Most of us, I think, ask our students to show respect and give their attention to classmates when they are speaking. I generally ask students to make a point at looking at the speaker, even if it requires turning around. I tend to have a little better luck with student “compliance” on that one with my Intermediate English class than with my mainstream ones.

I’ve now just read a study that reports that:

…participants talking to smiling listeners used more interpretive, abstract language, whereas participants talking to frowning listeners stayed with the concrete and descriptive facts.

It’s not a huge surprise, but I think I’ll share what it says with my Intermediate English class. Perhaps it will make them more inclined to be conscious of what they’re doing  when their classmates are speaking.