Herald NAMSCA 3, 2018 Zawawi Ismail, Nordin Halias, Rahimi Md Saad, Mohd Faisal Mohamed 531 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHERS' NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICE, STUDENTS' ATTITUDE AND MOTIVATION Zawawi Ismail, zawawiismail@um.edu.my Nordin Halias, dintrolak71@gmail.com Rahimi Md Saad, rahimisaad@um.edu.my Mohd Faisal Mohamed, sal2005@um.edu.my University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA Abstract. This study was conducted in order to identify Arabic teachers’ Non Verbal Communication Practice (NVCP) and its relationship with the development of students’ attitude and motivation. This quantitative study was conducted through a survey using a questionnaire as the instrument. A total of 750 Form Four and Form Five students in National Religious Secondary Schools (NRSS) and Government-Aided Religious Schools (GARS) from all over Malaysia participated as the respondents. The sample selection was made using random stratified sampling method according to zones. The data analysis used was Pearson correlation and was conducted using SPSS software. Study showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between all the tested variables. Correlation between NVC and Attitude is positive (r=.42, p = < .05) at the significant level of 0.01. Correlation between NVC and students’ motivation also indicated a positive significant relationship (r =.40, p = < .05) at the 0.01 significance level. This study showed that if teachers’ NVC practice is high and frequent, then students’ attitude and motivation will also improve. Findings of this study will help education administrators, especially Arabic teachers, to improve their NVC efficiency level. Keywords: Nonverbal communication, attitude, motivation, Arabic language, teaching language. Introduction. Studies on teaching communication have been carried out for centuries (Kendon, 1981). Very few studies, however, have been made on nonverbal communication practice (NVCP) in teaching and learning (Othman, 2007; Ahmad, CheAman, &Amzah, 2009). Human communication occurs in two main forms which is verbal communication and nonverbal communication (Floyd, 2009; Heun&Heun, 1975; Richmond &McCroskey, 2000). Verbal communication refers to the language that is spoken (Omar, 1988;Daud, 1996; Mohamad Nor, 2001) whereas nonverbal communication (NVC) which is used as the main variable does not make use of any utterances and also provides all the sources that convey message other than what is expressed (Hassan, 1980; Heun&Heun, 1975; Floyd, 2009; Goodhal, Goodhal, &Schiefelbein, 2010; Kendon, 1981; Sperder& Wilson, 1999). Thus, for Knapp and Hall (2009), nonverbal communication includes communication effected by means other than words. Mohamad Nor (2001) stated that NVC is a form of basic and primitive human communication that could provide abundant communication messages. NVC is noteworthy in effective communication because of the domination of the message. Researchers claimed that 80 percent of overall human communication can be grasped from NVC’s body language, 14 percent through NVC’s tone of voice, and only 6 percent through spoken expression (Nelson, 1997). Research also found that in one face to face communication, listeners will focus 55 percent of their conversation period to the speaker’s body language signals, 38 percent to the change in tone of voice and only 7 percent to the verbal content (Kaul, 2007). In addition, according to Floyd (2009), in a communication, as many as 65-70 percent of its message is derived from nonverbal cues, while 30-35 percent is obtained verbally. In the context of teaching, teachers’ NVC is able to enhance cognitive and affective learning outcomes (Witt &Wheeless, 2001). NVC channels are numerous and are not tied to any special agreement on any classification of NVC channels (Ahmad, 2003; Abdullah, 1999). Nonetheless, ten NVC channels are frequently discussed and linked to teaching and learning, namely, (i) physical appearance, (ii) body movement, (iii) environment, (iv) facial expression, (v) eye contact, (vi) voice variation, (vii) personal distance space, (viii) the use of time, (ix) touch and (x) scent (Richmond &McCroskey, 2000). Nonverbal Communication in Teachers’ Teaching. The effectiveness of communication is one of the key aspects that needs to be controlled by a quality teacher. Effective communication involves verbal and nonverbal communication (Syed Mustafa &Maskon, 2010). Richmond and McCroskey (2000) and Devito (2007) explained that a teacher must be aware, master and possess these two forms of communications in order to create effective teaching and to achieve optimal learning results. This is because in the communication of teaching, NVC affects the teacher’s oral communication effectiveness. Ten NVC channels are most often