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Degree

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, English as a Second Language, 2004.

Abstract

This study examines and compares the nonverbal behavior of native speakers of English (NS) and nonnative speakers of English (NNS) and their interaction with students. Thirty subjects were studied by observing their non-verbal behavior and checking for varying degrees of frequency in use as well as for the possibility of a communicative breakdown. Several variables to classify the non-verbal behavior were designed, among them being hand-raising, frowning, head-nodding / head-shaking, directed gaze, and change in body posture. The subjects were all teachers of English as a Second Language, some of them being teachers within the University of Toledo’s English Department, and others being instructors for the American Language Institute (ALI) on campus. All subjects have had some teaching experience, the core of the group ranging from two to 14 years. The choice of variables reflects the root of this study. Hard-science linguistics examines observable, real-world characteristics. It focuses on the presentation of these characteristics, rather than interpreting non-real world concepts. Therefore the variables used for this study reflect this “ability to observe”. These variables (non-verbal behavior of observed individuals) had to conform to a previously designed framework that had the purpose of limiting the interpretability of the observed behavior. In order to exclude researcher bias as much as possible, only those instances in which the non-verbal signal conformed to this framework were recorded.

Subject Headings

Language, Linguistics

Keywords

nonverbal; ESL; communication; ITA; TA; teaching assistant; international; hard-science linguistics

Advisor

Douglas W Coleman

Pages

40p.

Document number: toledo1083962967
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1083962967

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