An Overview on EFL Prospective Teacher's Instructional Communication Skills

Abstract

Instructional communication is a unique area of study. It is rooted in research conducted among educational psychology, pedagogy, and communication studies. It is the process by which teachers and students stimulate meanings in the minds of each other using verbal and nonverbal messages that result in positive educational outcomes. EFL prospective teachers have to realize that their communicative competence is completely related to their instructional communication skills essential for the effectiveness and success in teaching and learning processes, establishing good relationships with their students and effective and interactive learning environment in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to review recent research on instructional communication and discuss the implications of this research for EFL instruction. The discussion tries to find answers for the following theoretical questions: What is instructional/ classroom communication? What is the instructional communication model? What are the instructional communication skills required for EFL prospective teachers? And what is the importance of implementing instructional communication skills in EFL classrooms? Therefore, the present descriptive study recommends some instructional communication skills which can be adopted by EFL prospective, in-service teachers and even teachers of other subject matters for improving their instructional communication in the classrooms. Keywords: Instructional/ Classroom Communication, Instructional Communication Skills, and EFL Prospective Teachers/Student-Teachers.