Non-verbal Cues and Tonal Contour as Meaning Making Mediums in EFL Pre-service Teachers’ Mock Teaching Talk

Mock teaching of pre-service teachers in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programs is critical to improve teaching skills. This paper investigates the meaning-making mediums employed during these sessions, focusing on how they contribute to pre-service language teachers’ talk in the pedagogical process. The investigation employs a micro-discourse analysis of three EFL pre-service teachers’ mock teaching sessions. By examining how these meaning making multimodal elements operate within the instructional discourse, the result shows effectiveness of interplay between non-verbal cues and tonal contour as follows. The interplay of various non-verbal cues and tonal contour were observed mostly in explaining new concepts, students’ engagement, providing feedback, overcoming pre-service teachers’ limited English proficiency in teaching. The overall finding, therefore, indicates that the effective use of gestures, facial expressions, and tonal contour is integral to successful teaching practice and suggests recommendations for integrating these conversational cues training within EFL teacher education programs.