Read article and do a 2pg summary in MLA format

Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014 191 ROLE OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOUR IN DIDACTIC COMMUNICATION Mirela SAMFIRA 1, Mirela FĂRĂGĂU -DRAGOȘ 2 1Banat s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine King Michael I of Romania from Timisoara 2Universit y of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj -Napoca [email protected] Abstract . Didactic communication is an instrumental type of communication with direct implications in the educational process. The main goal is to produce a change among students in the process o f teaching -learning, as a model of moulding communicative skills. Verbal communication plays an essential role in cognitive development and school success but what really makes success is proper nonverbal communication. The way teachers convey information to their students is an affective component: criticism has often pointed to the nonverbal aspect of the issue. Keywords : communication, didactic communication, nonverbal behaviour, teaching -learning process 1.INTRODUCTION Humans develop through communication their personality and their relationships with other humans sharing their own experience with a view to build up and convey human experiences. Communication thus becomes a main element of social life: it is a product of social life, not a feature. The role of communication has been analysed from several perspectives. Thus, according to CASTELLS (2009), its role is “to mould public mentality”; according to PUTNAM AND NICOTERA (209), it is to make up organisations. Within a student group, communication is essential in dynamics maintenance and functioning, which is influenced by several factors: the number of people sharing common goals is the most important of these factors. 1.1. DIDACTIC COMMUNICATION Didactic communication is considered, by certain authors (SĂLĂVĂSTRU , 2004: 190) , “one of the most used paideic relationships between two individuals” and a key -element in the teacher -student relationship given that message exchan ge is essential in the process of teaching -learning -evaluation. What is essential in didactic communication is represented by the intent to change the receiver of the message and by the fact that it takes place within an organisation, within a specialised institution that is later on evaluated (STĂNCULESCU , 2013). The way in which the information is c onveyed plays a particular role: we all know there is no boring or difficult subject but rather teachers who do not know how to convey information, how to support through nonverbal behaviour what they convey through verbal behaviour.

Group activities help improving interpersonal relationships and increase awareness of the mutual influences of the individuals within a group, of the group on each of its individuals, and of the society on the group and vice versa. After a period dominated by the theories of l earning followed by an excess of the cognitive revolution, there is a revival of the interest in emotions: the role and impact of emotions on the life of individuals, in general, and on the teacher -student relationship, in particular. The interest in emoti ons increased considerably: it points out the importance of nonverbal behaviour during emotional episodes, which resulted in 489 articles between 1960 Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014 192 and 1981. According to Online Psych Info, over 3,000 articles on emotions have been published since 1982 (HARRIGAN , ROSENTHAL AND SCHERER , 2008). 2.NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION The field of nonverbal behaviour is subdivided into facial actions, vocalizations, eye contact, body movement, and perception of interpersonal space. This type of communication has the advantage that it does not appeal to strict rules: decoding is done based on common sense and much quicker than in verbal communication. Response to nonverbal and para -verbal indices of a message is five times higher tha n in verbal indices (ARGYLE et al ., 1971). The congruence between verbal and nonverbal communication was first studied by BOOMER (1963) (in HARRIGAN , 2008) who showed the roles of hand and head movements, of pauses in speech and of prosody in a discourse i n both verbal and nonverbal correlations and in the synchrony between speaker and listener. In educational activities, teachers focus more often on thinking, teaching, cognitive development and learning and less on affections and emotions. They have used, to study nonverbal communication, Microteaching ever since 1960, a method adopted for teacher training programmes. Though no longer as successful as it used to be, this method was tried at least once by all the teachers who tried to improve his/her nonverb al behaviour. The risk is that experimental results differ from real -life ones when the teacher is no longer in front of a camera (which generates self -control of certain behaviours) (BABAD , 2008). 2.1. FACIAL ACTIONS Of all nonverbal behaviours, face actions are the most complicated and confusion - generating ones: they play the role of a commander, are always visible, convey information continuously through the five senses, and ask for attention (as a symbol of the self) ( COHN AND EKMAN , 2008). BRUCE AN D YOUNG (1998) claim that the face conveys clear information about personality traits, psychopathology, and intelligence. In such a complex relationship as that between teacher and student, the face conveys a lot of information which, if properly decoded by the students, make it positive and constructive. “ Teacher immediacy” and “ teacher enthusiasm” gener ate satisfaction, morality, and school success (BABAD , 2008). Social relationships in a class can diminish facial display of emotions ( EKMAN AND FRIESEN , 2003) : it is known that, when we are alone, we express our emotions in a different way from the case when we are not alone. The feed -back to the messages conveyed through nonverbal behaviour plays a particular role in the establishment of a course and in t he way classes are given. Interactions within a class are of the “face -to-face” type: they generate concern for what we convey through looks, gestures, posture or voice – because, in most cases, nonverbal communication brings about decisive supplementary i nformation that influence the way we judge the others. One of the questions that has haunted the researchers in the field is if a group can function without face -to-face relationships (thus removing the nonverbal component of communication) and if a group can be effective through technology alone (HARGIE AND DICKSON , 2004). Smiling and looking into somebody else’s eyes is an important nonverbal component of social interaction. When a speaker intends to have our attention, he should also take into account weather conditions because nonverbal behaviour associated with social contacts are strongly influenced by the weather (GUÉGUEN , 2013). Thus, it is in the interest of the entire group to take into account the negative impact if cloudy days on the nonverbal behaviour of both teachers and students. Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014 193 2.2.VOICE Voice conveys information on the people’s sex, age (HUMMERT et al ., 1999) , origin , health state, social status, affective state (irritation, anxiety, joy) (JUSLIN AND SCHERER , 2008). Social interaction in a class needs training to develop the skill of making inferences about the intention and the behaviour of the others, while remaining sensitive about the messages received (it is well -known that humans can listen for longer periods to voices than to any other sound (BELIN et al ., 2002). One of the main issues in children is to name the emotional expressions that affect the voice particularly in the teacher -student relationship that supposes a number of emotional responses on both sides . The most used names for vocal expressions of emotions pointed out by 104 studies in the field ( JUSLIN AND LAUKKA , 2003) are anger (85 occurrences ), fear and upset (65 occurrences ), happiness (44 occurrences ), and joy (31 occurrences ). The different types of messages conveyed by words and nonverbal behaviour elements have been made well -known by BUGENTAL (1974, in JUSLIN AND SCHERER , 2008); CAFF I AND JANNEY (1994) claim that philosophers and linguists maintain that the meaning of a discourse lies mainly in verbal content . Teachers and students that are self -confident tend to speak quicker and louder (KIMBLE AND SEIDE , 1991) ; prosodic elements also adapt depending on the students’ age: speakers have a clear intuition of the emotional and linguistic needs of their listeners (BURNHAM et al . 2002 ). As for the leader role of a teacher in class, KLOFSTAD et al . (2012) found out that lower voices, no matter the sex, is associated with a good leader . Starting from the influence of a teacher’s voice on students’ behaviour, WOOD (1998) described the features of an “enthusiastic teacher” as one who speaks in an expressive way, who shows intonation and volume variations, who smiles and laughs, makes gestures with both his/her hands and arms, appeals to facial actions, maintains visual cont act, and has the sense of humour (BABAD , 2008). Studies concerning “ teacher immediacy” show there are flexible, democratic, warm, clear, task -oriented, and active/energetic leaders (MCCROSKEY et al. , 1996). Trans -cultural researches have confirmed that hum ans express their emotions crying, shouting, speaking in a trembling voice or in a monotonous, low voice (WALLBOTT et al . 1986); voice is, according to SUNDBERG (1998, in JUSLIN AND SCHERER , 2008 ), “the mirror of our soul ”. We can also talk of the effects of loud voice or shouts on students: the effect is a negative one and it troubles learning and evaluation. The context in which appears a certain emotional expression is an important indicator of our judgement (PLANAL p, 1998 ). This informational background helps establishing relationships within the class since proper interpretation of emotional expressions support correct inferences. In multicultural classes, there can occur problems because of the differences in coding and decoding messages and also in the different meanings associated to the message: sometimes, teachers cannot be sure a message has been properly understood (BABAD , 2008). 2.3. KINES ICS Kinesics refers to body, head, and limb movements and to the way they are coded and decoded by the individuals . 2.3.1.BODY POSTURE People, no matter their relationships with other people they communicate with, display a wide range of actions, gestures and body postures that change at a quicker or slower pace depending on what they wish to communicate. Though, compared to the face, the body is much larger, it has a smaller number of parts that can be moved (limb movements) but the latter are of interest for social relationships, in general, and for the didactic relationships, in Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014 194 particular. The body parts most involved in nonverbal comm unication are the head and hands: their simple movements do not always have a meaning, but they can convey information concerning the intensity of a certain emotion (DITTMAN , 1987) – first the face and the voice. It is important, in the teacher -student rel ationship, to know what movement needs to be coded and how we intend t do it to get the expected response. These aspects are valid when there is intentionality; but there are also movements that we do purposeless or with the least intentionality that trans mit what we think at the time. Among nonverbal behaviour a teacher uses when talking in class, gestures come first, followed by pitch, look, smile (to the entire class or to certain students), movement, posture, and varied vocal expression (BABAD , 2008). We need to mention the cultural aspect of movement interpretation because all cultures do not decode a movement in the same way (a teacher might fold her arms across his/her chest it is not necessary to indicate a “ lack of approachability”, but rather to wa rm her body i n a cool place or because of having no pockets to put her hands) ( HARRIGAN , 2008). Head movements – nodding, shaking, and tilting – hold a particular place in kinesics. Nodding is associated with the feed -back of the listener, indicating he/she listens to the speech (DUNCAN AND FISKE , 1977; MATARAZZO AND WIENS , 1972; ROSENFELD , 1978, IN HARRINGTON , 2008 ). In evaluation, head movements can confirm the correctness of an answer, which makes students go on. In conf licts, intrusions, and social anxiety, nodding rate decreases. 2.3.2. PROXEMICS Research in the field focus on the structuring, use, and perception o f the space because they reflect the relationships between individuals (no matter if they are members of a larger group or of a dyad ) and if these relationships are intentional or random. HALL (1963, IN HARRIGAN (2008) was a pioneer in proxemics. He divide d our spatial world into intimate, personal, social, and public space. Given the topic of our paper, the most effective teacher - student relationship is the one that is most important: distance between the partners involved in communication (student -student , teacher -student), frontal body orientation, touch, and gaze. Each of these components support open communication and encourage or discourage indifference messages, the lack of the wish to establish close or cooperation relationships.

Another phenomenon i nfluencing didactic communication frequently is “agglomeration” that reflects the physical space between individuals and the space for each individual in a given environment. We know the negative effect of a crowded class on the state of all the members involved in communication that can generate a certain state of discomfort particularly towards intruders ( HAYDUK , 1981, IN HARRIGAN (2008). 2.3.3. GAZE Literature include s eye contact, looking, glancing and visual attention , VON CRANACH (1971) consider ing gaze as part of a general orientation behaviour . Gaze is a unique component of nonverbal behaviour because it both receives and sends messages . Gaze is, in didactic communication, a main component of the teaching activity because it conveys clear informati on on attention, interest, motivation, and intention in students; this can generate frustration if the teacher cannot control the class or manage the energy of the class (W EINSTEIN , 2002) . 3. CONCLUSIONS The study of nonverbal behaviour in didactic communication is an element that is almost as important as verbal communication. If we know the components that generate Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014 195 positive results in students in bot learning and behaviour, we can ask ourselves why so mu ch school failure, why so many school dropouts, and why so much frustration on both sides.

Teachers who cannot motivate students or capture students’ attention should try and apply the information presented in the studies about nonverbal communication. The field of nonverbal communication is so vast that we could not reach all its elements. We intend to pursue our research focusing on Microteaching within the Teaching Staff Training Department of the Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinar y Medicine “King Michael I of Romania” from Timisoara, Romania, and on the evaluation of the nonverbal behaviour of the teachers that are most appreciated by our students. 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.ARGYLE , ALKEMA , F. AND GILMOUR , R. (1971), The communication of friendly and hostile attitudes by verbal and non -verbal signals, European Journal of Social Psychology , 1: 385 -402 2.BABAD , ELISHA (2008), Nonverbal behaviour in education, in Harrigan, A. Jinni, Rosenthal, R. and Scherer, R. K. (eds.), The new handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behaviour Research , Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 283 -311 3.BRUCE , V. AND YOUNG , A. (1998), In the eye of the beholder: the science of the face perception, New York: Oxford University Press 4.BURNH AM , D., KITAMURA , C. AND VOLLMER -CONNA , U. (2002), What’s new pussycat? Talking to babies and to animals, Science, 296(5572), 1435 5.CAFFI , C. AND JANNEY , R. W. (1994), Toward a pragmatics of emotive communication, Journal of Pragmatics, 22, 325 -373 6.CAST EL, M. (2009), Communication Power. Oxford University Press, Oxford 7.DITTMAN , A. T. (1987), The role of body movement in communication, in Nonverbal behaviour and communication (2nd ed.), A. W. Siegman and S. Feldstein (ed.) pp. 37 -64, New York: Lawrence Erlbaum 8.EKMAN , P. FRIESEN , W. V. (2003), Unmasking the face: a guide to recognizing emotions from facial cues. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Malor Books 9.GUÉGUEN , N. (2013), Weather and Smiling Contagion: A Quasi Experiment with the Smiling Sunshine; Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour , 37, 51 -55 10. HARGIE , O. AND DICKSON , D. (2004), Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory, and Practice, (4th edition), Routledge, London 11. HARRIGAN , A. JINNI (2008), Proxemics, kinesics, and Gaze, in Harrigan, A. Jinni, Rosenthal, R. and Scherer, R. K. (eds.) The new handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behaviour Research , Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 137 -198 12. HARRIGAN , A. JINNI , ROSENTHAL , R. AND SCHERER , R. KLAU S (2008), Introduction , in Harrigan, A. Jin ni, Rosenthal, R. and Scherer, R. K. (eds.), The new handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behaviour Research, Oxford University Press, Oxford 13. HUMMERT M. L., MAZLOFF , D., AND HENRY , C. (1999), Vocal characteristics of older adults and stereotyping, Journal o f Nonverbal Behaviour , 23, 111 -132 14. JUSLIN , N. P. AND SCHERER , R. K. (2008), Vocal expression of affect, in Harrigan, A. Jinni, Rosenthal, R. and Scherer, R. K. (eds.) The new handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behaviour Research , Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 65 -135 15. KIMBLE , C. E. AND SEIDEL , S. D. (1991), Vocal signs of confidence. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour , 15, 99 -105 16. KLOFSTAD , C. A. AND ANDERSON , R. C. AND PETERS , S. (2012), Sound like a winner: Voice pitch influences perception of lead ership capacity in both men and women, Proceedings of the Royal Society , 279(1738), 2698 -2704 17. MCCROSKEY , J. C., SALLINEN , A., FAYER , J., RICHMOND , V. P. AND BARRACLOUGH , R. A. (1996), Nonverbal immediacy and cognitive learning: a cross -cultural investig ation, Communication Education, 45, 200 -210 Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 46 (2), 2014 196 18. PLANALP , S. (1998), Communicating emotion in every day life: cues, channels, processes, in Handbook of communication and emotion, (ed. P. A. Andersen and L. K. GUERRERO), pp.

29-48 19. PUTNAM , L. L. AND NICOTER A, A. M. (2009) (eds.), Building Theories of Organization: The Constitutive Role of Communication, New York and London: Routledge 20. RIND , B. AND STROHMETZ , D. (2001), Effect of beliefs about future weather conditions on restaurant tipping. Journal of Applied Social Psychology , 31, 2160 -2164 21. SĂLĂVĂSTRU , DORINA (2004), Psihologia educației, Iași: Polirom 22. STĂNCULESCU , ELENA (2013), Psihologia educației. De la teorie la practică, Editura Universitară, București, 2013 23. VON CRANACH , M. AND ELLGRING , J. H. (1971), Problems in the recognition of gaze direction, in Social communication and movement (ed. M. Von Cranach and I. Vine), New York:

Academic Press 24. WALLBOTT , H. C., RICCI -BITTI , P. AND BÄNNINGER -HUBER , E. (1986), Non -verbal reactions to emotion al experiences, in Experiencing emotion: a cross -cultural study (ed. K. R. Scherer, H. G. Wallbott and A. B. Summerfield), pp. 98 -116, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 25. WEINSTEIN , R. (2002), Reaching higher: the power of expectations in schooling, Cambridge: Harvard University Press Copyright ofResearch JournalofAgricultural Scienceisthe property ofBanat University of Agricultural Sciences&Veterinary MedicineTimisoara anditscontent maynotbecopied or emailed tomultiple sitesorposted toalistserv without thecopyright holder'sexpresswritten permission.

However,usersmayprint, download, oremail articles forindividual use.