The curricular implementation of nonverbal communication in primary and secondary schools: Towards the students’ academic and experiential enrichment

Abstract

This is an outline of a threefold plan for the curricular implementation of the field of Nonverbal Communication, in a progressive adaptation of its various areas, in primary school and secondary school, in order to sensitize pupils to the daily reality of their nonverbal communication with others as well as their environment, which would enrich their personal development from an early age. A. In Primary School, 1, making them conscious of personal communication as being based on the tripartite reality of speech (words-the voice with which they are emitted-the elements that make them simultaneously visible) and the peculiarities of the modalities most basic for them: face-to-face, by phone, in writing. In Primary School, 2, the curricular model progresses in its presentation of the various nonverbal signs and their personal general behavior, besides introducing students to the observation of the nonverbal in literature and the arts. B. For Secondary Teaching, it presents the reality of their own acquisition of verbal and nonverbal skills (with universal, cultural, subcultural and even family characteristics), now dealing in more detail with: the different phenomena of paralanguage, kinesics (gestures, manners, postures, and the functions of facial features); the possible intercultural problems in its growingly multicultural school environment (for which both ‘communicational’ and ‘intercultural’ ‘fluency’ are needed today); the two dimensions of space (proxemics) and time (chronemics) in our daily life; silence and its functions; nonverbal communication in literature (emphasizing the various aspects of the ‘reading act’) and in three important areas: painting, photography and publicity. With its many examples and its references, the structure and presentation of this model offer solid ground for the preparation of teaching resources.