If you want to make a verbal contribution, it's important that you reestablish eye contact with the speaker. In group conversations, you have to signal to all others that you want to speak. If you're being ignored, make a shift in your position. Your movement will steal the focus away from the speaker. When we pause to choose our words, we usually look away from our audience.
Some people look to the left, some to the right.
Experts tell us that those who look away to the right are more scientifically minded. Those who look to the left tend to be more religious or artistic. If we're gathering our thoughts to answer a question, the hemispheres of our brain determine which way we look. If we're asked a verbal question, we tend to look right to gather our thoughts. A spatial question will cause most of us to look to the left.