BODY LANGUAGE

Step 1 – Introduction (5 minutes)

• Welcome the participants
• Introduce yourself and the Ideas Box project (give your name, say that you work for the Ideas Box, explain that the Ideas Box is a center that implements activities for the community to improve their access to knowledge and information).
• Ask them to introduce themselves (name and how they feel today)
• Introduce the activity: Today we are going to do an activity about body language. Body language is the way our body moves and acts when we are talking with somebody else. Understanding body language can help us to better communicate with others.

Ice-breaking game (10 minutes)

• Ask the participants to form a circle. The facilitator is playing the game too, so you are also in the circle.
• One by one, each participant is going to say his/her name and, at the same time, do a movement. The movement can be anything, like a clap with the hands or a jump or a little dance.
• The next participant in the circle has to reproduce the movement and to say the name of the participant just before him/her before introducing him/herself
• The game ends when everybody has introduced him/herself.

Main activity (70 minutes

Part 1 – Understanding what is body language (30 minutes)

• In this activity, we will talk about the way we use our bodies to communicate, whether we realize it or not. Let’s discuss together, for example, how can we show someone that we are listening to what s/he is saying without having to say “I am listening to you”? And how can we show someone that we are not listening?

Give some time to the participants to think about it and to express their answers.

• Ask for two volunteers. They come in front of the group and they will do a small drama play. One is speaking (it can be about anything if the participant has no idea the facilitator can advise him/her to describe his/her day) and the other has to listen very carefully and act in a way that shows that he is paying a lot of attention. Then the volunteers switch roles, one is speaking when the other is acting like he/she doesn’t care about what is said. During the role-play, ask the other participants to look carefully at the role play.
• Ask the participants: What did you notice about the body language of the person that was not listening? And about the one that was listening carefully? Can you give concrete examples of things you noticed?
• Give examples of body language if the participants haven’t say it yet: Body language when somebody is paying attention: smiling, eye contact, nodding, the position of the body in front of the person, physical proximity to the person. Body language when somebody is not paying attention: No eye contact, showing no emotion, directing the body in another direction, rolling the eyes, people are not close to each other.
• Discuss with all the participants: Did you notice before that body language is important? How can this information help you in your communication with others? Do you think you always recognize when somebody is listening or not?

Part 2 – Read body language (40 minutes)

• Explain to the participants: Knowing about active listening skills can also help us to know whether it is a good time to talk to other people, or when they are busy or distracted.
• Ask the participants to form pairs. Explain that they are going to play roles. One person of the group will have something to say to the other when the other will be in a particular state of mind that the body language will reveal. The person who wants to deliver a message has to decide if it is a good time or not. Before starting, talk to the two persons who will play separately. Give each person the information related only to his/her characters. Here are some scenarios, you can change the name of the character to match the gender of the target group:
  • Dana wants to ask her father’s permission to go to her friend’s house on the weekend, but her father looks annoyed. Is now the best time for Dana to ask?

Answer: No – maybe later

• Aida wants to ask her sister for help with her chores. When she approaches her sister, her sister looks happy and is smiling. Is now a good time for Aida to ask?

Answer: Yes

• Farah wants to borrow some money from her mother for stationary. When she approaches her mother, she can see her mother is busy doing something else and not listening to Farah. Is now a good time for Farah to ask?

Answer: No – maybe later

• Gina wants to ask her aunt to take her to the market because she wants to buy something. When Gina goes to her aunt’s place, her aunt has a very big smile and tells Gina she is very happy to see her. Is now a good time for Gina to ask?

Answer: Yes

• Betty stays at home to look after her younger siblings, but she wants to talk to her father about a training course she wants to take. It is after dinner and they are all talking together and relaxing. Is now a good time for Betty to ask?

Answer: Yes

• Soha’s parents found someone for her to marry, but Soha doesn’t want to get married. She wants to talk to her mum about it to convince her to change her mind, but her mum is rushing because she is late for something important.

Answer: No-maybe later

• Conclude with the participants: Sometimes, even when people are in a good mood, their opinion on a subject won’t change. But to have the best chances of changing their mind, it is better to pay attention to their body language to choose the best time to ask. When people are distracted by other things, we can see it with their body language. We can always try to ask again later or ask that person if it is a good time for them to talk. This might help us to be more successful in our request. But there might be times when it is urgent to talk to someone and we don’t have the time to wait until they seem happy. What situations could these be? How can we approach them?

Conclusion (5 minutes)

• Conclude the activity by a summary of what we learnt today: We learnt that the body language is an important clue to understand the mood of other people and to know if they are listening to us or not. We also learnt how to decide if it is a good time to talk about something with somebody, according to his/her body language.
• Invite the participants to visit the Ideas Box centre during free time to use the content or to join a course in the future