Eye Contact
Deliberate management of the teacher's gaze to nominate respondents, monitor engagement, signal acknowledgement, and hold attention. A trained skill rather than a natural reflex; novice teachers tend to look mostly at the front rows or the strongest learners, leaving large portions of the room unscanned for whole stretches of a lesson.
Functions
Nomination: a sustained look at one learner can nominate them to answer without naming, useful when a name escapes or when calling on a quieter learner who would freeze if singled out verbally.
Monitoring engagement: a slow sweep across the room during input or instructions shows where attention has drifted before it becomes a behaviour issue. Learners aware they may be looked at any moment self-regulate; learners who never feel scanned drift sooner.
Acknowledgement: a brief look and a nod after a contribution registers the answer was heard. The absence of this acknowledgement (eyes on notes, on the board, on the next slide) flattens learner willingness to volunteer.
Holding the room: during whole-class explanation, the teacher's gaze functions like a slow searchlight. Lemov's "Be Seen Looking" makes the scan visible and obvious so learners know they are being observed.
Sweep vs sustained
A sweep moves across the room without resting, signalling general attention. A sustained gaze rests on one face long enough to draw a response. Both have uses. Over-sustained gaze on a struggling learner tips into pressure; insufficient gaze on a strong learner lets them coast.
Cultural variation
Eye contact norms vary across cultures, and sustained direct gaze from a teacher to a learner can read as confrontational or disrespectful in some contexts, particularly between adult teachers and young learners, or across gender lines in some communities. The adjustment is to use shorter, less intense gaze and rely more on naming or proximity for nomination, while still scanning the room generally for monitoring.
References
- Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching (5th ed.). Pearson Longman.
- Lemov, D. (2015). Teach Like a Champion 2.0: 62 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. Jossey-Bass.
- Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning Teaching: The Essential Guide to English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Macmillan ELT.