Part 2 : Non verbal communication.

Introduction Language is a learned, shared and arbitrary system of vocal symbols through which human beings in the same speech community or subculture interact and hence communicate in terms of their common cultural experience and expectations (Henry Lee Smith, Jr.). Learning about nonverbal communication is a very useful way to improve our communication skills. Different culture and different background the places will contribute different way to use nonverbal communication. From my reading, spoken language is only 7 % to 35 % of communication. The majority of our feelings, attention and message are sent through nonverbal communication. Good communication is the key of successful relationships, both personal and professional. But we communicate with much more than words. Most of the messages that we send to other people are nonverbal. Nonverbal communication is includes our facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, posture, and tone of voice. The ability to understand and used nonverbal communication, or body language, is a main tool that can help us to connect with others, express what we really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships. Nonverbal communication, or body language, is a vital form of communication a natural, unconscious language that broadcasts our true feelings and intentions in any given moment, and clues us in to the feelings and intentions of those around us. When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive wordless signals. All of our nonverbal behaviours the gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make send strong messages. These messages dont stop when you stop speaking either. Even when we are silent, we are still communicating nonverbally. Oftentimes, what we say and what we communicate through body language are two totally different things. That why we must learn nonverbal communication across to other country because different culture has different way to use nonverbal communication.

Definition of non verbal communication Nonverbal communication can be define as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless mostly visual cues between peoples. that Sometimes nonverbal communication called body language, is process of transmitting message without spoken word that goes on in every face to face encounter with another human being. Messages can be communicated through

gestures and touch, by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact. Nonverbal messages could also be communicated through material exponential; meaning, objects or artifacts (such as clothing, hairstyles or architecture). Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on face-to-face interaction, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction. "Judee Burgoon (1994) has identified seven different nonverbal dimensions: (1) kinesics or body movements including facial expressions and eye contact; (2) vocalics or paralanguage that includes volume, rate, pitch, and timbre; (3) personal appearance; (4) our physical environment and the artifacts or objects that compose it; (5) proxemics or personal space; (6) haptics or touch; and (7) chronemics or time. To this list we would add signs or emblems. "Signs or emblems include all of those gestures that supplant words, numbers, and punctuation marks. They may vary from the monosyllabic gesture of a hitchhiker's prominent thumb to such complex systems as the American Sign Language for the deaf where nonverbal signals have a direct verbal translation. However, it should be emphasized that signs and emblems are culture specific. The thumb and forefinger gesture used to represent 'A-Okay' in the United States assumes a derogatory and offensive interpretation in some Latin American countries."

Definition given in Business Dictionary.com non verbal communication is referred to as follows; larger, non spoken context with in all face to face communication take place. Every conscious or subconscious behaviour in presence of another is suffused with meaning without which all verbal communication would be ambiguous. Non verbal communication includes pith, speed, tone and volume of voice, gestures and facial expressions, body posture, stance, and proximity to listener, eye movement and contact, and dress and appearance. According to Burgoon, Buller, and Woodall (1989), non verbal is the unspoken dialogue which involves the message conveyed beyond words. Knapp and Hall (2006), specify the three major components of nonverbal communication, the communication environment, the communicators, paralinguistic characteristic and nonverbal behaviours such as movements and position. Nonverbal communication (NVC) is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture; body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact; object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture; symbols and info graphics. Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons. Non-verbal communication sometimes called body language is the process transfers message without spoken words. Information can be conveyed through gestures and facials expressions (kinesics), eye contact, touching, maintaining appropriate distance, paralanguage, as well as object communication.

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Relationship between non verbal communication, language and culture When we travelling, we do not on the whole make the assumption that everyone will understand our first and preferred of us accept we must either learn a new language or rely entirely on verbal signal for communication. We assume we will have no difficulty n decoding non-verbal clues. We need to be aware of the enormous range and diversity of behaviour. Even in the secure territory of our own familiar culture. We need care in the interpretation of non verbal clues. In Malaysian context most the non verbal communication form from different cultures as we knows Malaysia has variety ethnics as Malays, Chinese, Indians and other ethnics in Sabah and Sarawak. The different culture will form different sound English language spoken or non verbal style communication. For examples when shack hand habits, not all we can shack hand with, because some Malays community cannot touch their hand when different gender. Sound of English they spoken also according to their mother tongue. Culture is the product of the interaction between universal biological needs and functions, universal social problems created to address those needs, and the contexts in which people live. Culture is created as people adapt to their environment in order to survive, and results from the process of individuals attempt to adapt to their contexts in addressing the universal social problems. Each culture has its own language, with its own vocabulary, syntax, grammar, phonology, and pragmatics. On this task I choose two different culture to elaborate nonverbal communication is British culture and Malay (Malaysian) culture. First, in British culture the language of gesture is not frequently used and only the most basic gesture are performed. Overdoing a gesture can sometimes come across as aggressive behaviour. Second from eye contact, British culture show a tendency to keep it relatively short as it can prove misunderstanding between people. Direct eye contact may be misinterpreted as hostility and aggressiveness. Example when are talking in group, they make eye contact with all people and do not focus your attention on one person alone. British culture shun physical contact except for the handshake, other forms of touching behaviour are inappropriate in business relation. Men should not initiate physical contact with women.

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The reserved nature of the British is emphasized by their respect towards personal space. It is high valued by them and keeping an acceptable distance is advised. In order to feel comfortable, they create a kind of personal air bubble around them. During the conversation they prefer to stand next to each other rather than opposite. As far as paralanguage is concerned, the British speak in low tones, without raising the voice. It is impolite to interrupt others, intonation convey one has finished speaking and in British the voice normally goes down at the end of affirmative sentence. While some say that facial expressions are identical, meaning attached to them differs. Majority opinion is that these do have similar meanings world-wide with respect to smiling, crying, or showing anger, sorrow, or disgust. However, the intensity varies from culture to culture . Malaysian is very unique country because it has different races people live in. Malaysia is a multi cultural society with large population of Malay, Chinese, Indian and other races in Sabah and Sarawak. There fore, etiquette and custom in Malaysia very due to different background. Generally the different races in Malaysia use general nonverbal in communicate with other. There are several forms of non-verbal communication in Malaysia. The following are few examples. Examples when

meeting a Malay, the elder person should be mentioned before the younger, the more important be for the less important, and the woman before man. In rural areas, it is customary for men and women to shake hands with each other. The traditional Malay greeting resembles hand shake with both hands, but with out the grasp. In Malaysia, instead of pointing place, object or person with right index finger which is considered impolite, it is more common to point with the thumb of right hand with the fingers folded under. For the body contact or body gesture Malaysian women are not allowed to shake hand with man. Instead of sharing hands, Malay men bow and for Indian, nodding head and smiling is usually suffient. Silence is an important element communication with Malaysians. Giving pause to a question and pausing before responding to a question show that they have given a question an appropriate thought and think about their response carefully. For it paralanguage, the Malay speak in low tone.

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The Malays tend to dominate government position and the official language Bahasa Malaysia. There are several forms of non verbal communication in Malaysia. Other example is in rural areas, it is customary for men and women to shake hands with each other. The traditional Malay greeting resembles a handshake with both hands. Conclusion in this task, I highlight certain aspects of nonverbal

communication. There is certainly much more to explore in this area, and this discussion encouraged me to pursue the topic further. In writing this task my primary interest was to gather useful knowledge for my own later reference. Wonderful books I found on this topic were real discovery because this is the first time I am dealing with this with topic in this way. Before this, I just knew from experience that there is extremely powerful nonverbal communication going on in every classroom all the time and. Being aware of this, I thought it could be useful to find out more about it and I was right. At first I tried to describe my observations in real classrooms but it was too subtle for describing and without any experimental or other objective evidence. So I took this approach with intention to benefit from already known resources instead of discovering new knowledge. From this knowledge also I able to knows more about nonverbal communication across culture in different country.

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