Talking without words (5 mins)
GoalsFor learners to experience the effectiveness of non-verbal communication.
Guidelines
Ask the class to walk around and greet one another without using words or sounds.
Then everyone should find a partner and show him/her what kind of a week they have had, still without speaking.
The everyone should find a different partner and share with one another what they are looking forward to this weekend.
Tip: If you have time spend a few minutes debriefing this activity, ask the learners whether they managed to communicate with each other. Also ask how this kind of communication was, compared to spoken communication.
Sometimes non-verbal communication is more effective because we are really paying attention to what the person is doing in an attempt to understand them, rather than listening with half an ear, as we sometimes do when people are speaking to us.