lexical items. Ask whether enacting the emblems helped learners remember the words the gestures replaced.

CG 8: Conceptual Information with Visuospatial Components Small gestures can have a big impact.

– Julianna Margulies

Cognitive aim: To activate learners’ conceptual and/or linguistic understanding of the TL through the use of iconic gestures that resemble their referent in some way. Level: All

Preparation (1) List the following categories on the board: Pets

Technology

Rooms in the house

Farm animals

Transportation Clothes Bodies of water

Classroom utensils Carpentry tools Kitchen utensils

Musical instruments Food Weather

Kitchen appliances Disasters Sports

(2) Provide each box of items on separate cards or small pieces of paper.

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Pets

Technology

Bird

Hamster

Television

Dog Cat Fish Snake

Lizard Spider Turtle Rabbit

Telephone Computer Radio Camera

Video games DVD player iPad Calculator Microphone

Rooms

Farm animals

Kitchen

Home office Living Attic Bedroom Basement Dining Hallway Bathroom Closet

Cow

Chicken

Horse Pig Sheep Goat

Duck Calf Lamb Turkey

Modes of Transportation

Classroom utensils

Musical Instruments

Kitchen appliances

Car Truck Boat Train Bus

Pencil Notebook Book Desk Blackboard

Guitar Piano Trumpet Violin Flute

Refrigerator Dishwasher Toaster Microwave Stove

Motorcycle Airplane Bicycle Canoe Roller skates

Clothes

Eraser Pencil case Computer Chair Backpack

Food

Measuring tape Wrench Pliers

Sandwich Vegetables Earthquake

Flood

Soup Salad

Fruit Dessert

Hurricane Forest fire

Mudslide Volcano

Clamps Drill

Meat Potatoes

Pasta Cereal

Tornado Tidal wave

Oil spill Sink hole

Skirt

Hammer

Shirt Shoes

Socks Gloves

Coat Suit

Dress Tie

Nail Screw driver Saw Screws

Bodies of water

Kitchen utensils

Weather

Oceans Puddles Seas Streams Rivers Channels

Spoon Fork Knife

Sun Rain Snow

Canals Lagoons

Oven Blender Freezer Mixer

Carpentry tools

Pants

Lakes Ponds

Trombone Clarinet Saxophone Drums Tuba

Funnel Strainer Cutting board Can opener Spatula Measuring Tongs cup

Disasters

Sports Blizzard Cloudy Fog

Soccer Basketball Baseball

Hurricane Dust storm Volleyball Tornado Hail Golf

Swimming Tennis Archery Hockey Cycling

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that gestures are often especially helpful in communicating concrete concepts because seeing a representation done with the hands can activate ideas stored in memory (Hadar & Butterworth, 1997; McNeill, 1992). (2) Divide the class into two teams (Team A and Team B) and within each team, place learners in pairs (Learner A and Learner B). Draw learners’ attention to the categories that are listed on the board. Flip a coin to decide which team goes first.

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(3) Invite the first team to choose a category and the first pair of players. Give the chosen dyad the respective card containing the 10 items from their selected category. Tell Learner A that he/she has 60 seconds to make Learner B guess as many items from the card as possible by using only gestures. Learner A is not allowed to speak. Keep track of the 60 seconds and the number of items guessed correctly. (4) Call time and repeat the exercise with the other team. Keep going back and forth between teams until all of the cards have been played. Tally up the number of correctly guessed items from each team. (5) De-brief this technique by asking which items were the most difficult to gesturally represent. Which were the easiest? Do they think that using gestures to help them communicate a concrete idea in the TL will be useful?

CG 9: Mimemic Iconic Gestures I have pulled threads from magic tapestries already woven and used them to weave my own cloth. – Jane Yolen Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ ability to communicate the meaning of idioms beyond their surface level/literal definition by using iconic representations that add semantic intentionality. Level: All

Preparation We purposefully chose the following list of commonly used idioms because their idiomatic meaning can be easily encoded in action (through gesture and/ or facial expression) and in most cases through emblems. Note that we attempted to juxtapose opposite meanings (crazy vs intelligent; poor vs rich; sad vs happy; and sleeping vs awake). Make this table available to learners: Lights are on but nobody’s home Not playing with a full deck Does not have both oars in the water To be broke To scrape by To pinch pennies Down in the dumps Hit rock bottom One’s heart sinks Hit the sack Forty winks Out like a light

Sharp as a tack Use one’s noodle Walking encyclopedia To be loaded To be raking in the dough To pay a pretty penny Tickled pink Over the moon Whale of a time With guns blazing Bundle of energy Like a chicken with its head cut off

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Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that even though learners may know the surface-level definition of a word or phrase, some may not feel completely comfortable using it in a conversation (McCafferty, 2008). This is probably particularly true with idioms where learners might understand the literal interpretation of the individual words but are not as sure about the established meaning of the idiomatic phrase. This makes the situational use of idioms quite complicated. (2) Ask learners to think of an idiom from their first language whose idiomatic meaning can easily be encoded in action. Provide the example of ‘Break a leg!’ (Figurative meaning: ‘Good luck!’). Demonstrate how an English speaker might use the iconic representation of holding the hand up and crossing the index and middle fingers. Explain that speakers who accompany that phrase with a crossed fingers gesture has the correct semantic intentions. Act out the literal interpretation of breaking a leg to show how different the literal and intended meanings are. (3) Invite learners to share their first language idioms, first saying it with a gesture or facial expression that represents its idiomatic meaning and then tell them to have some fun by trying to embody the literal meaning of the phrase. (4) Place learners in small groups and hand out the list of idioms. Ask them to research their idiomatic meanings and to create a short dialogue where they use at least one phrase from each block, playing close attention to making sure that they use an appropriate gesture or facial expression that shows explicit semantic intentions. (5) Have learners act out their dialogues and ask the audience to comment on the gestures and facial expressions that accompanied the actors’ use of the idioms. (6) De-brief this technique by asking what learners discovered about incorporating gestures to show their semantic intentions when speaking. Did it increase their confidence in their ability to try out language that they were not so sure about?

CG 10: Rap it up!! (Adapted from www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Rap-Song) Rap is rhythm and poetry. Hip-hop is storytelling and poetry as well. – Ajay Naidu Cognitive aim: To improve learners’ internalization of the TL through embodied actions that take the form of beats that tap out prosodic elements – in particular, intonation and syllable structure.

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Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Preparation Access a piece of rap music that you can play during learners’ brainstorming session. If you do not have access to music or the technology to play it in the classroom, provide learners with different percussion instruments that they can use to create a synchronous, unified beat.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that it is meant to give learners control over the linguistic forms of the TL by focusing on rhythm and beats to internalize aspects of the prosodic structure. By tapping out prosodic elements, especially as found in intonation and syllable structure, learners are enacting and internalizing the TL through embodied actions (McCafferty, 2006). (2) Play some rap music. Ask learners to brainstorm, listening to the beat while free-associating ideas. After a minute or so, invite learners to make a list of concepts, unique perspectives or potential lyrics that popped into their heads. Use these as guides to inspire the content of the song learners will write. (3) Based on the brainstormed list, tell learners to come up with a ‘hook’ – a unique, catchy idea that captures the theme of their song and prompts the beat and other lyrics. (4) Ask learners to choose points from their brainstormed lists and explore them, using concrete words, phrases and images in the form of metaphor, narrative storytelling or another genre with which learners feel comfortable. Caution learners to keep their raps ‘real’ – to make them believable and applicable to their own lives. Invite learner-composers to free write and get everything down that they want to say. (5) Upon completion of the free-writing, tell learners it is time to revise. Invite them to scale back their rap song to a workable and efficient set of lyrics by focusing on the most remarkable lines and images and eliminating that which does not match their theme, tone, or story. Ask them to project a rap that has 2–3 verses of 16–20 bars each, and 3–4 chorus segments with a flexible number of lines. (6) The next step is for learners to create their beat. Place learners in pairs. For inspiration, have them try ‘beatboxing,’ i.e. a type of vocal percussion that consists of making drum beats, rhythm and musical sounds via the mouth, lips, tongue and voice. Allow learners to listen to one another’s beatboxing, trying out several different rhythms. Ask dyads to imagine together the possible songs that could come from each beat and pick one that matches the mood of the song.

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(7) Instruct learners to combine their lyrics with their beat by arranging their rhyme into verses of 16 bars each, starting with a rhyme that makes a point. A standard rap is structured as follows: introduction, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, breakdown (characterized by a much slower beat than the main verses and chorus), chorus, outro (opposite of ‘intro,’ i.e. conclusion). Remind learners that this is not an academic paper and that they should consider only those words that are necessary to make their point. (8) Invite learners to take turns teaching the class their rap, moving to the beat and paying attention to the rhythm. (9) De-brief this technique by discussing whether using beat aided learners’ control over the linguistic features of the TL.

CG 11: Rappin’ Freestyle (Adapted from www.flocabulary.com/freestylerap/) What I had was bad from my shoes to my pad. In the first time in my life loanin money to dad. Now the table’s turned and my lifestyle switches. My name is Kool G Rap, I’m on the road to riches. – Kool G Rap Cognitive aim: To improve learners’ internalization of the TL by using the beat in freestyle rap as a form of enactment. Level: Advanced

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that its purpose is to experiment with beat in the form of freestyle rapping whereby learners make up lyrics on the spot in game-like fashion, using spontaneous improvised ‘flow.’ (2) Advise learners to start out easy and to not worry too much about rhyming. The idea is to keep the rhythm simple at first and flow – as long as learners are making it up they are freestyling. (Expert freestyle rappers suggest that you make your first freestyle rap verses the stupidest just to get them out of the way!) Here is a simple, elementary example: I am in a fog Just like my dog He gives me a lick And I toss the stick (3) Place learners in pairs and let them ‘flow’ for a few minutes with their rap lyrics back and forth. Tell them it might be helpful to create a quick

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filler line or little phrases that they can occasionally insert to give them time to think and compose the next line (for example, something like, ‘you hear what I’m sayin’?’). Freestyle rappers claim that these lines will bail them out of awkward pauses. Explain that learners’ biggest challenge is to rhyme in their minds ahead of time. As soon as they know what word they are going to use to end the first line, they need to quickly think about a word they can use to end the second line. For example, say Learner A’s first line is, ‘Speaking English is my dream.’ As soon as he knows that he is going to end with ‘dream,’ he should straightaway consider related rhyming options: beam, cream, deem, redeem, gleam, ream, stream, seem, team. Learners must pick from among their alternatives and then attempt to compose the second line to lead toward that word. Let’s say Learner A chooses ‘team.’ His next line might be, ‘With it I become a member of an international team.’ Give learners several minutes in pairs to practice improvising the rhyming of two lines. Next, tell learners to rap about things around them, to incorporate metaphors if possible, and to reference current events. Provide the time necessary for learners to get comfortable with freestyle rapping before moving on to the next step. Ask for volunteers to ‘rap in ciphers’ (groups of two or more rappers playing off each other, trading verses). Invite one learner to begin beatboxing (or find one online) while the others take turns freestyling, cutting in whenever desired or passing off an ‘invisible microphone.’ Tell learners to work off of their classmates’ rhymes, picking up on their themes and running with them. De-brief this technique by assuring learners that the more practice they have in freestyle rapping, the better they will become. Just for fun challenge them to practice several times a day to themselves to incorporate beat and to think quickly about words that rhyme.

CG 12: Memory in Motion Mayhem What I really like doing is storytelling, finding the body language that is necessary for the story. And when I’m doing it and its working, I’m thrilled. – Patricia Birch Cognitive aim: To improve learners’ mediation of their own learning through systematically incorporated self-generated gestures that serve as learning tools. Level: All

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that information that takes the form of images is a crucial component of the learning process whereby learners can internalize this information more readily than verbal explanations alone (Lantolf, 2010). (2) Considering the vocabulary currently being covered in class, assign each learner the same number of vocabulary items. Instruct each learner to create a short sentence using the assigned word(s) and to think of a gesture that can be produced to accompany their assigned lexical item. (3) Ask learners to stand in a large circle around the room. Instruct the first learner to say his/her sentence while producing a gesture. The second learner is to repeat what the first learner said and did and then add his/ her own sentence and gesture. The third learner repeats the first and second learners’ performances and adds his/her own and so on until everyone in the circle has had an opportunity to share their vocabulary word embedded in a sentence with the associated gesture. (4) De-brief this technique by discussing whether producing gestures along with new vocabulary was a useful means of internalizing them.

CG 13: Enacted Action Stories (Adapted from Susan Gross, TPR Storytelling: www.susangrosstprs.com ) Never mistake motion for action.

– Ernest Hemingway

Cognitive aim: To improve learners’ verbal TL recall in terms of quantity, speed and accuracy. Level: All

Preparation Select proficiency appropriate language material that is currently being covered in class. Adapt it by accompanying the words being taught with gestures, stories, mini situations and personalized questions and answers.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that when learners accompany a word with a gesture (as compared to a word that is only read and heard), its representation is enriched and deepened by a number of modalities, thus increasing their ability to recall it. Enacting also infers that learners will involve themselves and pay more attention (Klimesch, 1994; Shams & Sietz, 2008).

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(2) Introduce learners to the new vocabulary for the content being learned by using gestures, props and pictures. Also, write them on the board. This allows learners to see and hear how the new material sounds and appears before encountering it in a more elaborated context. (3) Next, teach the associated gestures that correspond to the story that will be enacted by making a motion for each new word while saying it. Have learners guess what word is being conveyed. (For example, a class covering the story of The Little Prince will come upon the following sentence spoken by the narrator: ‘Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.’ In this case, the motion of a snake, swallowing, chewing, sleeping, the number six, and (maybe!!) digestion can all be acted out and guessed.) (4) Invite learners to act out the gestures as the story is read. Ask for volunteers to dramatize the story. Make sure that vocabulary is repeated as often as possible. One option for practice is to divide learners into pairs to practice producing and enacting the words. Another option is to systematically repeat vocabulary (and accompanying gestures) through a simple question and answer routine. (Using The Little Prince example from above, one could ask, ‘Who swallows their prey whole? To which the response would be: ‘Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole!’ Another question: ‘How much time do Boas need for digestion?’ etc. …) (5) Retell the story in briefer form, but this time with errors. Have learners correct them. (6) In pairs or small groups ask learners to retell and enact the story one more time. (7) De-brief this technique by discussing the impact of enacting an action while using the TL. Was recall improved?

CG 14: Experimenting with Arbitrary Embodiment The words of language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The physical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images. – Albert Einstein Cognitive aim: To increase the efficacy of learners’ ability to embody low and high-codability words and to make them aware of enactment as a tool to boost memorability. Level: All

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Preparation (1) We provide three vocabulary lists. The first is a list of high-frequency, low-codability adverbs for all levels of proficiency. The second and third are both high-codability action verbs of which you choose one depending on your learners’ proficiency level. The second is a list of somewhat lowfrequency verbs that are probably not known by most beginning and intermediate learners but known by many advanced learners. The third is a list of extremely low-frequency action verbs (probably not even known by native speakers!!) that might be fun for more advanced learners. It is important that learners are not familiar with the majority of the action verbs in this technique in order to compare ‘embodiment-ableness.’ (2) Decide how to embody the action verbs from either list. For example, for the word saunter, slowly take a few steps; for the word balbutiate, make the motions of having difficulty saying something. Then, assign an arbitrary action to each of the adverbs. (Remember, from the ‘tenet’ section on gesture, researchers suggested that embodiment also works for low-codability words even though the action assigned is arbitrary.) High-frequency/Lowcodability adverbs (To be used with all learners) So Because Already During

Fairly low-frequency action verbs (for beginning and intermediate learners) Saunter Hurdle Dribble Canter

Recently Rarely

Dash Extricate

While

Gyrate

Soon Often well

Jeer Smear recline

Extremely low-frequency action verbs – many of which are obsolete (for advanced learners) Balbutiate (to stutter) Cultrivorous (to swallow knives) Desticate (to squeak like a rat) Elaqueate (to disentangle from a noose) Halch (to hug) Inunct (to apply ointment to someone) Typhlobasia (to kiss with eyes closed) Infucate (to paint one’s face) Dejerate (to take an oath) Jiffle (to fidget)

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by instructing learners to stand up and enact the high-codability verb, jump. Then, instruct them to enact the low-codability adverb, rather. Ask which one was easier to embody. Explain that this technique explores whether enactment produces the same beneficial retention outcomes with abstract words as it does for the concrete.

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(2) Write the chosen list of action verbs on the board and then provide their definitions orally while at the same time enacting them. Then, do the same with the adverbs. Feel free to shorten the lists and choose only a portion of the words to make the tasks in continuation more feasible. (3) Invite learners to enact the words from both lists as you say and do them. Repeat several times, changing the order of the words. When learners have effectively learned the word and its accompanying action, begin just saying the word and having them say and enact it, but do not perform the actions with them. (4) Place learners in small groups and ask them to embed each of the words in both lists (adverbs and verbs) in a short story. Ask them to elect one ‘storyteller’ who will read the story aloud. (5) Instruct learners to sit in a large circle. Invite one of the designated storytellers to stand up and begin reading the group’s story. When the listeners hear one of the words from the word lists, they must stand up and make the motion and then sit down again. Repeat this until all of the storytellers have had a chance to share their group story. (6) De-brief this technique by asking about whether there was a difference in learners’ retention of words that differed in their codability. Were they able to remember abstract words like the adverbs they encountered as well as they retained the concrete verbs? Did enactment help them remember both groups of words? Will they use enactment as a vocabulary-building strategy in the future?

CG 15: Uncluttering Our Working Memories If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered. – Edgar Allan Poe Cognitive aim: To use gesture to reduce the processing load of learners as they keep words, grammar and the relationship between entities in mind while planning what to say next. Level: All

Preparation Divide the vocabulary from an upcoming lesson into two equally difficult lists with the same number of lexical items. Roughly 10 items on each list will suffice.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by asking learners why they think most people gesture even when no one is there to see them. Explain that some

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experts believe that when people gesture, they lighten the load of the working memory, essentially de-cluttering it (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2001; Goldin-Meadow, 2005). Tell them that the following technique will allow them to experiment with liberating cognitive processing resources by gesturing which might allow them to re-assign cognitive reserves to memorizing and planning what to say next. Place learners in pairs, provide them with the first vocabulary list, and explain clearly that under no circumstances are learners allowed to move their hands or gesture in any way during the first stage of this task. Tell Learner A to memorize the words on the list while simultaneously attempting to convince Learner B why he should visit his home country. After three or four minutes, ask learners to switch roles and repeat the exercise using the same timeframes. Provide learners with the second vocabulary list and invite Learner A to use his hands or body in any way he wishes while memorizing the word list and simultaneously talking to his partner about the places he wishes to visit in the world and why. Provide the same amount of time to do this as in the previous step and then switch roles and repeat the activity. Tell learners to put the lists away and take out a sheet of paper and divide it down the middle. In the first column, tell them to write down as many words as they can remember from the first (nongesturing) activity. Then, do the same, but with the words from the second (gesturing) activity. De-brief this exercise by asking whether there was a difference in learners’ ability to retain vocabulary words in situations where they were and were not allowed to gesture. Explain that if their results replicated previous research, then their second list should be longer than their first. Was this the case? Will learners be more aware of their body movements and consciously try to incorporate movement when they need to de-clutter their working memories in the future?

CG 16: Mission Invisible Nowadays ‘invisibility’ was supposed to be the big problem, but the way I saw it was, all that mattered was to be visible to yourself. – Emma Donoghue Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ awareness of the role of gesture as an intrapersonal function that helps speakers orchestrate their speech production. Level: All

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Preparation Have on hand photos, pictures, diagrams, maps or any other visuals that can be reproduced through a drawing. Make sure that their reproducibility is relatively equal for learners who have to draw them. Obtain enough so that each group of three learners can have one.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that you will share the purpose of this activity upon completion because knowing the rationale beforehand would influence learners’ behavior. (2) Place learners in groups of three. Arrange two chairs back to back and instruct two of the three learners (Learners A and B) to take a seat. (3) Out of the earshot of all Learners A and B, meet with all of the Learner Cs and tell them that their role is to be the ‘observer’ and that they are to very carefully watch the nonverbal behavior and take extensive notes of their Learner A as she gives instructions to Learner B. (4) Present each Learner A with a visual (photo, picture, diagram, map, etc.) and each Learner B with a blank sheet of paper and pencil. Instruct Learner A to give oral directions to Learner B so that the visual can be reproduced in the most accurate way possible – all while keeping their chairs back-to-back. Learner C silently observes the interaction and takes notes. (5) Call time. Offer an opportunity for the three learners in each group to compare their replica drawing with the original. Whose was the most accurate? Place the groups in order from the one whose Learner B drew the most precise reproduction to the one whose drawing was the least exact. (6) Instruct all the Observers (Learner C) to one-by-one share their findings concerning Learner A’s nonverbal behavior. Ask each Learner A whether she was aware of performing those cues. (7) Place the groups in order from the one whose Learner A used the most gesture to the one who used the least. Compare this order with the alignment of groups’ visual reproduction accuracy (from Step 5). Is there any relationship between those groups whose Learner A gestured a lot and whose Learner B was able to accurately replicate the visual – even though Learner B could not see the gestures? (8) De-brief this technique by explaining that gestures are not always produced with communicative intention by speakers just to enhance their messages for listeners, but rather they may be performed at times for the speaker’s own internal cognitive processing (Gullberg, 2006b). If greater gains were achieved by learners who gestured more, what does this mean for learners?

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CG 17: Trying on Language through Drama Drama is life with the dull parts left out.

– Alfred Hitchcock

Cognitive aim: To boost learner’s TL proficiency by providing an opportunity for them to ‘try on’ the language and culture through the mimemic (imitative) action and identity building found in drama. Level: All

Preparation Choose a proficiency-appropriate play script for learners to dramatize and prepare copies for each. Prepare to perform it as learners watch and listen.

Procedure (1) Preface this technique by explaining that language cannot be detached from communication and that when we use language, we embody it through imitating others – activity that naturally transpires through drama (Haught & McCafferty, 2008). (2) While learners actively watch and listen, perform the lines from the previously prepared script, paying particular attention to integrating nonverbal cues. (3) Hand out a script to each learner and have them silently read it as you interpret it once again. Assign parts. (4) Ask learners to imitate your acting, including your nonverbal actions. Allow them time to practice. As rehearsal continues, instruct learners to notice their classmates’ cues and copy them when they seem effective. (5) Throughout the next several days, provide further opportunities for learners to become familiar with the script by recursively revisiting it. (6) When learners are confident with their roles, have them act it out. (7) De-brief this technique by asking whether learners noticed any of their fellow actors using some of the same gestures and voice qualities that you performed when you first introduced them to the script. Discuss how it felt to ‘try on’ their new language and culture through drama.

CG 18: Up-right Posture: Up-surged Confidence Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions. – Earl Gray Stevens

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Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ ability to communicate confidence via their posture. Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by asking learners at the beginning of class to assume a slouching position or lay their heads on their desks. While hunching their shoulders and keeping their heads down, ask them to list five language skills that they have acquired so as to convince someone that they deserve to pass their language class. Ask them to make a second copy of that list. Collect the copy and save it until the start of another class later in the week or month. As they continue to slouch, ask learners to take the remaining list of five language skills and have them rank their confidence on a scale from one (low confidence) to ten (high confidence) in their ability to excel in the TL using each specific criterion. (2) Collect them so that they can be returned later. Continue with classes as usual. (3) At the commencement of class a week (or longer) later, pass out the blank second copy of the list that each learner had prepared at the start of the earlier class. Tell learners to: (a) Hold their bodies straight, keeping their ears, shoulders and hip in alignment; and (b) Keep their feet flat on the floor to help maintain alignment. (4) While maintaining straight, open posture, ask learners to peruse their list of language strengths and again rate their confidence (on a one to ten scale) in their ability to succeed with each criterion. (5) Hand out the first list learners ranked while slouching and ask them to compare the numbers on both lists. (6) Invite them to turn to a partner and share their results. Were there any differences? (7) De-brief this technique by explaining that posture not only influences how others perceive our confidence, but that it also impacts our own selfconfidence. Describe previous research in which people exuded more selfconfidence when sitting straight and not slouched. Explain that posture matters because the brain has already linked certain postures with how we feel about ourselves and just as our minds can influence our bodies, our bodies can influence our minds: Fake it until you feel it! (Brion et al., 2009).

CG 19: Run the Risk The measure of a man is what he does with power.

– Plato

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Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ TL confidence through experimentation with power posing and decision-making in risk-taking. Level: All Note to teachers: This activity will need modification if the learners involved do not make head movements where nodding up and down is affirmative and shaking back and forth is negative.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that research suggests that there are positive effects when individuals prepare themselves for stressful interactions or situations through ‘preparatory power posing’ (Cuddy et al., 2012). Also inform learners that those who take risks in their language learning tend to be better language learners. (2) Tell everyone to stand up and open up their posture, taking up as much space as possible. Instruct them to make themselves big – feet apart, hands on hips or reaching up in a ‘V’ position. Then have them sit down (and if culturally appropriate) have them prop their feet up on a desk or table (if not appropriate, have learners extend their legs out long in front of themselves), leaning back with hands on the back of the head, fingers interlaced and elbows pointing out. (3) Explain that these are positions of ‘powerful’ people and are said to produce greater risk-taking in individuals who assume them. Tell learners to find a place to practice these poses for a minute or two before every class for the next week. (4) Upon arriving in class, provide learners with two minutes to write down their reaction to the posing. (5) De-brief this technique after the weeklong experiment. Ask learners if ‘preparatory power posing’ influenced them to take more and higher risks in class and whether it affected their level of confidence. Do they think they will use this technique in the future?

CG 20: Nod Your Way to Self-Satisfaction The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. – Leonardo da Vinci Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ awareness of how their opinions and confidence can be subconsciously influenced by their physical behavior. Level: All

Preparation Prepare a set of the following survey questions so that there are two for each learner.

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Answer each question using the following scale: 1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neither agree nor disagree 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree QUESTIONS (1) I can speak spontaneously and very well in (Fill in with name of TL).

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(2) I can write without many mistakes in (TL).

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(3) I can read quickly and fluently in (TL).

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(4) I understand everything I hear in (TL).

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(5) I can easily communicate by telephone in (TL).

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(6) I can watch television and movies in (TL) without problems.

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(7) I can speak without difficulties with native speakers of (TL).

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(8) I can read newspapers and magazines in (TL).

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(9) I know I could go to a country that speaks (TL) and get along fine.

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(10) I feel that I could go to an (TL)-speaking country and adapt well to their cultural norms.

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by placing learners in pairs and giving them two copies of the survey above. Instruct both learners to take turns orally interviewing their partners with the questions and circling the response that is given. While answering the questions, tell the interviewees in the dyads that they must shake their heads from side to side about once per second. Ask the interviewers to put the name of their interviewee at the top of the page. (2) Collect the surveys and keep them for a week or two before doing the second phase.

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(3) After a week or two, place learners in dyads again, but do not pair them with the same person. Repeat the steps from the first set of interviews, but this time, instruct the interviewees to nod their heads up and down about once per second. Switch partners and repeat. Tell learners to give the survey results back to the interviewees so that they can see their responses. (4) Hand back the surveys from Phase One to their owners (the ones that were kept from the previous week). Ask each learner to compare the answers from both renderings of the interview. (5) Ask learners to share whether there were any differences between the first and second rendering of the interviews; i.e., inquire whether their numbers were higher in rendition two than rendition one. (6) De-brief this technique by explaining that research results have shown that simple movements such as head nodding/shaking influence the source’s opinions and confidence (Briñol & Petty, 2003) in that even though we may think that nodding or shaking our heads communicates something to other people, it also communicates something to ourselves. That is to say, if we are nodding our heads up and down, we gain confidence in what we are thinking. But when we shake our heads from side to side, we lose confidence in our own thoughts. Take a poll in the class to examine whether their responses replicated the previous research. If so, what does this suggest to them?

CG 21: Keep It Moving! Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.

– Jim Rohn

Cognitive aim: To practice effective postural habits through frequent movement and paying attention to corporal alignment while sitting. Level: All

Preparation Have available: (a) A ball or spool of colorful yarn, string, or thread, (b) Colored construction paper, a marker and some tape, (c) Feathers or anything creative that serves as a mnemonic device for learners.

Procedures (1) Preface this activity by explaining that research suggests that the ‘best posture is always the next posture’ or in other words, it is best to keep

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moving rather than remaining sedentary. However, tell learners that when they must remain seated and still, it is important that they remember to align their bodies in upright positions in order to reap the many physical and psychological benefits of posture (O’Sullivan et al., 2012). Ask learners how many of them had parents who frequently reminded them to ‘sit up straight.’ Next, ask if they are pleased with their posture. Why or why not? Give learners a choice of the following three options (or any that you create) to use as a reminder to shift their posture and sit up straight: (a) Cut a length of colorful string or yarn to tie around one of each individual’s wrist or finger; (b) Cut a square out of colored construction paper, draw a large ‘P’ for ‘Posture’ on it, and tape it to each individual’s desk; (c) Take a feather and tape it to the end of each individual’s favorite pen/ pencil. Tell learners that for the next week, every time they see their ‘reminder,’ they are to shift their position and align their posture in accordance with the following tips: (a) Hold their bodies straight, keeping ears, shoulders and hip in alignment, and (b) Keep their feet flat on the floor to help maintain alignment. De-brief this technique after a week of accountability. Ask learners their opinion about whether being reminded to maintain healthy posture contributed to feeling physically and emotionally better.

CG 22: Watch What I Am Saying! Nothing replaces being in the same room, face-to-face, breathing the same air and reading and feeling each other’s micro-expressions. – Peter Guber Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ comprehension of TL speech by paying attention to speakers’ lips and mouths.

Preparation Create six ‘secret’ sentences that are proficiency-appropriate for your learners and are all at roughly the same level of difficulty. In other words, consider utterances that are of the length and vocabulary that they will be able to understand, remember and repeat. Level: All

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Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that paying attention to facial cues might help learners increase their ability to produce TL sounds and that observing their interlocutors’ faces, particularly their mouths and lips, aids in the perception and comprehension of speech. That is to say, learning is further enhanced when interactants can see the lips and hear speech at the same time – more than if only auditory input is available (Hardison, 2003; Wang et al., 2008). Tell them that this technique is a new version of the old ‘telephone’ game and its purpose is to draw their attention to the ways communication is enhanced with multimodal input (i.e. with both visual and auditory cues). (2) Divide learners into two groups and ask them to form two circles, Circle A and Circle B. Explain that each circle will take turns sharing a ‘secret’ with the person next to them. In telling the secret, learners may not repeat it twice to the same person, so the listener must get it the first time. (3) For the first round, instruct learners to listen to the secret you supply with their eyes closed. Only one circle goes at a time while the other circle polices them for ‘peekers.’ Tell the first prepared secret to a learner in Circle A. When the secret is back to the first person, that person then shares it aloud. Repeat with Circle B. Which group was closer to the original secret? (4) For the second round, instruct learners to only mouth the secret – no sounds or gestures whatsoever. Again, have circles police each other to ensure rule compliance. Repeat the process with both circles. Which group was closer to the original secret? (5) For the third round, using the last two prepared secrets, instruct learners that this time they are to watch the secret teller’s lips and listen to the auditory whisper at the same time. Repeat the process with both circles. Which group was closer to the original secret? (6) De-brief this technique by asking learners to compare the ease with which they were able to perceive, understand and repeat the secrets considering the different modalities. Will they be paying more attention to their interlocutors’ lip movements after this exercise?

CG 23: Your Eyes Don’t Lie! The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend – Henri Bergson Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ awareness that cognitive processing may be positively influenced with eyes averted or closed.

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Level: All

Preparation Make enough copies of the following set of questions for half the learners in the class: Closed eyes (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f)

Open eyes

Averted eyes

Name a teacher when you were a child. Name your current teacher. What is your first memory? What is your mother’s name? Why do we have global warming? What day of the week is it?

Procedures (1) Preface this technique with an experiment. Place learners in pairs and designate Learner A and Learner B. Hand out the list of prepared questions to all Learner A’s. Out of the earshot of Learner B’s, tell Learner A’s to ask the questions to their partners and to pay particular attention to their partners’ gaze – whether they keep their eyes open, avert their gaze, or close their eyes. Tell them to check the appropriate box after each question. (2) Ask Learner A’s to share the results of the short experiment. Were there any tendencies in Learner B’s gazing behavior? (3) Upon completion of the short interview, explain to learners that research has shown that when individuals attempt to cognitively process challenging or complex ideas, both listeners and speakers tend to avoid looking at others. Explain that questions that make a person go back in time (e.g. ‘name a teacher you had as a child’ or ‘what is your first memory’) as opposed to present day queries (e.g. ‘name your current teacher’ or ‘what is your mother’s name’) and reflective questions (e.g. ‘why do you think we have global warming’) in contrast to factual questions (e.g. ‘what day of the week is it?) are more likely to cause an averted gaze, including closing the eyes. It also reveals an attention shift from an external to an internal focus and an effort to ignore outside stimulation (Glenberg et al., 1998). (4) Tell each pair of learners to come up with six questions that either make the respondent think back in time (not present) or think reflectively (not factual). (5) Now pair two sets of learners so that both Learner A’s are together and both Learner B’s are together. Have them take turns asking each other the questions that they prepared in Step 4. For all of the even numbered questions, tell respondents to close their eyes and for all odd numbered

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questions, to leave them open. Tell the questioners to keep track of how many seconds it took their partners to respond to each question. (6) Ask the dyads to discuss whether closing their eyes made responding easier and faster. (7) De-brief this technique by asking whether after this experiment learners think it would be worthwhile to avert their gaze or close their eyes when confronted with complex or challenging material. If their results did not match those of previous research, why do they think this is so?

CG 24: Eyeball Escapades for Better Brain Behavior The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is. – Kahlil Gibran Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ cognitive processing by experimenting with the directionality of their eye movements to intensify brain wave activity in specific hemispheres of the brain and increase the hemispheric connectivity between the sides of the brain.

Preparation Prepare enough copies of the following template for each learner in the class or copy it on the board and have learners reproduce it in their notebook: Looking RIGHT helps process language and speech – aides recall in things read or heard (Left Brain) Activity Result

Looking LEFT helps process spatial information like maps (Right Brain) Activity

Result

Level: All

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that investigations have shown an escalation in brain wave activity in the opposite hemisphere of any eye

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(2)

(3)

(4) (5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

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movement, and that this intensified activity can actually be aroused by eye movements (Ehrlichman & Weinberger, 1978; Weisz & Ádám, 1993; Wilbur & Roberts-Wilbur, 1985). Tell learners that, like the technique immediately preceding this one, they will be experimenting with this idea. Hand out the prepared template. Explain that gazing to learners’ left or right may activate regions of their brains responsible for verbal and spatial memory. Looking left turns on the segments of their brains responsible for storing spatial information like maps, while gazing right stokes activity in those regions that manage language and speech functions, and so can aid in recall of things read or heard. Ask learners over the next week to notice and log at least ten instances of being overtly aware of the cognitive demands of tasks. Tell them to intentionally gaze in the direction that supposedly increases their processing skill and then to note whether or not it helped and to comment about the circumstances. After a week, place learners in pairs to discuss their results. Explain to learners that the second phase of this technique replicates a scientific experiment and involves using their eye movements to increase the connectivity between both hemispheres of their brain. Through this they might increase their creativity (Parker et al., 2009). Tell learners to take out a piece of paper and to write down as many alternative uses for the common object you say. Give them one minute per object: (a) Paper clip (b) Pencil (c) Shoe (d) Belt Divide the class in half. Tell one group to look straight ahead for the next thirty seconds and not to make any eye movements whatsoever. Instruct the other group to follow the pencil in your hand as it moves horizontally left to right for 30 seconds. (This exercise is alleged to increase the cross-talk between hemispheres.) Immediately following Step 7, repeat the ‘alternative uses of common objects’ exercise with the following objects: (a) Ruler (b) Eraser (c) Scarf (d) Necklace Ask learners in both groups to count up the number of alternative uses for each object that they came up with. Tally the numbers. If the class replicated the findings, the group who participated in bilateral eye movements should have thought up more uses.

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(10) De-brief this technique by ascertaining whether the directionality of learners’ eye gazing in the first phase of this technique influenced their spatial and verbal memory. Then determine from Step #9 whether bilateral eye movement from left to right stimulated greater creativity. If either of these experiments resulted positively, challenge learners to use their eye behavior more strategically. If the activities did not show any improvement, tell them to keep trying to discover ways to use their eyes to increase their inter-hemispheric interaction!!

CG 25: The Eyes Have It We think of our eyes as video cameras and our brains as blank tapes to be filled with sensory inputs. – Michael Shermer Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ understanding of how gaze directionality changes with the sensory mode being used. Level: All

Preparation Make the following set of questions available to each learner: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) (k) (l) (m) (n)

What color is your favorite shirt? What did your bed look like today when you left your house? What was your favorite dessert when you were young? Imagine your front yard full of flowers. What are your plans for the weekend? What was the last song you heard? Can you remember the first line of your favorite poem? How does your best friend’s voice sound? In your mind, listen to the sound of birds singing and a dog barking at the same time. What do you say to yourself when you wake up in the morning and have a test that day? What were you saying to yourself the last time you laughed with friends? Imagine what it feels like to be really sleepy. Now, well rested. Can you remember how you felt the first time you were stung by a bee? When was the last time you felt really sweaty?

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that gaze directionality changes with the sensory mode that is invoked. For example, if we think about

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(2)

(3)

(4) (5) (6)

(7)

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something visual, our eyes shift to a different place than if we think about something we hear (Dilts et al., 1980). Pair learners. Hand out or have learners write the questions above. Instruct partners to ask each other the questions and for each answer, note the direction of eye movements by drawing an arrow next to the question using one of the following six options: upper left, upper right, horizontal left, horizontal right, lower left and lower right. Pair two pairs to form small groups of four. Provide the following labels on the board: (a) Visual imagining (b) Visual remembering (c) Auditory imagining (d) Auditory remembering (e) Inner voice (f) Body sensation Instruct group members to define which label applies to each question. Go over the answers in whole group. Have group members tally their responses from the arrow drawing activity and ask them to compare the direction their gazes took with each question. Explain that research suggests that people’s gazes generally adhere to the following pattern (Dilts et al., 1980): (a) Visual imagining: Upper left (b) Visual remembering: Upper right (c) Auditory imagining: Horizontal left (d) Auditory remembering: Horizontal right (e) Body sensation: Lower left (f) Inner voice: Lower right De-brief this activity by asking groups to share whether their results resemble that of the research. Are there tendencies in the class data that are different from what controlled studies demonstrated? If so, ask learners to speculate as to why.

CG 26: Minus the Monotone The sound of her voice was so pretty, it almost disguised the ugliness of her words. – Grace Burrowes Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ TL memorization and comprehension by experimenting with variations in vocal cues.

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Level: All

Preparation Put the following four nursery rhymes on separate cards. Make enough copies so that each pair of learners has a set. If learners are already familiar with these, find others that are more obscure and with which they are not acquainted. A

B

Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after. C

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horsemen and all the kings’ men Couldn’t put Humpty together again D

Little Bo Peep had lost her sheep And didn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home Wagging their tails behind them.

Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow, And everywhere that Mary went, The lamb was sure to go.

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that when speakers vary their vocal cues, including pitch, rate (including pauses), quality and force, their listeners will comprehend and ultimately retain the things they say more than if they speak in a monotone voice (Markel, 1965; Woolbert, 1920). (2) Put learners in dyads and distribute a set of four nursery rhymes to each pair. Instruct each learner in the pair to take two rhymes. (3) Instruct one learner in the pair to read one of the nursery rhymes IN A MONOTONE VOICE aloud to the partner three different times – do not use any variations in pitch, rate, quality or force. (4) Ask the listeners of the rhyme to repeat it back to their partners as best they can. (5) Tell pairs to switch roles and, using one of the other learner’s rhymes, repeat the three monotone readings. Instruct listeners to repeat the rhyme back. (6) Switch roles again so that the first learner is reciting for a second time. In these three readings, tell the readers to recite their other rhyme but, unlike before, to USE AS MUCH VOCAL VARIATION AS POSSIBLE (rate, pitch, volume, force, etc.). Ask listeners to repeat. (7) Switch roles a final time and repeat the ‘reading with vocal variation’ steps with the last rhyme and have listeners demonstrate their level of retention by reciting it back. (8) De-brief this technique by asking if one or the other type of recitation was easier than the other to understand and repeat. Explain that research

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suggests that a variation in vocal cues makes this so. Were learners able to replicate the results of previous research? If not, why? Do the results of the class encourage them to try this on their own in the future?

CG 27: Locating Learners’ Sweet Spot We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us. – Friedrich Nietzsche Cognitive aim: To increase learners’ self-awareness of their preferred or ideal rate for listening to speech – i.e. not sacrificing speed for intelligibility or vice versa. Level: All

Preparation (1) Choose a short, proficiency-appropriate passage you know well and that would interest learners. (2) Practice reading it several times, first slowly and then increasingly faster. Use a stop watch or time-keeping device so that you get a feeling about how much faster one reading is than the next. Remember that for native English speakers, normal speaking rates range from 125 to 195 words per minute and that comprehension begins to decrease once the rate tops 200 (King & Behnke, 1989).

Procedures (1) Preface this technique by explaining that its purpose is to explore the rate at which listeners prefer to listen to speech. Explain that many people anecdotally assume that speaking more slowly improves intelligibility, but this is not necessarily born out in research – especially for more advanced learners (Derwing & Munro, 2001; Derwing, 1990). The idea with this technique is to find the group’s ‘pulse’ as concerns speech rates for comprehensibility. (2) Read the prepared passage four times, each time increasing the rate. Begin with a speed well below that of native speakers and end with one far above. (3) Poll the class to ascertain which rate was preferred. (4) De-brief this technique by explaining that research suggests that sometimes if speech is slowed down too much, TL learners might let their minds wander between the points speakers are making (Richmond et al., 2012). On the other hand, the TL spoken too quickly may result in incomprehensibility.

Conclusion – Nonverbal Positive Communication

The study of nonverbal communication often is quite detail-oriented, and throughout the text we have enjoyed bringing those details to our readers. We have described how the briefest of micro-momentary expressions can betray emotion, even when a person does not wish to convey that emotion. We have described how small variations in muscle movements make for authentic versus Deschene smiles. We have described how subtle changes around the eyes or in body position convey affection or anger. Although these and other details each can affect ongoing communication, in this conclusion we want to take a broader view. We know that languages are acquired via interactive communication with others – at interpersonal, intergroup and/or intercultural levels. When we pay attention to the details of nonverbal communication, we sometimes lose sight of the broader connections among people and the relationships that such connections provide. In all second language learning there is one consistent element: interaction is between or among people. Albert Einstein once said, How strange is the lot of we mortals! Each of us is here for a short sojourn: For what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people. Relationships with other people are crucial for our wellbeing. With the emergence of positive psychology in SLA (MacIntyre et al., 2016) and positive communication (Socha & Pitts, 2012), there is a growing concern for ways in which to build relationships that are facilitated by language learning. Relationships serve basic human needs, such as our need to belong, to feel loved and understood, and to be connected to other people and supported socially (Gregersen et al., 2016). Although we can share our thoughts, feelings, hopes and desires with others through language, the nonverbal dimensions of communication hold it all together in a steady stream. We might compare nonverbal communication to the soundtrack of a movie that ties the film together, infusing it with meaning from moment-to-moment. 346

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Watching a movie without a soundtrack is a flat, almost lifeless experience. Although language helps us to create bonds and form meaningful relationships with other people, nonverbal communication is the continuous source of nourishment for those connections. On occasion, speakers of different languages might not be able to share even one word with each other, yet the nonverbal dimensions continue to allow for authentic connections to be made. We would like to conclude this journey that we have taken with readers by ending on a positive note, to examine briefly some of the more uplifting reasons to study nonverbal communication in SLA, based on advances in theory emerging from applications of positive psychology and positive communication in our field. Rebecca Oxford (2016) has developed a heuristic guide to psychological factors most relevant to language learning that she called ‘EMPATHICS.’ The acronym stands for: • • • • • • • • •

E: emotion and empathy (Dimension 1) M: meaning and motivation (Dimension 2) P: perseverance, including resilience, hope, and optimism (Dimension 3) A: agency and autonomy (Dimension 4) T: time (Dimension 5) H: hardiness and habits of mind (Dimension 6) I: intelligences (Dimension 7) C: character strengths (Dimension 8) S: self factors (self-efficacy, self-concept, self-esteem, and self-verification) (Dimension 9).

Nonverbal communication is relevant to all nine of the dimensions of EMPATHICS. Although no research has yet focused on applications of EMPATHICS, we would like to offer some suggestions for ways in which nonverbal communication is relevant to three of its dimensions in particular: E (emotion and empathy), M (meaning and motivation) and I (intelligences).

Emotion and Empathy Empathy is based on the ability of people to relate to each other, to put oneself in the place of another and imagine what it is like to be that person. Mercer (2016: 92–93) suggests that empathy is ‘… about how we seek to understand the minds and emotions of others and how we develop our relationships with other people … In order to feel empathy for somebody else, it is necessary to appreciate the nature of their minds and emotions.’ In nonverbal communication, for example, when we look at another person’s facial expression, the muscles in our own face become activated. Our face imitates the emotion we perceive in the other. In turn these muscles send signals to

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our internal organs, which stimulate physical states similar to those being experienced by the person we are seeing (Cozolino, 2013: 147). Teachers working in multiethnic and multicultural classrooms who are able to empathize can express understanding and respect for their students, breaking down barriers and stereotypes by nonverbally communicating empathy and emotion (see Goleman, 1996). Rasoal et al. (2011:2) claim that, ‘empathy can reduce intolerance, conflicts and discrimination, and increase understanding, respect and tolerance between people with similar as well as different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.’

Meaning and Motivation Oxford contends that ‘… successful language learners are those who have found meaning in learning the language – those for whom the language itself, not just getting a good mark in a language course, has some compelling meaning for them.’ Throughout this text we have emphasized how complex meanings are expressed nonverbally. In some cases, nonverbal actions communicate the opposite of what the person is verbalizing – an idea that we highlighted in our introduction. Oxford (2016) reminds us that humanistic educators have long emphasized ways in which learners and teachers can reduce feeling of isolation by finding dimensions of meaning in their moment-to-moment activities. The deepest of meanings – love, trust, fear – not only can be expressed nonverbally, in most cases they must be expressed in the nonverbal dimensions of communication. The second half of Oxford’s ‘M’ dimension is motivation. Although motivation has been studied extensively in SLA, there has been very little work on how motivation is communicated nonverbally. Yet what we see our students saying speaks volumes about their motivation. Parker Palmer (1991: 43) describes the process eloquently: Recently I was teacher-for-a-day at a Midwestern university. Thirty students attended my class; twenty-nine of them may well have been ready to learn. But in the back row was the one I call ‘the student from hell.’ His cap hid his eyes. His jacket was snapped shut. He had achieved an anatomically impossible supine position in his desk-chair, and no notebook or pencils were in evidence. I made the classic mistake of the greenest teacher: I ignored the twenty-nine and became obsessed with drawing out the thirtieth. And I failed. I left the class angry at him, sorry for myself, and eager to flee the campus and return home. There is an enormous amount of information about students’ motivation expressed in their nonverbal behavior. Their posture, their gaze, their eye contact, the physical distance from the teacher all indicate learners’

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enthusiasm to enter into or continue interaction. The nonverbal dimensions of communication are rarely included in discussions of language learning motivation, but they should be.

Intelligences The field of intelligence has grown and diversified, shifting toward a multidimensional view that includes emotional intelligence. Although the definition of terms such as emotional intelligence, social intelligence and interpersonal intelligence has been debated over a considerable period of time, each of these types of intelligence requires skilled nonverbal communication. Oxford (2016) cites Salovey and his team in defining emotional intelligence as ‘…the ability to understand feelings in the self and others and to use these feelings as informational guides for thinking and action’ (Salovey et al., 2011: 238). The connection between emotions and nonverbal communication has been emphasized throughout this text, so it makes sense that nonverbal communication processes play a major role in emotional intelligence. Oxford (2016) goes on to apply Howard Gardner’s concept of interpersonal intelligence (part of his theory of multiples intelligences) to say that ‘interpersonal intelligence is essential for interacting with others in the target language, for being sensitive to others’ moods and needs, and for fitting into the culture effectively.’ In this respect it is difficult to imagine a person with emotional/social/interpersonal intelligence who was not also a savvy nonverbal communicator – they seem to exist hand in glove.

A Final Thought In the introduction to this text we told the story of Antoine de SaintExupéry, author of The Little Prince, who found himself in a most difficult position, only to have the meaning of it transformed in an instant with a hesitant smile. Such is the power of nonverbal communication, providing the background against which words and actions are interpreted (Stevick, 1982). Nonverbal communication is a highly local and transient form of context: it fits within a complex system of constantly interacting processes (including semantic, linguistic, interpersonal, political, power dynamics and other processes) that infuse each other with meaning. To the extent that the role of the nonverbal dimensions of communication can be understood, the effective teaching, learning and using of languages will be enhanced. In the past the focus of language instruction has been on the verbal side of the communicative spectrum; there is more to be learned about nonverbal communication in second and foreign language learning. We believe that understanding

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nonverbal communication is an exercise in developing hope for more positive communication around the world, allowing us to better share meaning and appreciate the diversity of other people by understanding that which is not spoken. If the research ideas and activities that we offered here lead to a fuller understanding of the enormous value of nonverbal dimensions of communication, then this text has fulfilled its purpose.

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Author Index

Ackerman, Diane, 297 Ádám, G., 120, 341 Adams, T.W., 55–56 Addington, D.W., 164 Adler, Alfred, 178 Afifi, W.A., 129, 141, 287 Alger, William R., 229 Alibali, M.W., 11, 30, 42, 55, 57, 61, 310 Allen, L.Q., 11, 47–48, 55–58, 214, 315–316, 318 Anderson, C., 80 Anderson-Hsieh, J., 165 Angelou, Maya, 228 Aquinas, Thomas, 294 Arendt, Hannah, 298 Argyle, M., 15, 43, 111, 206, 228 Arndt, H., 9

Blake, William, 270 Blokpoel, M., 40 Brady, R.M., 147, 272 Briñol, P., 80–81, 336 Brooks, C.I., 118 Brooks, F.B., 48, 62 Brown, A., 144, 150–153, 155, 158, 205, 219, 221, 225, 234 Brown, S., 144 Brunner, L.J., 87 Burgoon, J.K., 17, 118, 128, 131, 272, 286 Burrowes, Grace, 343 Butterworth, B., 59, 320 Calero, H.H., 75 Calvert, G.A., 105 Camara, Helder, 169 Canale, M., 8, Carlos, John, 25 Carney, D.R., 78, 81 Carroll, N., 156, 231 Cary, M.S., 109 Chamberlin, C.R., 48 Chartrand, T.L., 48–49, 74, 75, 161, 278–279, 301 Chovil, N., 88–90, 92–93, 202, 217 Church, R.B., 42 Churches, R., 241 Ciarrochi, J.V., 249 Claremont de Castillejo, Irene, 244 Clark, H.H., 35 Clinton, Bill, 25, 65 Cohen, R.L., 61 Collier, G., 51, 94, 240 Cook, M., 111, 154, 228 Cook, M.W., 77 Covey, Stephen, 241 Cozolino, L., 348

Bailenson, J.N., 48 Baker, Russell, 217 Banse, R., 160 Bargh, J.A., 48–49, 74–75, 161, 278– 279, 301 Barkley, Yesenia, 302 Barnett, M.A., 11, 55 Bavelas, J.B., 42, 112 Becker, F.D., 124 Beebe, S.A., 10, 14, 16, 19, 26, 38, 142, 144, 299 Behnke, R.R., 165, 345 Belyk, M., 144 Bentivoglio, A.R., 118 Bergson, Henri, 338 Berko, R., 10 Berry, D.S., 147 Berry, J.W., 147 Bickmore, T.W., 67 Biden, Joe, 263 Birch, Patricia, 325 366

Author Inde x

Craighero, L., 55 Cross, Alex, 171 Crusco, A.H., 140, 296 Cuddy, A.J., 79–80, 334 Cuddy, L.L., 161 Cushner, K., 260 Dalton, C., 143, 152, 154–158, 163, 229–230, 232, 234, 300–301 Damasio, Antonio, 273 Darwin, C., 79, 101, 259 De Bot, K., 96 DeCapua, A., 13, 103 Derwing, T.M., 165, 345 DeVito, J.A., 9–10, 16, 19, 111, 180 Dickens, Charles, 183 Digh, Patti, 276 Dilts, R., 121, 343 Dimberg, U., 98, 254 Disraeli, Benjamin, 309 Donoghue, Emma, 330 Doucette, J., 153 Dovidio, J.F., 117, 271 Dromey, C., 159 Droney, J.M., 118 Duchenne, Guillaume, 83, 105, 252 Duncan, S., 27, 37, 42 Duncan, S.D., 35, 36 Eaves, M.H., 50–51, 67, 69, 71–72, 75–78, 95–96, 113–114, 117–118, 124–125, 130, 133–134, 139–140, 147, 152, 239–240, 245, 248, 270, 283–284, 289 Ehrlichman, H., 120, 341 Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I., 101 Einstein, Albert, 327, 346 Ekman, P., 26, 28, 33, 83, 86, 101, 103–104, 176, 264 Elfenbein, H.A., 95 Ellis, R., 38 Ellyson, S.L., 117, 271 Engelkamp, J., 61 Epstein, S., 94 Foster, P., 38 Fotos, S., 38 Fredrickson, B.L., 249 Freud, S., 51, 267 Frick-Horbury, D., 60–61 Friesen, W.V., 86, 104, 176, 264

367

Galinsky, A.D., 80 Galloway, Terry, 238 Gardner, 255 Gardner, Howard, 349 Giles, H., 147 Glasgow, G.M., 164 Glenberg, A.M., 55, 60, 120, 310, 339 Goldin-Meadow, S., 11, 42, 56, 62, 330 Goldman-Eisler, F.G., 154 Goleman, Daniel, 274 Goman, C.K., 122, 256 Goodwin, J., 144, 156–157 Gordy, Charles, 252 Graham, 43, 206 Graham, Carolyn, 157, 213 Greenleaf, Robert, 206 Gregersen, Tammy, 52, 54, 69, 70, 94, 96, 97, 100, 118, 154, 160, 244–245, 251–252, 255, 273, 346 Gross, Susan, 326 Guber, Peter, 337 Gullberg, M., 11, 26, 35–36, 39, 41–42, 44, 56, 63, 175, 190, 198, 315, 331 Guntupalli, V.K., 153 Hadar, U., 41, 59, 320 Hall, Edward, T., 125–126, 173, 183, 185, 287 Hall, J.A., 9, 13–15, 26, 28, 31, 33–34, 52, 86–88, 98, 103–104, 108–114, 116, 120, 125, 134–135, 139–141, 184, 201, 244, 262–264, 267, 294, 297–298 Hannigan, Katherine, 203, 211 Hardison, D.M., 45, 105, 338 Harris, T., 10, 45 Hartage, U., 42 Hatfield, E., 18, 74, 116, 268 Haught, J.R., 64, 332 Hawkins, G.J., 164 Hayashi, M., 40 Hazlitt, William, 190, 268 Hecht, M.L., 9, 98, 150, 205 Helmer, S., 34–35 Hemingway, Ernest, 326 Henley, Don, 231 Henzl, V., 55 Hertenstein, M.J., 139, 293 Hess, E.H., 114 Hesse, Herman, 317 Hirata, Y., 105 Hitchcock, Alfred, 332 Honikman, B., 163

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Horgan, T.G., 98 Hornik, J., 140, 296 Hostetter, A.B., 11, 55, 57, 310 Huang, L., 80 Hubbard, A.L., 47 Ilie, G., 161 Ingham, H., 280 Irons, Jeremy, 189 Jaffe, E., 252 Janik, S.W., 107 Janney, R., 9 Jefferson, Thomas, 310 Jenkins, S., 48 Joaquin, A.D.L., 94 Johnson, M., 35 Johnson, M.L., 141 Jones, S.B., 128, 131, 286 Jones, S.E., 139–140, 296 Jungheim, N.O., 34–35, 41, 173 Jurich, A.P., 153 Jurich, J.A., 153 Juslin, P.N., 159, 161, 303 Laukka, P., 159, 161, 303 Kaschak, M.P., 55, 60, 310 Keats, John, 290 Kellerman, E., 35, 44 Kellerman, S., 45–46, 213 Kelly, S.D., 105 Kendon, A., 26, 30, 35, 37, 39, 47, 108 Kida, T., 11, 41 Kimbara, I., 48, 77 Kimble, C.E., 164 King, P.E., 165, 345 Kintz, Jarod, 243 Kita, S., 37, 39, 57, 63 Klatzky, R.L., 55 Klimesch, W., 326 Knapp, 9, 13–15, 26, 28, 31, 33–34, 52, 86–88, 103–104, 108–114, 116, 120, 125, 134–135, 139–141, 184, 201, 244, 262–264, 267, 294, 297–298 Knosche, T.R., 61 Knudsen, E.I., 61 Koehler, K., 165 Kormi-Nouri, R., 61 Krahmer, E., 47 Krauss, R.M., 43 Kudoh, T., 68, 181

LaFrance, M., 74, 98, 150, 205 LaKoff, G., 35 Lalljee, M.G., 154, 228 Lantolf, J.P., 11, 60, 62, 143, 326 Lazaraton, A., 42, 55–56, 199 Leathers, D.G., 50–51, 67, 69, 71–72, 75–78, 95–96, 113–114, 117–118, 124–125, 130, 133–134, 139–140, 147, 152, 239–240, 245, 248, 270, 283–284, 289 Lee, Bruce, 208 Lennard, John, 221 Levithan, David, 300 Levy, E. 47, 214 Levy, E.T., 35 Lincoln, Abraham, 106 Long, M.H., 38, 234 Luft, J., 280 MacDonald, J., 105 Macedonia, M., 61 MacIntyre, Peter D., 94, 96, 153–154, 245, 255, 346 Mankoff, R., 106 Marceau, Marcel, 207 Markel, N., 164, 344 Mates, A.W., 94 Matsumoto, D., 68, 103, 181 Maxwell, 367 Maxwell, John C., 200 Mayer, J.D., 95, 249 Mayo, C., 124 McCafferty, S.G., 10, 11, 26, 36, 41–42, 44, 48–50, 55. 59, 62–64, 209, 237, 321–323, 332 McCarthy, A., 110 McCroskey, J.C., 149, 154, 164 McGurk, H., 105 McNeill, D., 26–28, 35–37, 39, 47, 59–60, 214, 320 Mehrabian, A., 10, 77 Mei Lin, 72, 276 Mercer, S., 347 Metts, S., 129, 287 Meyer, E., 107–108 Miyake, K., 147, 163, 309 Mohan, B., 34–35 Morabito, Paul, 305 Mori, J., 40 Morrel-Samuels, P., 43 Moskowitz, G., 48 Müller, C., 30, 35

Author Inde x

Munro, M.J., 165, 345 Muzzio, I.A., 61 Nazarian, Vera, 292 Neal, K., 177 Negueruela, E., 11, 57, 62 Neumann, R., 161, 301 Newman, L.L., 149 Nguyen, T., 139 Nichols, Ralph G., 210 Nierenberg, G.I., 75 Nobe, S., 41 Norton Peirce, B., 80 Ohta, A.S., 38 Olsher, D., 40 O’Neill, D.K., 56, 313 Orr, D.B., 165 O’Sullivan, K., 82, 337 Oxford, Rebecca, 347–349 Oxford, R.L., 8, 81 Palmer, Parker, 348 Parker, A., 120, 341 Parker, Gilbert, 177 Parra, I., 48 Parrill, F., 48 Patterson, M.L., 141 Pedelty, L.L., 47, 214 Pennycook, A., 13, 45 Peper, E., 72, 276 Petty, R.E., 81, 336 Pica, T., 38 Pittam, J., 159–160 Pitts, M.J., 346 Platt, E., 48, 62 Poole, G.D., 72, 275 Post, Emily, 199 Proust, Marcel, 215 Pulvermuller, F., 60 Quindlen, Anna, 227 Rasoal, C., 348 Ray, Rachel, 221 Reagan, Ronald, 269 Reeve, J., 94 Remland, M., 177 Remland, M.S., 126, 183 Richmond, V.P., 7, 10, 26, 28, 37, 51, 66, 72, 83, 85, 103, 105, 111–115, 117,

133, 136, 148–149, 153, 156, 159, 161–162, 164–165, 197, 243, 263, 265–266, 290, 305–306, 345 Riley, P., 46 Riseborough, M.G., 11, 55, 311 Rizzolatti, G. 55 Robbins, Anthony, 188 Roberts-Wilbur, J., 120, 341 Rohn, Jim, 336 Roper, N., 156, 231 Rossberg-Gempton, I., 72, 275 Rowling, J.K., 176 Rubin, Gretchen, 278 Sacks, H., 41 Saine, T., 118, 272 Sakamoto, B., 47 Salovey, P., 349 Scarcella, R.C., 8, 81 Scheflen, A.E., 70, 73, 274, 277 Schegloff, E.A., 42–43 Scherer, K.R., 159, 160, 162, 308 Schlenker, B.R., 77–78 Schmitt, J.C., 30 Schumann, J.H., 95 Seidel, S.D., 164 Seidlhofer, B., 143, 144, 152, 154–158, 163, 229–230, 232, 234, 300–301 Seitz, A.R., 61, 326 Sekiyama, K., 105 Sereno, K.K., 164 Shah, Tahir, 171 Shakespeare, William, 242, 291 Shams, L., 61, 326 Shermer, Michael, 342 Sime, D., 11, 39 Singelis, T., 6 Singer, M.A., 56 Slobin, D.I., 36, 174 Smirnoff, Yakov, 301 Smit, A.B., 149 Smith, Tommie, 25, 65 Socha, T.J., 346 Somerville, Ann, 294 Sommer, R., 124 Stam, G., 26, 41 Stevick, E.W., 4, 349 Stivers, T., 87, 110, 150 Strack, F., 161, 301 Streeck, J., 39, 42 Street, R.L., 147, 272

369

370

Opt imiz ing L anguage Lear ners’ Nonverbal Behav ior

Sueyoshi, A., 45 Sundberg, J., 161, 303 Swain, M., 8 Swerts, M., 47 Tellier, M., 45, 56, 211, 313 Terry, R., 241 Thakerar, J.N., 147 Thompson, W.F., 161 Todorov, A., 10, 100, 256 Trimmer, C.G., 161 van Compernolle, R.A., 60 von Raffler-Engel, W., 30, 45, 48, 212 Vygotsky, L.S., 5, 44 Wallbott, H.G., 66 Walters, Donald, 254 Wang, Y., 105, 338 Ward, L., 48 Watson, O.M., 124, 183 Watts, Alan W., 260 Wayne, John, 204

Webbink, P., 107 Weinberger, A., 120, 341 Weisz, J., 120, 341 Wesselmann, E.D., 115, 267 West, Mae, 192 Wetzel, C.G., 140, 296 Wilbur, M.P., 120, 341 Williams, L., 60 Willingham, B., 103 Willis, J., 10, 100, 256 Wintergerst, A.C., 13, 103 Woodson, Jacqueline, 181 Woolbert, C.H., 164, 344 Wright, Judith, 258 Wylie, L., 5 Yarbrough, A.E., 139–140, 296 Yee, N., 48 Yolen, Jane, 321 Yoshioka, K., 35, 44 Zhao, J., 41 Zuckerman, M., 109, 146–147, 163, 309

Subject Index

adaptive gestures, 244 adaptors, 28, 48, 50–52, 54, 77, 88, 91, 93, 244 affection, 132, 139–140, 294, 298, 346 Affective Techniques, ix, 235–309 affiliation, ix , 49, 125, 130, 288–289 ambiguity, 5, 11–12, 14, 29, 46–47, 65, 137, 212, 291 anger, 66, 101–3, 109, 113–116, 139–140, 159, 161–162, 245, 247, 259, 263, 266, 291, 303–304, 307–308, 346 anxiety, 4, 51, 54, 70, 77, 79, 96, 100–101, 119, 129, 153, 160, 226, 244, 254–256, 302 appearance, 33, 35, 170–171, 252 arousal, emotional, 72, 240, 275 assertiveness, 67–69, 75–76, 281, 283 Assertive Person, 281–282 attitudes, 5, 10, 49–51, 66–67, 69, 72, 85, 87, 98–99, 106, 116, 131, 144, 159, 163–164, 254, 261, 302 auditory channel, 45, 212

cognitive functions, 5, 8, 28, 66–67, 85, 144 communication channels, 85, 87, 113 communication strategies, 38 communication style, 283 communicative competence, 17, 37, 43, 47, 133–134 communicative intention, 30, 43–44, 61, 210, 331 compensation strategies, 30, 198 competence, strategic, 30, 42, 192, 197, 199–200, 202–204 completion, embodied, viii, 40, 192–193 confidence, 50–51, 76, 78, 80–82, 99, 105, 109, 118, 122, 146, 199, 225, 257–258, 272, 284–286, 322, 332–334, 336 confident, 4, 68, 77, 80, 100, 248, 286, 309, 332 congruence, 67, 73–75 constraints, cultural, 103, 109 credibility, 19, 108–109, 118, 145, 150, 165, 205, 272 cues auditory, 160, 338 bodily, 51, 67, 72, 187, 204 gestural, 26 pointing, 47, 213 postural, 273 cultural norms, 30, 124, 136, 183, 185, 252, 260, 264, 287, 335 cultures, noncontact, 125, 182 culture-specificity, 12, 86

beat gestures, 47, 59, 64, 89, 157, 213–214 beats, 59, 63, 144, 157, 213–214, 322–323 behaviors avoidance, 109, 178 tactile, 293 body language, 70, 74, 81, 187, 215, 217, 223, 243, 248, 261, 325 brain wave activity, 340 classroom, multicultural, 348 classroom group dynamics, 117 closed posture, 72, 77–79 codes, linguistic, 8, 36 cognition, 7, 29, 54–55, 59–60, 62, 65, 67, 78, 81, 105, 119, 164 embodied, 55, 60–61, 310

decoding, 5–6, 12–18, 44, 51, 55, 69–70, 94, 97, 153, 160–162, 240, 242, 245, 251, 273, 291, 305, 308 facial, 94–94, 245 decoding emotions, 69, 161 directionality, 110, 121, 311–312, 340, 342 371

372

Opt imiz ing L anguage Lear ners’ Nonverbal Behav ior

disgust, 86, 91–92, 101, 103, 113, 140, 162, 202, 259, 263, 291, 207, 308 display, facial, 88, 90–93, 203, 216–217 display rules, 85, 103–104, 260, 265 cultural, 262–263 learned, 103, 268 displays, backchannel, 91, 93, 203 distance, emotional, 276–277 dominance, 79, 109, 117, 144, 147, 261, 270–271, 294 drama, 64, 203, 265, 332 eeffects, chameleon, 74–75 EI. See emotional intelligence elements, prosodic, 143 emblematic gestures, 31, 33, 35, 57–58, 170, 173, 318 emblems, 26, 28, 30–31, 33–35, 37, 48, 63, 85–86, 170–171, 173, 176–177, 216, 319, 321 embodied actions, 40, 59 emotional contagion, 18, 74, 109, 116, 160–161, 268, 278, 302 emotional experience, 74 emotional feelings, 160, 301 emotional functions, 28, 97, 144 emotional illustrations, 160, 238 emotional information, 83, 96, 124–125 emotional intelligence (EI), 85, 95, 161, 242, 245, 349 emotional intensity, 51 emotional meaning, 10, 29, 69 emotional messages, 160, 238 emotional reactions, 26, 28, 50, 240 emotional responses, 85, 304 emotional states, 68, 70, 96, 115, 162, 267, 303 emotion and empathy, 347 Emotion Continuums, 292 emotion display, 92 emotions, 4, 18, 20, 51, 65–67, 72, 85–86, 94–97, 101, 103–104, 113–114, 139–140, 159–164, 245–251, 255, 259, 262 communicated, 159–160 discrete, 139 distinct, 139–140, 245, 292–293 judging, 97, 161, 303 negative, 114, 136, 139, 160, 249, 292 overt, 305 positive, 249, 268, 305 universal, 85, 103, 140, 246, 259

EMPATHICS, 347 empathy, 106, 347–348 enacting, 55, 59, 326 enactment, 59, 61 self-, 60–61 encoding, 13–16, 19, 51, 94–95, 153, 161–162, 251, 273, 291, 305, 308 Expectancy Violations Theory (EVT), 17 expressiveness, emotional, 14, 263 eye behavior, 5–6, 8, 17, 49, 107–111, 113, 115, 117–121, 144, 147, 178–179, 186, 267, 270–271, 342 eye movements, 120, 340–343 facial actions, 89–91, 100 facial cues, 72, 83, 85, 88, 95, 104, 202, 245, 338 facial emblems, 86–87, 176–177 facial expressions, 19–20, 42, 85, 88, 91–98, 100–101, 103–105, 114, 134, 152, 175–177, 188, 199–203, 212, 216, 239, 256, 264–265, 313–314, 322 facial management techniques, 103–104, 263–264 fear, 51, 66, 101–103, 113, 129, 140, 160, 259, 263, 303, 308, 348 flow, 14, 18, 26, 38–39, 109–113, 151–153, 156, 160, 187, 190–191, 324 gaze, 39, 62, 108–112, 114–123, 147, 177, 187, 195, 257, 266–268, 271, 338–343, 348 gaze avoidance, 118, 120, 271 gaze behavior, 110, 112, 116, 147, 195, 268 gestural input, 55–56 gestural output, 57, 60, 62, 64 gestural repertoires, 30, 36 gestures, 14, 17, 20, 25–67, 72, 74, 76–79, 86, 89, 91, 134, 144, 152, 157, 172–174, 186, 188–192 action, 40 conventionalized, 26, 31 deictic, 27, 29, 47, 56, 62, 213 metaphoric, 27–28, 49, 63–64 physiographic, 55, 311–312 representational, 41, 44, 56, 59, 315 rhythmic, 56 speech-independent, 31 speech-related, 26–27, 43, 47, 54–55 gesture space, 44, 63 grammatical competence, 28, 144, 207, 211, 218, 221, 223, 226–228, 231, 233

Subjec t Inde x

hand movements, 170, 173, 214, 316 happiness, 66, 72, 87, 95, 99, 101–104, 113–114, 160–162, 201, 245, 253, 308 haptic behaviors, 125, 136, 183, 185 iconic gestures, 27, 29, 45, 58–59, 63, 211, 319, 321 idiomatic meaning, 230, 321–322 idioms, 59, 155–156, 229–231, 321–322 intonational, 155, 230 illustrative gestures, 43, 45, 208 illustrators, 26–28, 37, 45, 47, 48, 50, 312 images, mental, 11, 55, 58, 311 imitation, 14, 49–50, 74, 235–237, 258, 279 infectious expressions, 98, 253 intelligences, 347, 349 intercultural communications, xix, 159, 170, 173, 181 intercultural differences, 103, 110 interpersonal control, 33, 170–171 interpersonal intelligence, 95, 349 interpersonal interactions, 18, 74–75, 94, 130, 289 intersubjectivity, 6, 48, 50, 54, 65 intimacy, 71, 77, 109, 115, 126, 132, 138, 144, 274, 291 intonation, 9, 13, 59, 88–89, 91, 93, 143, 152, 154–156, 158, 160–162, 209–211, 215, 228–232, 239, 303, 322–323 jazz chants, 47, 157, 214–215 kinesic behavior, 5, 66–68, 72 kinesic cues, 66–69, 76, 78, 82, 144 language anxiety, 69–70, 119, 254–256 foreign, 244 laughter, 261, 268, 301–302 lexical affiliate, 43, 45 listening comprehension, 26, 44–45, 47, 210–211 masking, 43, 103–105, 199–200, 264–265 memory, 55–56, 62, 92, 94, 150, 311–313, 320 working, 11, 62, 150, 330 metacommunicative, 91–92 mimemic iconic gestures, 59, 321 mirroring, 13, 48–50, 73–74, 98, 235–236, 279 modalities, motor, 56, 313–314

373

modes, sensory, 121, 342 motivation, 12, 347–349 motor mimicry displays, 91, 203 music, 161, 303–304 mutual gaze, 111–112, 115, 195 naturalistic contexts, 34 negotiation, 30, 38–39, 189–190, 192 nonverbal messages, 9–10, 13–15, 17, 21, 203, 273 object-focused adaptor, 53–54 pauses, 38, 144–145, 148, 151–154, 188, 197, 218–219, 221–223, 225–228, 325 inadvertent, 153, 222 pausing, 151–153, 155 personalities, 18, 136, 144, 162–163, 304, 309 personal space, 123–129, 130–131, 169, 287 violation of, 178, 287 persuasion, 117, 152, 269–270 pitch, 47, 143, 147–149, 154–157, 159, 161, 163–164, 209–210, 213, 222, 228, 230, 303 positive psychology, 346, 347 positive vocal cues, 164 posture, 5–6, 20, 49–51, 66–82, 96, 180–181, 240, 247, 256, 258, 274–286, 336–337, 348 open, 78, 80, 333 relaxed, 37, 69–70, 79, 275 power, 50, 65–69, 77–81, 93, 98–99, 117, 133, 146, 181, 270–271, 284–286, 334 interpersonal, 99 private speech, 7, 55, 63 prosody, 5, 47, 49, 68, 143–166, 284, 307 proxemics, 5, 13, 123, 125, 130, 133, 277, 288 rapport, 48–50, 54, 66, 74, 194, 235–236, 278–280, 302 recall, 11, 29, 55–56, 60–65, 111, 164, 312–314, 326, 341 referents, 44, 46, 50, 58, 190, 211–212 regulators, 26–28, 37–38, 88, 110, 135, 149, 188 response latency, 149 rhythm, 26, 47, 56, 143, 146, 156–158, 213

374

Opt imiz ing L anguage Lear ners’ Nonverbal Behav ior

self-confidence, 50–51, 66, 144 self-monitoring, 162, 305–307 smiles, 14, 83, 87, 94, 97–98, 100–101, 250–253, 346 sociolinguistic, 8, 28, 30–31, 37, 67–68, 109, 124–125, 133, 136, 146, 169–171, 173–185, 188 sociolinguistic competency, 86, 124, 169–175, 177–178, 183, 185, 188 space, 5, 8, 30, 44, 49, 63, 123–133, 169, 175, 182, 286, 288–289 mental, 50, 237 space violations, 129 speaking rates, 150, 165, 204, 345 speaking turn, 113, 149 speech connected, 158, 232 persuasive, 222–223 speech acts, 175 speech flow, 151–152, 156 speech prosody, 47 speech rate, 148–150, 158, 165, 205 speech stream, 153, 158 spontaneous speech, 154 stereotypes, 146, 348 stress, 51–52, 79, 143, 146, 152, 154, 156–158, 210, 213, 231–232 surprise, 86, 101, 103, 113, 160, 162, sympathy, 48, 93, 140 thinking-for-speaking, 36 thought groups, 151–152, 157, 218–229, 221 tone, 14, 68, 95, 139, 154–156, 159, 161, 164, 166, 291, 303

tone groups, 155 touch, 123–142, 175, 183–188, 290–300, 312–314 friendship-warmth, 136 functions of, 138, 290 professional-functional, 136 semantics of, 139, 141, 297–298 social, 137, 291 social-polite, 136 touching, 76–77, 125–126, 130–136, 139–142, 184, 299–300 touch type, 139, 291 turn-taking, 19, 27–30, 37–38, 64, 85–88, 109–110, 112–113, 132–134, 144, 147–148, 150, 186–189 values, 68–69, 142, 180–181 visual cues, 69, 108, 111, 114–116, 148 vocal, 5, 76, 169–70, 220, 222 vocal behaviors, 9, 149, 151, 166, 168, 170, 253, 307, 311–12 vocal cues, 6, 13, 16–18, 39, 46, 94, 143, 145–147, 149, 150, 152, 157, 159–166, 186, 189–190, 203, 208, 215, 222, 300–301, 304, 309 emotional, 162 variations in, 187, 343 voice quality, 144–145, 146, 152, 163 word stress, 146, 232 Zones of Proximal Development (ZPDs), 48, 50, 65