One body language stance that surprised me recently was one of "space". My students would put at least one chair, sometimes two, between them and the next student. While this was not unusual to see in one-off situations, it was happening overall in the student body. None of them were approachable and none of them wanted to interact with me, or each other. Now, you ask, what did I do? Well, I started by meeting individually with each student; then I incorporated team building exercises into my lectures; and split the students into groups to work on in-class assignments. Outside of classes, I asked them to reach out to me when ever needed. Slowly the students started moving toward each other. Now, they all sit side by side in the classroom. This, to me, is a bold body language that told me these students were influenced by their environment to stand "alone", trust no one, depend on no one.