Investigating the Use of Nonverbal Cues in Oral Production

Abstract

Speaking is a very important skill and the most difficult one among the four language skills. It has a considerable impact on learning process and classroom interaction. EFL learners try to do their best to develop and reinforce their abilities in speaking. Thus, they try to enhance their speaking by using high proportion of nonverbal cues and behaviors which can have a huge importance on their speaking performance and transmitting various ideas. Successful communication requires the mastery of speaking skill and good usage of non linguistic aspects.The present research intends to shed light on the importance of using nonverbal cues in oral production; taking into consideration their different advantages in reinforcing speaking and even expressing some implicit messages. Hence, we hypothesize that making students skilful in using nonverbal cues aids them in developing their speaking performance. In order to confirm the hypothesis, we have conducted this research via the quantitative descriptive method choosing questionnaires to be the data gathering tool. The obtained findings from the chosen sample that is Master One Students of Language and Culture at the department of letters and English language, 08 Mai 1945 University-Guelma, have confirmed that if learners are skilful in using nonverbal cues, their speaking performance would increase. Consequently, teachers must take into account the inseparable relation between verbal and nonverbal communication and select effective classroom speaking activities that enhance learners’ speaking performance and improve their oral production.