Teachers’ Nonverbal Communication in EFL Classroom

The research was aimed at identifying the kinds and functions of nonverbal communication used by the teachers at SMAN 1 Pamboang in teaching English and the effect of the teachers’ nonverbal communication to the students. The research applied qualitative research design. The subjects of the research comprised two English teachers and 14 students of SMAN 1 Pamboang. The instruments were classroom observation, teachers’ interview and students’ interview. The data gathered was analyzed through data analysis proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994), namely data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing. The research revealed that there were eight kinds of nonverbal communication used by the teachers of SMAN 1 Pamboang. Those were the use of gesture, posture, facial expression, eye contact, touch, voice, distance and clothing. It was found that some of teachers’ nonverbal cues were stand-alone and others were combined with teachers’ verbal messages. Those nonverbal cues were functioned to substitute, complement, accentuate, regulate, repeat and contradict the teachers’ verbal messages. In addition, the result of data analysis showed that there are positive effects and negative effect of the teachers’ nonverbal communication to the students. The proper use of hand gesture when teachers explained the material, smiling, approaching the students at their seat to help them, the proper use of eye contact, touch and vocal expression were very contributive on building the positive relationship between teachers and students, creating a good classroom atmosphere and helping students to accept and understand the lesson better. On the other hand, using too much hand movement, shouting, staring at students and being too serious when teaching, can created a tense learning atmosphere. Thus, the students feel uncomfortable, nervous, scared and difficult to engage in teaching and learning process