Nonverbal aspects of oral communication

Nonverbal behaviour is an important component of oral communication, and students do not communicate well because they do not make use of nonverbal behaviour in an appropriate manner. Twenty-four female students between the ages of twelve and thirteen years, were videotaped giving a short introduction about themselves to their classmates. These students all came from the same local all-girls secondary school. Data was collected by transcribing each student's speech and the corresponding nonverbal behaviour exhibited in detail. This data was then examined for specific movements of head, face, eye, hand, arm, shoulder, leg and body movements. The findings showed that the students made use of a lot of nonverbal behaviour, and a vast majority of the nonverbal behaviour was not appropriate, or did not correspond with what they were saying. This concludes with the pedagogical implications of these findings, uppermost being that students ought to be taught to be aware of their own nonverbal behaviour, and how to use it appropriately.Master of Arts (Applied Linguistics