Developing Master -One Learners’ Lesson Comprehension through Teacher’s Verbal and Non-verbal Communication in a TEFL Situation

Abstract

This study aims to extend the perceptions of teachers and students regarding verbal and nonverbal communication as important teaching-learning skills, in addition to investigating the causes which lead to poor classroom communication between the teacher and his/her students; for those reasons, three hypotheses were formulated. The first hypothesis states that a better knowledge of the influence of verbal communication on students’ feedback may enable teachers give an effective lesson comprehension to their students; the second one states that If teachers make use of nonverbal communication in the classroom context, their messages would be clear, and thus, students would comprehend it adequately; however, the third one states that effective communication between teachers and their students might be based on good lesson preparation which leads to good lesson comprehension. In order to reach our objectives and test the validity of those hypotheses, we have conducted the main investigation through the use of a questionnaire administered to students and an interview held with teachers after making a pilot study; following a descriptive research method in quantitative and qualitative research design. The results has shown that teaching experience is the most important factor that determines the type of verbal or nonverbal communication strategies that teachers may use inside the classroom in order to enhance students’ lesson comprehension; in addition, supporting verbal communication, teacher talk, with nonverbal cues contributes in better lesson explanation, and thus effective comprehension on the part of learners.