Universal Journal of Educational Research 8(11): 5576-5580, 2020 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.081161 Social Signalling as a Non Verbal Behaviour of Teachers in ESL Classroom Interaction Hema Vanita Kesevan 1,* , Noor Alhusna Madzlan 1 , Haslinda Hashim 2 1 Faculty of Languages and Communication, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Arts, Computing and Creative Industry, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia Received June 11, 2020; Revised August 3, 2020; Accepted August 25, 2020 Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles (a): [1] Hema Vanita Kesevan, Noor Alhusna Madzlan, Haslinda Hashim , "Social Signalling as a Non Verbal Behaviour of Teachers in ESL Classroom Interaction," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 8, No. 11, pp. 5576 - 5580, 2020. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.081161. (b): Hema Vanita Kesevan, Noor Alhusna Madzlan, Haslinda Hashim (2020). Social Signalling as a Non Verbal Behaviour of Teachers in ESL Classroom Interaction. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(11), 5576 - 5580. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.081161. Copyright©2020 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Non-verbal cues and behaviours are essential aspects of classroom talk, however many studies that were conducted in the field of classroom talk only focused on verbal interaction of teachers' talk and overlooked the importance of non-verbal signalling. The aim of this study is to examine the social signal aspect of teachers' speech in classroom interaction. It particularly investigates the use of non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, bodily gestures and eye contact conveyed by teachers during their classroom lesson, to understand their emotional state and intention. Social signals are chosen as a variable to explore the teachers' classroom interaction as it plays a fundamental role in shaping how messages are delivered to the students in classroom context. Particularly, this study focuses to understand how social signalling shapes the success of teachers' classroom intentions. It is specifically concerned with exploring teachers' non-verbal behaviour and its effectiveness in classroom interaction. This study is beneficial to teachers in understanding their non-verbal cues better to accomplish effective classroom talk. Keywords Social Signalling, ESL, Interaction 1. Introduction Language interaction is not limited only to verbal communication. Non-verbal features such as facial expression, eye contact and bodily gestures are crucial aspects of human spoken interaction. Generally, we can still interpret and make sense the prototypical of behaviours that humans display even though we can't understand the language being spoken (Pentland, 2004). The paralinguistic elements of speech, which are often described as 'non-verbal' behaviour, are a powerful measurement of interaction. A subset of these 'non-verbal' features, the social signalling is frequently underestimated in investigating classroom talk. In a classroom interaction, the quality and success of teachers' talk are determined by both verbal and non-verbal parameters. The meaning conveyed by a teacher does not end with syntactic and semantic content, as often 'what' is said carries as much importance as on 'how' it is actually said. In a classroom context, social signals are the expression of classroom members towards classroom situation and interplay. Social signals are manifested through various non-verbal parameters such as facial expressions, gestures and body postures, and vocal prosody (Pentland, 2004). In a classroom setting, the social signal that a teacher displays both consciously and unconsciously carries meaningful information, for instance expressions inform whether the teacher is confident or doubtful, eye contact notifies tensed or relax state, bodily posture and gestures express the kind of relationship the teacher shares with students. Previous studies focusing on classroom interaction suggest social signalling in the form of non-verbal cues displayed by teachers in classroom as an intentional strategy that