NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION Communication studies traditionally have emphasized verbal and written language, but in the late dozens of years have begun to consider communication that takes place without words In some types of communication people express more nonverbally than verbally It has been said that communication is only 20 percent verbal while the rest is intonation, body language The fact remains that mastering vocabulary and grammar is only the beginning of effective communication (John Mole, 2003) Speaking is just one mode of communication Research suggests that nonverbal communication is more important in understanding human behavior than words and the nonverbal “channels” seem to be more powerful than what people say Moreover, nonverbal communication varies from country to country, from culture to culture Cross-cultural Communication requires not only knowledge of another language but also familiarity with nonverbal behavior and cultural practices, values, and customs Extending beyond an understanding of the words, it is the ability to understand hidden meanings, motivations and intentions Nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages i.e., language is not the only source of communication, there are other means also Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch (Haptic communication), by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact Meaning can also be communicated through object or artifacts (such as clothing, hairstyles or architecture), symbols, and icons (or graphics) Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress Dance is also regarded as a form of nonverbal communication Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page Body language is the main part of this kind of communication It concludes gestures, body movements, facial expressions, and eye contact Researchers found wide variations even with such universal rituals as nodding agreement and greeting friends Although most cultures indicate “yes” by a nod of the head and “no” by shaking it, there are variations; In Ceylon, Greek, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, for example, a yes answer to a specific question is indicated by a nod of the head, whereas general agreement is indicated by a slow sideways swaying of the head For greetings, in the United States a handshake is appropriate In France, where the traditional U.S handshake is considered too rough and rude, a quick handshake with only slight pressure is preferred In Latin America, a hearty embrace is common among men and women alike, and men may follow it with a friendly slap on the back In Ecuador, to greet a person without a handshake is a sign of special respect In India, the handshake may be used by Westernized citizens, but the preferred greeting is the amaste-placing the palms together and nodding one’s head In Japan, the traditional form of greeting is a bow or several bows Likewise, waving good-bye varies among cultures In Italy, Colombia, and China, people may wave good-bye by moving the palm and fingers back and forth, a gesture that more likely means “come here” in the United States But in Malaysia, beckoning someone by moving the forefingers back and forth would be taken as an insult Even seemingly obvious gestures can be misunderstood Using fingers to indicate numbers can vary In the United States, most people would indicate “1” by holding up the forefinger In parts of Europe, “1” is indicated by using the thumb, “2” by the thumb and forefinger The Japanese point their forefingers to their faces to indicate they are referring to themselves, Chinese point to their nose to signify “me”, whereas in the United States, citizens are more likely to point to their chests In France and Belgium, the thumb-and-forefinger-in-a-circle (the okay gesture) has an insulting meaning: “You are worth zero”, while in North America or some other parts of the world, it is a friendly gesture Eye contact is also very meaningful, but it, too, can mean different things in different countries One study showed that Arabs, Latin Americans, and Southern Europeans focused their gaze on the eyes or face of their conversational partner, whereas Asians, Indians and Pakistanis, and Northern Europeans tend to show peripheral gaze or no gaze at all ( Harper, Wiens & Matatazzo, 1978 ) Duration of eye contact varies in diverse cultures (Shuter, 1979) In the United States, the average length of eye contact is 95 seconds, and the average length of time two people gaze at each other is 1.18 seconds (Argyle, 1998; Argyle & Ingham, 1972) Any less than that may be thought that the person is shy, uninterested or preoccupied Any more than that may indicate that the person is communicating unusually high interest American parents and teachers tell children, “Look at me when I’m talking to you!” They feel sure that the other person is listening if they can see his or her eyes They think that it is important to make eye contact during a conversation To them, it’s a sign of openness and honesty It shows respect They think that a person who doesn’t look at the eyes of the listener may be hiding the truth However, in some other cultures, children are taught not to look directly at someone For example, in some Spanish-speaking countries, children show respect to an older person by not looking directly into the person’s eyes during a conversation In different cultures, people also show their different attitudes to body space and body touch in communication They may keep a distance between themselves and the person they are speaking to It is called a “social distance In the U.S., people generally stand “at arm’s length” (about 30 inches) away from a person they are talking to Only family members, small children, and sweethearts come closer On the other hand, people from Japan, China, and some northern European countries stand farther away (36 inches) To those people, Americans seem to “get too close” And to Americans, those other people seem “cold” and distant For two unacquainted North American adult males, for example the comfortable distance to stand for conversation is about two feet apart The South American likes to stand much closer, which creates problems when a South American and a North American meet face to face The South American who moves in to what is to him a proper talking distance may be considered “pushy” by the North American; and the North American may seem standoffish to the South American when he backs off to create a gap of the size that seems right to him Once a conversation was watched between a Latin and a North American that began at one end of a forty-foot hall and eventually wound up at the other end, the pair progressing by an almost continual series of small backward steps on the part of the North American and an equal closing of the gap by the Latin American Let us take a look at Chinese people; they many more touches than Americans It is quite usual for the Chinese to walk hand in hand between the same sexes But in America, friends with the same sex never keep such a close distance Such kind of behavior is considered homosexual in the west and is strongly disgusted Many Chinese like to fondle the babies and very small children to show their friendliness or affection However, such actions like touching, patting, hugging or kissing, can be quite embarrassing and awkward for the western mothers, these behaviors would be considered rude and offensive in their eyes and could arouse a strong dislike Various cultures have their own customs of different distance that make their people feel comfortable in personal conversation situations Participants should understand these to fewer the unnecessary misunderstanding in communication The way human beings space themselves may be determined not only by their culture and the particular relationships involved, but by other factors as well Studies have shown that when two people expect to compete, they will usually sit opposite one another; expecting to cooperate, they sit side by side; while for ordinary conversation, they sit at right angles When negotiators from two corporations hold a meeting, the teams may automatically line up facing one another across the conference table However, if the meeting is adjourned for lunch, the men are likely to sit in alternating chairs at the restaurant tables, each negotiator sandwiched between two men from the other corporation At a crowded cocktail party, people necessarily stand closer together to talk, and experiments indicate that they also stand closer in a public place, such as a park or on the street Psychological studies have shown that people choose to stand closer to someone they like than to someone they don’t; that friends stand closer than acquaintances do, and acquaintances closer together than strangers The evidence also indicates that, in intimate situations, introverts maintain slightly greater distances than extroverts, and that pairs of women stand closer to talk than pairs of men People from different cultures have very different feelings about hugging and touching Some Americans may touch the arm of the person they are talking to while they are speaking A man may gently slap another man on the back when greeting him Many Americans hug their family members and good friends when they greet them or say good-bye However, some Americans not enjoy being hugged in public There is a great variety of feelings about hugging strangers Some people will warmly hug a new person they are introduced to Others may take a long time before they give a friend a hug when they say hello or good-bye People from south if America or southern Europe frequently touch the person they are speaking to They touch on the arm, hand, or shoulder People from Japan seldom touch at all when speaking to others A hug, a touch, or standing close may mean nothing special to one person It can mean romance to a second person And it can be offensive to a third person Americans say that hugs are good and four hugs a day is a requirement for good health Six is better, and eight is best However, a hug from someone you don’t wish to hug is not welcome Another conspicuous different of nonverbal communication among cultures is paralanguage The vocal cues that accompany spoken language are termed paralanguage Among the ingredients of paralanguage are pitch, speed, volume, pause and silence People use the basic elements to transfer the emotional and intellectual meanings of their messages Pitch is highness or lowness of the voice, and it can serve as an emotional marker The Chinese counterpart “好” or “对” can be uttered in many ways to show different emotions, attitudes and meanings The way these little words are said is very important Speed or tempo can also carry strong emotions And there is also difference between Chinese speech and American speech Chinese TV and radio speakers are far slower than their American counterparts The underlying causes of this marked difference may be explained in two ways One is that speech tempo tends to increase with the development of industry Industrialized countries have a faster speech tempo than non-industrialized countries The other is that the English language has much more polysyllabic words and carries less information per syllable than the Chinese language does That is to say, the same amount of information can be contained in fewer Chinese syllables Therefore, Chinese speech can afford to be slower than American speech Volume is another important component of paralanguage The ways of manipulating volume of speech vary across cultures Americans and Chinese use different speech volumes in adjusting their volume levels according to the size of the audience and the physical environment While making an address in public, Americans may laugh heartily, they will often laugh loudly on a joyful and relaxed celebration However while giving a lecture, conversing or telephoning, their volume of sound is much lower than Chinese’s As a result, when talking with a Chinese or hearing a Chinese telephoning, Americans are not accustomed to the volume of sound of a Chinese They are surprised to see that Chinese talk loudly in places, ships, buses and other public places But it seems that many Chinese people lack this ability A Chinese in America often has some difficulties in adapting to the extra low voice that Americans are accustomed to He may not get used to the low voice in classroom discussions, telephone conversations and office interviews On the other hand, an American who first comes to China may wonder why Chinese people like quarrelling on the streets Never they realize that these people are actually talking loudly Different traditions view silence much differently Chinese people value silence more than the use of words, many of them believe that inner peace and wisdom come only through silence, just as the old sayings “Silence is gold”; “Silence speaks louder than sound”, etc But in American culture, Americans tend to think there is no communication in silence For instance, in response to the question “Will you marry me”, silence in America would be interpreted as uncertainty; while in China it would be interpreted as acceptance We now look at a few cultural differences between Chinese and Americans in the use of silence so that we might better understand how a lack of words can influence the outcome of any communication event So if the complicating of all these nonverbal signals makes frustrated and then, just keep silence, one are absolutely wrong when he/she does business with people coming from America Silence is treated as passive or negative reaction, not a signal of agreement as in China So when businessmen from American culture show no reaction to a proposal or presentation, it should be taken as a negative attitude Nonverbal behavior is often seen as distinct from speech, its primary purpose being to communicate emotion and interpersonal relationships But there is another viewpoint Nonverbal behavior and speech are closely connected and separating the two seems artificial In particular, hand and facial gestures may be seen as visible acts of meaning just as words are audible acts of meaning Thus some researchers argue they should be seen as an integral part of natural language In this view, body language is not an alternative to speech The nonverbal and verbal are both parts of communication Nonverbal communication has sometimes been regarded as a kind of language of emotion and interpersonal relation-ships But nonverbal behavior is also closely related to speech Speakers move their bodies in time with speech This includes not only hand gestures but also all parts of the body Spoken languages have patterns For example, spoken English is produced in groups of words, typically averaging five in length In each group there is one primary vocal stress, conveyed principally through changes in pitch but also through volume or rhythm In one study, it was found that 90% of these primary stresses were accompanied by synchronized body movement These synchronized body movements may have a variety of meanings Head movements can signal a great deal more than yes or no Vigorous headshakes may accompany emphatic words such as a lot, great or really A wide sweep of the head may be used to indicate inclusiveness with words such as everyone or everything When someone starts to quote directly from someone else, a shift in head orientation may precede or directly accompany the quotation Such nonverbal behavior can be seen as integral to the message Indeed, the words and gestures work together to create the meaning Thus, body movement is arguably as fundamental as speech for the representation of meaning The use of hand gesture has shown to develop together with speech in children and to dissolve together with speech in aphasia (a disorder that causes loss of speech.) Body movement may be seen not just as an alternative to speech but as part of a multi-channel system of communication, giving the skilled speaker further options through which to convey meaning Nonverbal communication is more suitable than words for some communication tasks It is often quicker and easier to point to an object than to describe it Because body movement is visual, it is also a silent means of communication and may be used when it is difficult to use speech For example, gesture may be used by people, who are not actually talking, to comment on what is being said without breaking the flow of the speaker Body movement can be used without the mutual obligation or ritual conduct that seems to be required by conversation It may sometimes be used as a substitute for speech where actually to formulate the words might be regarded as too explicit or indelicate Not only is body movement a visual form of communication, it can be highly visible One study of a party showed how people used hand gesture as an initial salutation to capture another's attention before entering into conversation Another study showed how patients used flamboyant gestures to attract the doctor's attention away from his medical notes In this context, gesture has the additional advantage of indirectness as well as visibility A direct request for attention might be seen as a challenge to the doctor's authority Research into nonverbal communication has considerable practical significance Social behavior is a skill and as such it can be taught and learned Communications skills training is used for employment interviewing, psychiatric therapy, intercultural communication, and occupational training for teachers, doctors, nurses and the police There are now tests specifically intended to make objective assessments of social perception and which can be used to train people in greater nonverbal perceptiveness Nonverbal communication research can be considered part of a wider movement - one in which communication becomes the object of study in its own right Its fine details are now no longer necessarily regarded as trivial, irrelevant or unimportant, while terms like body language and communication skills have also passed into everyday language Cultural diversity in nonverbal communication is a topic of great practical importance, since cultural differences in this kind communication are a major source of friction, misunderstanding, and annoyance between cultural and national groups (Michael Argyle, 1996) Body language covers a large area referring to any little movement of any part of the body According to some scholars in the field, the body language vocabulary totals over 700,000 items Information is sent on attitude toward person (facing or leaning towards another), emotional status (tapping fingers, juggling coins), and desire to control the environment (moving towards or away from a person) All people use movement to communicate, culture teaches people how to use and interpret these movements The differences in culture are amazing, especially in the area of body language Many nonverbal expressions vary from culture to culture, and what is acceptable in one culture may be completely unacceptable in another, and it is just those variations that make nonverbal misinterpretation a barrier Without these unwritten subtle systems of managing the tremendous diversity of encounters in everyday life, man would be nothing but a machine ... speech The nonverbal and verbal are both parts of communication Nonverbal communication has sometimes been regarded as a kind of language of emotion and interpersonal relation-ships But nonverbal. .. multi-channel system of communication, giving the skilled speaker further options through which to convey meaning Nonverbal communication is more suitable than words for some communication tasks... can be used to train people in greater nonverbal perceptiveness Nonverbal communication research can be considered part of a wider movement - one in which communication becomes the object of study