The Impact of Eye-contact between Teacher and Student on L2 Learning

Abstract

Effective communication skills, especially in multilingual classrooms, are really important to teachers in classroom management and interaction with the class. It is well known that speech is only one part of communication, yet teachers often forget or underestimate the importance of non-verbal communication in their own and their students' performance. Teachers can use numerous strategies to manage their classroom and offer students the opportunity to build their knowledge and also to prevent misbehavior in classroom. Students are more likely to be emotionally and intellectually invested in the classes in which they have positive relationships with their teachers. Therefore, teachers who build positive relationships by eye contact with their students may enjoy the following benefits. One aspect of non-verbal communication is the use of eyes to convey messages. The eyes are powerful for both the teacher and the learner in language learning. This study examines teachers’ perceptions of their communicative strengths and weaknesses in using eye-contact, as one aspect of non-verbal communication, and the impact of that on language learning. The result obtained in this study may have pedagogical implications for developing language learning that fit into the language educational curriculum adequately.