The role of chunks, phrases and body language in understanding co-ordinated academic lectures

Abstract

A crucial component of academic lectures is the use of chunks, phrases and body language, and their role in facilitating understanding. This paper seeks to examine the functions and contexts of this component in the discourse of academic lectures. As we all know, giving a lecture may not always entail the good understanding of learners. The following study gives teachers or lecturers a reflection on the conditions under which some university teachers use chunks, phrases and body language to ensure better understanding. This topic has been relatively neglected, though any lecture should be judged by what the learners understand of it. The ideas to be discussed emerged from the original data collected from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan, where two academic lectures given by two different teachers on the same topic were tape-recorded, analysed and interpreted. The study showed that teachers use various ways and means to have their messages understood properly. But, these ways and means can be different in terms of quality and quantity.