Body language in greeting.pdf

Greetings with a Difference Ann Burke and Julie OSullivan, Indiana University, United States Level: Intermediate to advanced Time: 40 minutes [depending on the size of the class] Resources: Slips of paper containing a dialogue Goal: To examine different ways of greeting people Description of the Activity In this exercise, students explore how to greet and take leave in various contexts. Students are on their feet and actively participating in the exercise. In pairs, they prepare a dialogue- everyone has the same one- to be acted out to the whole class. Students have to give a context to the dialogue by deciding who the characters are and how they feel about each other. After each presentation, students try and guess the context for each dialogue. If time allows, a wider discussion can then follow to examine how voice, speed of interaction, facial expressions and body stance indicate how speakers feel about each other. Procedure 1. Begin the class by asking students how they can show feelings of discomfort, embarrassment, anger, jealousy and dislike by using their voices and their body language. For example, you could tell them that using a loud, deep voice can show someones anger, and looking down at the ground during a conversation can indicate nervousness, fear or embarrassment. 2. Students practice showing different emotions, like those discussed in number one, using the voice and body by walking around the room and saying, Hello to each other. 3. Divide students into pairs. 4. Give the students slips of paper containing the following dialogue: A: Hello B: Hello A: How are you? B: Fine A: Do you want to go for a coffee? B: I dont have time. A: Oh, bye then. B: Bye 5. Tell the students they should decide, in their pairs, who the two people in the dialogue are, where they are and how they feel about each other. For example, they could be a boyfriend (A) and girlfriend (B), but B is thinking about splitting up with A and