身势语是一个人与人交流的重要媒介。它凭借着说话人双方的真实表达和生动的手势眼神交流，表达出双方的真实感受与想法。在学校的教学当中，身势语更加扮演着培养学生品格与情操的重要角色。对于教师来说是被尊敬的，事实上，教师的一言一行都是学生所模仿的对象。所以教师优美的身体语言将帮助学生们提高他们的艺术情操和思想品德。教师在教学中运用有效的身势语将不仅树立出一个优良的例子，而且还可以缩短师生之间的距离感，营造出一个和谐的学习氛围。另外，身势语所具备的生动性和通俗易懂的特点，使教师所讲的知识融入到实践当中，并且让其更加的具体形象。总之，身势语能激发出学生的兴趣，使教师的授课内容得到最大程度的提高。
一、身势语在英语教学中的重要性与必要性
Now more and more English teachers organize the teaching process in English so that they may realize the Communicated English. The Communicated English means that teachers instruct the students and explain questions basically in English, and the students are also required to use English in class. Contemporarily, however, the students in the middle school can"t speak very well; neither can they understand why they should use different tones in different time or situation; their vocabulary and expressive ability are limited too. These limitations made it difficult to realize the Communicated English in the classes. According to the students" present level and practical situation, body language is required. For example, when a teacher gives an instruction: “You two, please come to the blackboard.” The students can easily understand it if the teacher looks at (or points to) some two students. Then, the teacher points to the blackboard. The students will carry out the order without obstacle even if they don"t hear the key words “blackboard” clearly. Furthermore, teachers usually have to explain some language points, and at this time, they have to differentiate the classroom expressions and the examples. From the above we can learn, the use of body language in English teaching is necessary and practical.
二、身势语在英语的听、说、读、写中的有效运用
1. Body language helps to improve listening
The Greek philosopher Epictetus ever wittily said: “Nature has given man one tongue and two ears that he may hear twice as much as he speaks. ”"From the saying we can learn how important the listening is in our daily life. To understand others is a basic purpose in English teaching, and teachers often train the students" listening accordingly. In this process, if the body language is used, the effect will be better. When beginning a new lesson, the teacher narrates the story outline in English. For example, a teacher can stretch his arms slowly when he says “She is in a very big room”; he can open his eyes widely with mouth opened when he says “She is so beautiful a lady”. As a result, the students will have such an impression: She is very beautiful indeed; a teacher who imitates the crying or the movement of the animals under the premise of teaching order will surely achieve a better effect.
2. Body language helps to improve speaking
The spoken language is one way to communicate, so we should try to develop the students" ability of speaking. Factually they are helped to reach the aim in a certain degree by their teacher"s body language.
The first lesson of every unit in Senior English begins with dialogue. The teaching programs require the teachers to organize the class to practice English according to the characteristics of dialogue. In the English class, the teachers should not only use body languages themselves, but also ask the students to use them according to the different situation. Take it for example, the first lesson in Unit one, Book one is about the time when the new students first meet, and they don"t know each other. So a teacher can introduce himself first, such as: “Hello, everyone, nice to meet you here. Now I"ll introduce myself to you. My name is Arthur. I like playing basketball,it makes me much stronger; I like playing chess, it makes me more clever; and I like reading .” During the introduction, the teacher should use the new vocabularies and sentence structures together with a vivid expression and withing gestures as possibly as he can. He smiles when he says hello to the class; he shakes hands with some students saying “Nice to meet you”; he writes name down on the blackboard; he imitates the action of dribbling and shooting at the basketball, playing chess and turning pages to explain his hobby. After his introduction, the teacher can create a circumstance for the students to practice: “Mary and Jack are new classmates. They are walking together in the street, and they meet one of Jack"s old friend, Yangpei. Then Yangpei and Mary are introduced to each other by Jack. ” After the students" practice the dialogue is introduced naturally from it. Usually, the application
3. Body language helps to improve reading
In the senior school, we lay emphasis one the reading ability that serves the students" further study. Here we mainly mention the helpfulness for reading aloud. Reading aloud helps the students to get a correct pronunciation and intonation and to develop the combination of vocabularies" pronunciation, spelling and meaning. Furthermore it also helps the students to find out the article"s internal feelings and appreciate the beauty of the language. A linguist ever said: “A poem is not a poem until it is read.” Reading aloud is basic in the middle school, and the teachers should make full use of body language to develop the students" ability of reading aloud.
When reading the sentences, attention should be paid to where to speak softly, emphasize, and raise or lower our tone. The students in the middle school are not often accustomed to and always confuse them, however, with the help of body language, they can solve the problem much more easily. For example, they use gestures. As they read the choosing interrogative sentence, they raise their hands in rising tones and lower in falling tones. After training for some times, as soon as they read the sentences, they will remind themselves of the gestures. As a result, there will be no problems in rightly reading the sentences at all.
In a word, the vivid gesture together with the fluent English can create a good circumstance of learning, which will surely play an active part in improving the students" reading ability.
4. Body language helps to improve writing.
Writing is one of the four basic skills of learning language, and it is an important a skill.Not only should the students get some English knowledge and vocabularies, but also the ability to communicate in spoken and written English as what is mentioned in the teaching programs. Since the students learn English as a media for communication, they should have the ability of writing.
Teachers have to use different method to improve the students" ability of writing, among which, the application of body language can deepen the object impression, such is magnificent in developing the students" writing ability.
The linguist Franklin ever said, “Tell me, I"ll forget; teach me, I"ll remember; involve me and I"ll learn.” If we asked the students to write an unfamiliar composition, they would probably be unable to and feel discouraged. However, the students can write excellent articles if they have the experience. In and out of class, we should ask the students to participate some English-related activities, and then ask them to write it down. Take “The First Snow in Winter”for example, the students can write much better a composition. For contrast to their complete imagination, the students are deeply impressed by the body movement of the teachers and themselves, which surely leads to a better article.