Модель урока в 11 классе
Effective communication and its verbal and non-verbal compounds
(11th form, “Starlight”)
Засецкая Ирина Эолитовна,
ГБОУ СОШ № 46 Санкт-Петербурга
ГБОУ СОШ № 46 Санкт-Петербурга
1. Predicting the theme of the lesson
Teacher: Today we are going to discuss a very important topic. Here is a meaningful quotation of a famous psychologist M. Krauss: “A species’ survival depends critically upon its ability to communicate effectively and the quality of its social life is determined in large measure by how and what it can communicate”.
This quotation might be helpful for you in order to predict the theme and the main aim of today’s lesson. Let’s discuss it in two groups, which you have formed beforehand. Don’t forget that your group can reach good results only if everybody participates. Do you agree?
This quotation might be helpful for you in order to predict the theme and the main aim of today’s lesson. Let’s discuss it in two groups, which you have formed beforehand. Don’t forget that your group can reach good results only if everybody participates. Do you agree?
The students express their ideas after having discussed them in groups.
Teacher: So, most of you agree that we can put the theme of the lesson like this: “Effective communication and its verbal and nonverbal compounds”
Teacher: So, most of you agree that we can put the theme of the lesson like this: “Effective communication and its verbal and nonverbal compounds”
2. Formulating the aim of the lesson
Teacher: What aim do you want to reach at the end of the lesson? Express your ideas after a short group discussion.
A brief discussion follows.
Teacher: So, most of you would like to learn the rules of effective communication. But how can we do it?
3. Discussing the plan of the lesson
Teacher: What aim do you want to reach at the end of the lesson? Express your ideas after a short group discussion.
A brief discussion follows.
Teacher: So, most of you would like to learn the rules of effective communication. But how can we do it?
3. Discussing the plan of the lesson
Teacher: It’s high time we discussed the plan of the lesson in groups. I would like you to put the suggested steps of the lesson in the logical order. You can add some ideas or omit the ones you do not find necessary.
- Brainstorming ideas about the content, the aim and the interaction of verbal and nonverbal communication, filling in the Communication chart, assessing the opponents’ work
- Reflection, self-assessment and the teacher’s assessment of the students’ work
- Discussing the plan of the lesson
- Reading for details, correcting and completing the Communication chart, assessing the partners’ work
- Formulating the aim of the lesson
- Summing up and discussing the home task
- Predicting the theme of the lesson
The students make up their versions of the planning and discuss them. The final one is preserved on the board:
- Predicting the theme of the lesson
- Formulating the aim of the lesson
- Discussing the plan of the lesson
- Brainstorming ideas about the content, the aim and the interaction of verbal and nonverbal communication, filling in the Communication chart, assessing the opponents’ work
- Reading for details, correcting and completing the Communication chart, assessing the partners’ work
- Watching “The first job interview” video and making up Effective communication rules
- Role playing the dialogue “The first job interview” and assessing the opponents’ work
- Summing up and discussing the home task
- Reflection, self-assessment and the teacher’s assessment of the students’ work.
4. Brainstorming ideas about the content, the aim and the interaction of verbal and nonverbal communication, filling in the Communication chart, assessing the opponents’ work
Teacher: Now I want you to brainstorm your ideas about the content and the aim of verbal (for the 1-st group) and nonverbal communication (for the 2-nd group). You should base on your knowledge from different spheres, on your own experience and on the article “Body Talk”, you were to work on at home. I also want you to give the reasons of your choice, to illustrate them with examples and to fill in the Communication chart on the board.
The students share their ideas and fill in the chart, which may look like this:
Communication Chart
Verbal communication
Content: words (spoken, written), the language structure (grammar).
Aim: to inform, to give knowledge, to express ideas, thoughts and feelings, to ask questions, to agree and to disagree, to correct, to explain, to debate, to stimulate thoughts and creativity, to create relationships, to unite people etc.
Nonverbal communication
Content: gestures, eye movements, facial expression, body movements, body contact, manner of speaking, appearance and image, clothes style, design etc.
Aim: to express feelings, to show the relations between speakers and listeners, to support actions, relations etc.
Interaction of verbal and nonverbal ways of communication: supporting, contradicting, enhancing, reducing etc.
Teacher: Do you agree with your opponents’ ideas? How can you comment on them? Do you have anything to add? It would be also useful to assess your opponents’ work.
The students make their comments and assess the other group’s work.
5. Reading for details, correcting and completing the Communication chart, assessing the partners’ work
Content: words (spoken, written), the language structure (grammar).
Aim: to inform, to give knowledge, to express ideas, thoughts and feelings, to ask questions, to agree and to disagree, to correct, to explain, to debate, to stimulate thoughts and creativity, to create relationships, to unite people etc.
Nonverbal communication
Content: gestures, eye movements, facial expression, body movements, body contact, manner of speaking, appearance and image, clothes style, design etc.
Aim: to express feelings, to show the relations between speakers and listeners, to support actions, relations etc.
Interaction of verbal and nonverbal ways of communication: supporting, contradicting, enhancing, reducing etc.
Teacher: Do you agree with your opponents’ ideas? How can you comment on them? Do you have anything to add? It would be also useful to assess your opponents’ work.
The students make their comments and assess the other group’s work.
5. Reading for details, correcting and completing the Communication chart, assessing the partners’ work
Teacher: Haven’t we missed anything? Now your task is to read in pairs a few extracts from the reference books concerning communication. Then you are to complete the chart with the additional information and to correct the mistakes if any.
The students find the additional information in the extracts and complete the chart having corrected the mistakes they might have made.
Here are the extracts from the reference books the students get:
(1) Even speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements, such as handwriting style or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals. It can be subdivided into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behavior of communicators during the interaction.
Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the act of generating the information, such as facial expressions, gestures and postures. Decoding is the interpretation of the information from received sensations of the previous experiences. Only a small percentage of the brain processes verbal communication. As for infants, nonverbal communication is learned by them from social-emotional communication, making the face rather than words the major organ of communication. As children become verbal communicators, they begin to look at facial expressions, vocal tones, and other nonverbal elements more subconsciously.
(2) Culture plays an important role in nonverbal communication, and it is one aspect that helps to influence the way learning activities are organized. In many indigenous American communities, for example, there is often an emphasis on nonverbal communication, which acts as a valued means by which children learn. In this sense, learning is not dependent on verbal communication; rather, it is nonverbal communication, which serves as a primary means of not only organizing interpersonal interactions, but also conveying cultural values, and children learn how to participate in this system from a young age. While not traditionally thought of as “talk,” nonverbal communication contains highly precise and symbolic meanings, similar to verbal speech. However, the meanings in nonverbal communication are conveyed through the use of gesture, posture changes, and timing.
Nuances across different aspects of nonverbal communication can be found in cultures all around the world. These differences can often lead to miscommunication between people of different cultures, who usually do not mean to offend. Differences can be based on the mode of communication preferences, like the Chinese, who prefer silence to verbal communication. Differences can even be based on how cultures perceive the passage of time. The way people handle time, can be categorized in two ways: polychronic, which is when people do many activities at once and is common in Italy and Spain, or monochronic, which is when people do one thing at a time and which is common in America. Because nonverbal communication can vary in many ways: gestures, gaze, posture etc., there is a lot of room for cultural differences.
(3) An interesting question is: when two people are communicating face-to-face, how much of the meaning is communicated verbally, and how much is communicated non-verbally? This was investigated by Albert Mehrabian and reported in two papers. He concluded: "It is suggested that the combined effect of simultaneous verbal, vocal, and facial attitude communications is a weighted sum of their independent effects – with coefficients of .07, .38, and .55, respectively.
Since then, other studies have analyzed the relative contribution of verbal and nonverbal signals under more naturalistic situations. Argyle, using video tapes shown to the subjects, analyzed the communication of submissive/dominant attitude and found that nonverbal cues had 4.3 times the effect of verbal cues. The most important effect was that body posture communicated superior status in a very efficient way.
On the other hand, a study by Hsee Etal found that words spoken with minimal variation in intonation had an impact about 4 times larger than face expressions seen in a film without sound. Thus, the relative importance of spoken words and facial expressions may be very different in studies using different set-ups. However, most of the experts believe that when communicating, nonverbal messages can interact with verbal messages in six ways: repeating, conflicting, complementing, substituting, regulating and accenting or moderating mode.
(4) Haptics is the study of touching as nonverbal communication, and haptic communication refers to how people and other animals communicate via touching. Touches among humans that can be defined as communication include handshakes, holding hands, kissing (cheek, lips, hand), back slapping, a pat on the shoulder and brushing an arm. Touching of oneself may include licking, picking, holding, and scratching. These behaviors are referred to as "adapters" or "tells" and may send messages that show the intentions or feelings of a communicator and a listener. The meaning conveyed by touch is highly dependent on the culture, the context of the situation, the relationship between communicators, and the manner of touch. Touch is an extremely important sense for human. It is a component of nonverbal communication in interpersonal relationships.
The students find the additional information in the extracts and complete the chart having corrected the mistakes they might have made.
Here are the extracts from the reference books the students get:
(1) Even speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements, such as handwriting style or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on interaction between individuals. It can be subdivided into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behavior of communicators during the interaction.
Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the act of generating the information, such as facial expressions, gestures and postures. Decoding is the interpretation of the information from received sensations of the previous experiences. Only a small percentage of the brain processes verbal communication. As for infants, nonverbal communication is learned by them from social-emotional communication, making the face rather than words the major organ of communication. As children become verbal communicators, they begin to look at facial expressions, vocal tones, and other nonverbal elements more subconsciously.
(2) Culture plays an important role in nonverbal communication, and it is one aspect that helps to influence the way learning activities are organized. In many indigenous American communities, for example, there is often an emphasis on nonverbal communication, which acts as a valued means by which children learn. In this sense, learning is not dependent on verbal communication; rather, it is nonverbal communication, which serves as a primary means of not only organizing interpersonal interactions, but also conveying cultural values, and children learn how to participate in this system from a young age. While not traditionally thought of as “talk,” nonverbal communication contains highly precise and symbolic meanings, similar to verbal speech. However, the meanings in nonverbal communication are conveyed through the use of gesture, posture changes, and timing.
Nuances across different aspects of nonverbal communication can be found in cultures all around the world. These differences can often lead to miscommunication between people of different cultures, who usually do not mean to offend. Differences can be based on the mode of communication preferences, like the Chinese, who prefer silence to verbal communication. Differences can even be based on how cultures perceive the passage of time. The way people handle time, can be categorized in two ways: polychronic, which is when people do many activities at once and is common in Italy and Spain, or monochronic, which is when people do one thing at a time and which is common in America. Because nonverbal communication can vary in many ways: gestures, gaze, posture etc., there is a lot of room for cultural differences.
(3) An interesting question is: when two people are communicating face-to-face, how much of the meaning is communicated verbally, and how much is communicated non-verbally? This was investigated by Albert Mehrabian and reported in two papers. He concluded: "It is suggested that the combined effect of simultaneous verbal, vocal, and facial attitude communications is a weighted sum of their independent effects – with coefficients of .07, .38, and .55, respectively.
Since then, other studies have analyzed the relative contribution of verbal and nonverbal signals under more naturalistic situations. Argyle, using video tapes shown to the subjects, analyzed the communication of submissive/dominant attitude and found that nonverbal cues had 4.3 times the effect of verbal cues. The most important effect was that body posture communicated superior status in a very efficient way.
On the other hand, a study by Hsee Etal found that words spoken with minimal variation in intonation had an impact about 4 times larger than face expressions seen in a film without sound. Thus, the relative importance of spoken words and facial expressions may be very different in studies using different set-ups. However, most of the experts believe that when communicating, nonverbal messages can interact with verbal messages in six ways: repeating, conflicting, complementing, substituting, regulating and accenting or moderating mode.
(4) Haptics is the study of touching as nonverbal communication, and haptic communication refers to how people and other animals communicate via touching. Touches among humans that can be defined as communication include handshakes, holding hands, kissing (cheek, lips, hand), back slapping, a pat on the shoulder and brushing an arm. Touching of oneself may include licking, picking, holding, and scratching. These behaviors are referred to as "adapters" or "tells" and may send messages that show the intentions or feelings of a communicator and a listener. The meaning conveyed by touch is highly dependent on the culture, the context of the situation, the relationship between communicators, and the manner of touch. Touch is an extremely important sense for human. It is a component of nonverbal communication in interpersonal relationships.
Touching is treated differently from one country to another and socially acceptable levels of touching vary from one culture to another. In Thai culture, for example, touching someone's head may be thought rude. Remland and Jones (1995) studied groups of people communicating and found that touching was rare among the English (8%), the French (5%) and the Dutch (4%) compared to Italians (14%) and Greeks (12.5%). Striking, pushing, pulling, pinching, kicking, strangling and hand-to-hand fighting are forms of touch in the context of physical abuse.
(5) Proxemics is the study of the cultural, behavioral, and sociological aspects of distances between individuals. Every person has a particular space that they keep to themselves when communicating, like a personal bubble. When used as a type of a nonverbal signal in communication, proxemics helps to determine the space between individuals while they interact. There are four types of proxemics with different distances depending on the situation and people involved. Intimate distance is used for close encounters like embracing, touching, or whispering.
Personal distance is for interactions with close friends and family members. Social distance is for interactions among acquaintances. It is mostly used in workplace or school settings. Argyle (1970) put forward the hypothesis that whereas spoken language is normally used for communicating information about events, which are external to the speakers, non-verbal codes are used to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships.
It is considered more polite or nicer to communicate attitudes towards others non-verbally rather than verbally, for instance, in order to avoid embarrassing situations.
Argyle (1988) concluded there are five primary functions of nonverbal bodily behavior in human communication: to express emotions, to express interpersonal attitudes, to accompany speech with the cues of interaction between speakers and listeners, to make a self-presentation of a personality, to accompany rituals (such as greetings etc.)
When expressing interpersonal attitudes, humans communicate interpersonal closeness through nonverbal actions, such as smiling, touching, open body positions and eye contact. Cultures that display these behaviors are considered high-contact cultures.
(6) Conflicting verbal and nonverbal messages can sometimes send opposing information. A person verbally expressing a statement of truth while avoiding eye contact may convey a mixed message to the receiver. Conflicting messages may occur for a variety of reasons, often coming from the feelings of uncertainty or frustration.
Nonverbal and verbal communication can complement each other. Nonverbal cues can be used to reinforce the information sent when trying to achieve communicative goals. Nonverbal behavior is sometimes used as the only channel for communication of a message. People learn to identify facial expressions, body movements, and body positioning as corresponding specific feelings and intentions. Nonverbal signals can be used without verbal communication to convey messages. Verbal methods may be used to enhance understanding. Verbal communication is a highly structured form of communication with set rules of grammar. The rules of verbal communication help to understand and make sense of what other people are saying. On the other hand, nonverbal communication has no formal structure when it comes to communicating. Nonverbal communication occurs without even thinking about it. The same behavior can mean different things, such as crying of sadness or of joy. Therefore, these cues need to be interpreted carefully to get the correct meaning of them.
Verbal communication is based on discontinuous units while nonverbal communication is continuous. Communicating nonverbally cannot be stopped unless one would leave the room. Learned non-verbal cues require a community or culture. For example, dress code is a non-verbal cue that must be established by society. Innate non-verbal cues are "built-in" features of human behavior. Generally, these innate cues are universally prevalent regardless of the culture. For example, smiling, crying, and laughing do not require teaching and is not limited to individual cultures.
It is considered more polite or nicer to communicate attitudes towards others non-verbally rather than verbally, for instance, in order to avoid embarrassing situations.
Argyle (1988) concluded there are five primary functions of nonverbal bodily behavior in human communication: to express emotions, to express interpersonal attitudes, to accompany speech with the cues of interaction between speakers and listeners, to make a self-presentation of a personality, to accompany rituals (such as greetings etc.)
When expressing interpersonal attitudes, humans communicate interpersonal closeness through nonverbal actions, such as smiling, touching, open body positions and eye contact. Cultures that display these behaviors are considered high-contact cultures.
(6) Conflicting verbal and nonverbal messages can sometimes send opposing information. A person verbally expressing a statement of truth while avoiding eye contact may convey a mixed message to the receiver. Conflicting messages may occur for a variety of reasons, often coming from the feelings of uncertainty or frustration.
Nonverbal and verbal communication can complement each other. Nonverbal cues can be used to reinforce the information sent when trying to achieve communicative goals. Nonverbal behavior is sometimes used as the only channel for communication of a message. People learn to identify facial expressions, body movements, and body positioning as corresponding specific feelings and intentions. Nonverbal signals can be used without verbal communication to convey messages. Verbal methods may be used to enhance understanding. Verbal communication is a highly structured form of communication with set rules of grammar. The rules of verbal communication help to understand and make sense of what other people are saying. On the other hand, nonverbal communication has no formal structure when it comes to communicating. Nonverbal communication occurs without even thinking about it. The same behavior can mean different things, such as crying of sadness or of joy. Therefore, these cues need to be interpreted carefully to get the correct meaning of them.
Verbal communication is based on discontinuous units while nonverbal communication is continuous. Communicating nonverbally cannot be stopped unless one would leave the room. Learned non-verbal cues require a community or culture. For example, dress code is a non-verbal cue that must be established by society. Innate non-verbal cues are "built-in" features of human behavior. Generally, these innate cues are universally prevalent regardless of the culture. For example, smiling, crying, and laughing do not require teaching and is not limited to individual cultures.
Teacher: Now let’s make a conclusion about the interaction of verbal and nonverbal communication basing on the information you have already learned and on the diagrams I am offering you now. (Elements of Official Communication) (Elements of Personal Communication)
The students make a conclusion about the interaction of verbal and nonverbal communication.
6. Watching “The first job interview” video and making up Effective communication rules
The students make a conclusion about the interaction of verbal and nonverbal communication.
6. Watching “The first job interview” video and making up Effective communication rules
Teacher: As you see step by step we are learning more about the components of communication. But how to make communication effective? Most of the people are worried about official interviews as their future may depend on them. Is it the case with you? If so, why don’t we watch “The first job interview” video? Will you work in pairs, watch the video and make up the list of rules you should not violate at the interview? Don’t forget about the verbal, nonverbal and psychological compounds of the effective official communication. This chart might be helpful.
Effective official communication chart
1. Verbal communication compounds
2. Nonverbal communication compounds
3. Psychological compounds of communication
Students watch the video and make notes.
Teacher: When watching the video the second time, make sure you have noticed more than 20 cases when the interviewed violates the rules of effective communication.
The students watch the video again trying to find as many violations of communication rules as they can and complete the chart, which as a result can look like this:
Effective official communication chart
1. Verbal communication compounds
2. Nonverbal communication compounds
3. Psychological compounds of communication
Students watch the video and make notes.
Teacher: When watching the video the second time, make sure you have noticed more than 20 cases when the interviewed violates the rules of effective communication.
The students watch the video again trying to find as many violations of communication rules as they can and complete the chart, which as a result can look like this:
Effective official communication chart
1. Verbal communication compounds: clear, well-structured speech, rich vocabulary etc.
2. Nonverbal communication compounds: energetic, steady voice, thought-out intonations and pauses, keeping the head up, pleasant and interested facial expressions, smiling in proper situations, an eye contact, a few conventional gestures, observing the dress code and the personal space, firm handshakes ( for men) etc.
3. Psychological compounds of communication: self-confidence, occasional copying the partners’ gestures and intonation, addressing them by their full name, avoiding familiarity etc.
Teacher: After a short discussion, I want each pair to present five communication rules. The other pairs should express their opinions and comment on the proposed rules.
The pairs present their versions; others discuss them and add their variants.
7. Role playing “The first job interview” dialogue and assessing the opponents’ performance
The pairs present their versions; others discuss them and add their variants.
7. Role playing “The first job interview” dialogue and assessing the opponents’ performance
Teacher: It’s time you role played your own versions of the interview. Try to find the proper combination of verbal, nonverbal and psychological compounds of the effective communication. Every member of the group should choose the task they like: writing the script, making a list of helpful communication hints, role-playing, producing, choosing accessories and the setting. You have five minutes to get ready.
The students do the tasks in groups.
The students do the tasks in groups.
Teacher: How can you assess your opponents’ performance?
The students discuss the merits and the drawbacks of the presented interviews.
8. Summing up and discussing the home task
Teacher: Let’s sum up the results of the lesson.
The students discuss the merits and the drawbacks of the presented interviews.
8. Summing up and discussing the home task
Teacher: Let’s sum up the results of the lesson.
