Oral Communication

The Use of Non-Verbal Communication in Presenting

          According to a study done by the International Journal of Scholarly Academic Intellectual Diversity, people send just as many if not more messages with non-verbal communication than they do verbally, to the point where entire fields of study are dedicated to studying its influence.  These non-verbal messages can be sent through your posture, tone, eye contact, even the way you dress, and can significantly affect the way your audience views you, and the credibility and effectiveness of your presentation, regardless of the content itself.  It is crucial that when teaching oral communication, we ensure that students not only have the tools to speak effectively with their words, but they understand that its not just your voice and words being evaluated while speaking, but every aspect of your body.  By doing this, we can ensure that students are being raised into effective presenters and persuaders.  Convincing people of your view/opinion is a crucial skill used in business, education, science, essay writing, almost every aspect of real life, and it is important for student's to recognize, develop, and apply this skill to everyday situations.


Belludi, Nagesh. (2008). Albert Mehrabian's 7-38-55 Rule of Personal Communication. [Online Image]. Retrieved from http://www.rightattitudes.com/2008/10/04/7-38-55-rule-personal-communication/



Body Language

          As you can see from the image above, the actual words that are being said are rarely what forms an audience's impressions of the speaker, instead body language is often looked at as the primary way of discerning a speaker's credibility.  With the internet enhancing our access to information, it has become increasingly easy to show students summations of such a complex theory, and live examples of presenters and ask them to comment about their impressions of the speaker.  

           Below I have embedded a video that provides and showcases a brief overview of ways in which body language can be used to enhance or detract from the meaning of your words.


Amanda Guzman. (Apr 10, 2016). Non Verbal Communication. [Online Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKhsavlvuao



          After showing students the video to introduce them to the concept, the lesson plan here, provides a basic framework of how one could further use media to show examples of body language in action.  This plan uses a clip from the popular show "Seinfeld" and a character who is a "close talker", this could be used to allow students the opportunity to apply the convention they just learned about to a "real" scenario.  This serves as a great example of how despite the character's words coming from a place of good intentions (offering a backstage tour etc.), his body language dissuaded some of the characters from wanting to interact with him further.  The lesson can be further expanded by giving students a chance to develop ideas for how the character could approach the situation differently and leave a positive impression on the others. 
Tone and Voice

           Another key component to non-verbal communication is the inflection, tone and other nuances that surround HOW a presenter can say similar words.  A popular example where this comes to mind is the interview process in the workforce.  Candidates can answer questions in identical ways and have the same qualifications, but the inflections present in their voice can communicate a lack of interest or boredom if candidates are unaware of the effect of their voice on others.  This particularly brings back my memories of public speaking in elementary school, I was always able to do well on the writing of my speeches, but was never able to connect why I still got okay but not great marks on my presentations.  It ended up being a supply teacher, who retrospectively, was not the most effective at delivering content in an engaging way, who made it click for me.  It was the way in which my regular teacher taught that made her engaging, not the lesson itself, and sure enough upon applying this theory to my enthusiasm and voice in my next presentation I found my marks drastically improving.

           Although the lesson plan I have linked here has a dramatic arts focus, it can easily be modified to fit more closely with literacy and oral communication.  Students are asked to read identical statements with different inflections and tones in their voices in order to demonstrate how the meaning of the statement can change.  This can be applied to a number of situations relevant to student interest to keep them engaged.  Teachers can provide a great "minds on" segment to this by purposefully teaching for the first few minutes of class in a monotone, uninterested, or bored voice.  Students can imagine how they would feel if a supply teacher walked in with this attitude compared to one that taught the same content but in a more engaging way.  In my placement I have a unique opportunity where myself and my associate can each take on the role of one of these teachers at the same time to teach the same lesson, giving way for discussion into why despite being the same lesson they felt more engaged when the more dynamic of the two of us spoke.
Ontario Curriculum

           As always, these plans must come back to the Ontario literacy curriculum and the connections to this document are endless.  Worth highlighting however are the following from the oral communication section.  Overall (taken from grade 7), "use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes" and specifically (taken from grade 7) "demonstrate an understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour in most situations, adapting contributions and responses to suit the purpose and audience" (OC 2.2), "identify a range of vocal effects, including tone, pace, pitch, volume, and a variety of sound effects, and use them appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences to communicate their meaning" (OC 2.5), and "identify a variety of non-verbal cues, including facial expression, gestures, and eye contact, and then use them in oral communications, appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences, to help convey their meaning" (OC 2.6).








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