Analysis of Teachers' Non-Vocal Paralinguistic Cues in English Language Classrooms

Abstract

Non-vocal paralinguistic cues constitute essential multimodal resources through which teachers facilitate classroom communication and support English language instruction. This study examined (1) the non-vocal paralinguistic cues employed by English language teachers in classroom instruction and (2) the pedagogical insights that can be drawn from these cues to enhance English language teaching. Anchored in Kinesics Theory, Multimodal Theory, and Mehrabian's Theory of Communication, the study employed a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis of five video-recorded English language classes. The analysis identified twelve domains of non-vocal paralinguistic cues, revealing that hand gestures (17.17%), facial expressions (13.98%), and posture (11.33%) were the most frequently employed communicative resources, whereas physical contact (3.01%) occurred least frequently. The findings further revealed that teachers employed a wide range of embodied communicative behaviors to facilitate discourse organization, clarify instructional content, regulate classroom interaction, and foster teacher–student engagement. Self-adaptors were likewise observed to function primarily as self-regulatory behaviors rather than intentional meaning-making resources. These findings underscore the pedagogical significance of non-vocal communication in English language teaching and highlight the need to strengthen teachers' awareness and strategic use of multimodal resources to promote instructional clarity, learner engagement, and inclusive classroom communication.