Indubitably, nonverbal communication is viewed as the type of communication

that is produced by some means other than words such as eye contact, body language,

vocal cues, territorial or personal distance, appearance, touch, among others. (Knapp &

Hall, 2002). More emphatically, as Bambaeeroo & Shokrpour (2017) describe, it is what

is called as “sign” or “silent” language.

Indeed, nonverbal communication is seen to be a critical aspect of

interpersonal communication (Haneef, Faizal, Alvi, & Zufigar, 2014). In fact, for

teachers, as Petrus (2017) says, these are the most credible messages they generate,

as communication sources. However, care must be taken into consideration when using

nonverbal communication as they may create distance among participants in

communication situations especially when misinterpreted and misunderstood. Just as

Raudsepp (1993) explains, problems occur when the verbal messages do not match the

non-verbal messages that the bodies are sending out.

Similarly, in a classroom interaction, Simplicio (2002) points out that many times

in the class, students just hear what their teacher is saying but do not really understand

what the teacher wants to convey. This is in fact one of the learning pitfalls caused by

miscommunication in which the need for the skill in using and interpreting nonverbal

cues would be of great help.

In the context of teaching and learning, it is a mere fact that nonverbal

communication involves the possibility of misunderstanding (Elfatihi, 2006). Such is the

case of a teacher whose nonverbal cues are misinterpreted and much more likely to be

misunderstood. It is sad to note that such misinterpretation and misunderstanding may

even develop further into fear, the reason why young people dislike some college or

school subjects and even fail in their exams.

Such fear according to Scott-Phillips and Kirby (2013) may cause students to

experience adverse responses physiologically: just like shortness of breath and

palpitation; cognitively: such as inability to focus or concentrate, obsessive thinking,

replaying in their minds problematic incidents that occurred in previous classes; and

emotionally: such as being easily agitated, overcome by excessive nervousness,

frustration, and other negative feelings. At a later time, such levels