E-Matura | LiC | Multiple Choice | B2 | Eye contact

It is extremely important to make good eye contact with each student in the class whenever you are addressing the class as a whole, and to make eye contact with an individual you are addressing or who is speaking to you. “Eye contact” means that your eyes look at (0) themone’s eyesthe other person’sindividuals as they look at yours—your eyes “meet”.

The teacher has to make the effort to keep her eyes lively, (1) clearthoughtfullyawarebrightly,

and interested, moving around the room taking in everything, fixing on a (2) disturbingspecialloudspecific student long enough to make contact,

but not long enough to seem to be staring and thus make the student (3) uneasyfeeling uncomfortablea bad feelingunable, taking in the whole room again, fixing on another student, and so on.

It doesn’t take very long for the habit to become automatic. But don’t make the mistake (4) onofinat always fixing on your “best” (or your “worst”) students—share your attention.

If you look only at your textbook or the ceiling, or if your eyes are usually unfocused, the students will feel that they don’t have your attention, and they won’t give you theirs. (5) The knowledge thatAny possibility thatIf they feelWhenever they notice a teacher demands eye contact keeps students alert (the eyes are the “mirror of the soul” and,

some might say, of the brain!), and the act of making eye contact provides the teacher (6) offeringingivingwith

a form of immediate feedback on the (7) aimimpactforcemeaning of what she is saying.

This feedback aspect is (8) gettingbecomingrealespecially important in very large classes,

where the teacher is forced to be more “distant” from her students (9) as she mightthan she wouldas they couldthan they should wish.

In smaller classes, good eye contact between teacher and students, and between the students, plays a very important part (10) in developingfor startingat makingof building a feeling of group cohesiveness and of shared learning. In some cultures, eye contact is discouraged, especially between the sexes or between inferior and superior (which may be how the student/teacher relationship is viewed), but I believe we should do everything we can to banish this attitude from the English classroom, while accepting it in native language situations.