Non-Verbal Communication

 Non-verbal communication makes no use of the

words, sentences, grammar and other structures
that we associate with spoken and written language.
 Non-verbal communication includes facial
expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body
posture and motions, and positioning within groups.
 Verbal communication is organized by language;
non-verbal communication is not.
Non-Verbal Communication
 Types of non-verbal communication:
 Proxemics
 Orientation
 Eye contact or gaze
 Facial expression
 Gesture, especially use of hands and arms
 Dress
 Posture
 Paralanguage
Non-Verbal Communication
 Other forms of non-verbal behaviour:
 Changes in our skin pigment such as blushing when we
are embarrassed
 Smell
 Animal used smell to send out signals that both attract
and repel
 Men/women used synthetic odors that will attract opposite
gender.
 1. Proxemics
 The study of how we handle the space around us,
especially in relation to other people
 Human beings are territorial!
 We create for ourselves spaces that belong to us
and to which we try carefully to control access
 Example:
 Our homes
 Our spaces at work or school
 Issue: how space is occupied is about how territory
reflects the power relations within groups of people.
The more powerful a person the larger and more
impressive the space they will occupy
 Proxemics - continue
 Another important type of space; the space we carry with us
 Individual invisible space that we protect from outside intrusion
 Invisible bubble around us

 Determined by the situation and by the relationship we have, or

might like to have, with the person or people who are near to us
 In crowded place such as a bus or train

 Cultural/religious differences in our attitudes to the proximity, or

nearness, of other people
 “Don’t touch” – touching things, other people, or even our own
bodies, is socially undesirable.
 Some cultures physical contact with relative strangers is openly
encouraged
Proxemics - activities

What do you feel if you are in:

 A crowded bus
 A stadium
 A lonely beach
 2. Orientation

When someone comes sits next to you, it is generally

seen as a much friendlier (closeness) orientation than
someone who sits directly opposite (potentially
confrontational) to you.
 3. Eye Contact
 Important way in which we communicate our feelings towards
other people
 Initial eye contact to assess a stranger
 Staring – identified as threatening form or behaviour
 If we staring at someone, their behaviour will change, often
becoming either defensive or at the other extreme aggressive
towards you
 Deeply suspicious of people who ‘cannot look us in the eye’; they
are seen as shifty or people with something to hide
 Gazing – look steadily; men gaze at women, sometimes in
intimidating way
 Eye contact – can be an index of the closeness of a relationship
that people share
 Eye Contact - continue
 A popular belief, “we can detect the truth in people’s
eyes”. Although people may hide the truth with
words, their true feelings will be revealed in their
eyes
 4. Facial Expression
 We face other people when we talk
 Facial expression is bound to be an important
indicator to other people of our attitudes, state of
mind and relationships to them
 Human face has a complex arrangement of muscles
that allows us to produce a whole range of different
expressions, most of which are an index of our
feelings (happy, sad, pain, etc.)
 Smiling – important facial gesture that indicate that
we pleased to see other people
 5. Gesture (Hands and arms)
 Gestures, e.g: handshake
 Changing their meanings over a period of
time
 How to tell someone to be quiet in a library?
 We use gesture when our voice engaged,
e.g: talking on the telephone, we used
gesture to tell another person to come and
sit down
 Many of the gestures are automatic. When
we speaking on the telephone, we often
make hand gestures
 Gestures that we make for pushing people
away vs. drawing them towards us.
 Gesture - Activities
1.Watch a politician or other person addressing a
public meeting either on television or, by attending
yourself. Make a list of a different types of gesture
they use.
 How does each of these gestures relate to the
message being spoken?
 How do you, the audience, respond to
different hand gestures?
 Any there any gestures that make you more
inclined to accept the verbal message?
 6. Dress
 Dress – we combine items of clothing and the
appropriateness of certain types of styles of dress to
specific situation.
 Funeral – people wear black or dark colored clothes
as a symbol or mourning
 The clothes we wear make a statement about
ourselves ~ interpretation by other people.
 Dress - continue
 Uniform – used to signify the role or function that a person
performs; e.g.: policemen, army, school children, etc.
 Also signifiers of the rank and status of the person who wears
them.
 Have impact on the behavior of both the wearer and those with
whom they are in contact.
 Example of formal dress – business suit always dark shades?
 Dress - continue
 Time dependent dress code
 Office - formal
 Relaxing or socialising – casual
 Initial judgments about people because of
their clothes
 Dress – one aspect of the physical
appearance
 Hairstyle, jewellery, make-up, body adornment
and body modification
 Open for interpretation by other people
 7. Posture
 The way in which we position our bodies
 Early age:
 “sit up straight”, “shoulder back” – instruction heard at home or
school
 Upright posture – people who have confident (police, army)
 Posture is another sign of the status and role within society
(army, police)
 Use posture as one means of indicating to another person our
feelings of friendship or hostility
 “hands on hips” – confrontational and hostile
 Group – imitating the postures of the people they are with
(mirroring, postural congruence)
 Cross legs, fold their arms
 Reinforce group identities
 Posture - Activities
 Make a list of postures that might be
considered hostile. Make a list of postures
that might be considered friendly.
 8. Paralanguage
 Those utterances that we make when we are speaking
 When we speak, we make noise that aren’t words
(‘um’ or ‘ah’), we raise and lower voices, we pause,
we stress some words
 Important aspect of the message when we are
communicating
 E.g: “The house is on fire” ~statement

“The house is on fire!” ~ stressed

 Voice intonation (pitch)- indicator of intention

 Flow of voice
 Paralanguage - Activities
 Accent and dialect are important aspects of paralanguage as
they determine the way we sound to other people. Different
regional accents are spoken with unique intonations and
rhythms. Many of these accents carry with them connotations of
the attitudes behinds the voice, many of which are obviously
quite stereotypical.
 Consider following regional accents:
 Johor/Kelantan/N.Sembilan/Penang
 Do you have accent?
 How this make you react to these accents?
 Are the assumptions you might make correct about attitude and
accents or dialect?