hou ma tesol com & culture week 7 nonverbal communications

8/8/2019 HOU MA TESOL Com & Culture Week 7 Nonverbal Communications

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Nonverbal

interculturalcommunication

Le Hoang Dung, PhD

Ho Chi Minh Open University

Post Graduate Department


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11/18/2010 LHD-Communication & Culture2

1. Think FEAR?


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Fear


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Folding arms -Defensive sign The immediate and invariable

reaction is that they quickly unfoldtheir arms because they knowexactly what Im referring to andthey too 'know' that it's alleged tobe a sign of defensiveness.

Sometimes they point out thatthere are no armrests on thechairs; occasionally they complainthat the room is a bit cold.

But never once has anyoneamong the hundreds of people Ivenow put he question to ever saidthat they felt on the defensive.

(Max Atkinson,maxatkinson.blogspot.com/2009/0

6/another-body )

I think the folding of arms is not somuch defensiveness, as it ispassive. When listening it is fine (orOK anyway), for you are at rest,listening. But when speaking you areactive, advocating, communicating -not the time for passive. Arms foldedthen is a nervous 'closed' habit that

people have, and not very effective.When speaking we want to be'open', not 'closed'. When listening,different posture.

(Bert Decker,maxatkinson.blogspot.com/2009/06/

another-body )


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2. Discussion questions

How do you define nonverbalcommunication?

What can nonverbal communication

communicate? Does nonverbal behavior universal or

culture-specific?

Are there such things as cultural space?


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3. Share your personal experience

1) Where do you look when having a conversation with ateacher?

2) Where do you look when having a conversation with afriend?

3) How close do you stand when speaking with a friend?

4) How close do you stand when speaking with a teacher?5) When listening to someone, how do you show that you

are paying attention?

6) How much of your communication consists of gestures orbody language?

7) When speaking with someone whom you don't know verywell, is it appropriate to touch them during aconversation?

Ronald Schmidt-Fajlik (2007)


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4. Non-verbal patterns

Tone (Paralinguistics)

Face/ Gestures (Kinesics)

Eye contact (Oculesics)

Touch (Haptics)

Space (Proxemics)

Time (Chronemics)


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Verbal vs. Non-verbal communication

VerbalContent meaning

Digital in nature (using

discrete units of

sounds)

Use of messageinvolves human

intention

Non-verbalStrong identity,

relational meaning,

emotional meaning

Analogic in form

(using continuous

streams of icons)

Use of message:intentional or

unintentional


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5. Causes to intercultural

confusion

Factors of personality, gender, relational distance,socio-economic status, and situation create tremendousvariations of non-verbal display patterns in differentcultures

Non-verbal messages can create intercultural

friction and confusion because:

The same non-verbal signal can mean different things

to different people in different cultures

Multiple non-verbal cues are sent in each interaction,

thereby creating interpretive ambiguities


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What does research show?

Non-verbal communication to be one of themost culturally-influenced part of behavior

(Tomalin & Stempleski, 1993, p.6).

Non-verbal communication is a powerfulform of human expression. (Ting-Toomey,

1999, p.115)


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6. Mindful non-verbal communication

Reflectingidentities

Expressing

emotionsManaging

conversations

Impression

formationInterpersonal

attraction

Tone

(Paralinguistics)

Face/ Gestures(Kinesics)

Eye contact

(Oculesics)

Touch (Haptics)

Space (Proxemics)

Time (Chronemics)

Mindful

Non-Verbal

communi-

cation


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6.1. Reflecting & managing identities

Non-verbal cues serves as our identity badgesand the identity badges through which we place

others into categories. (Ting-Toomey, 1999,

p.117)

Factors affect categorical slotting:

Contrastive physical cues (skin color, facial features)

A persons typicality as mediated through our

stereotypic lenses that she/he looks like someone

from that group

Nonverbal speech patterns (accents, grammar,

manner of speaking)


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What non-verbal cues reflect

cultural identities?

Adornment features: Costumes

Cosmetics

Use of vocalics:

Voice qualifiers (accent, pitch range, pitch intensity,

volume, articulation, resonance, tempo)

Vocalizations: sounds of laughing, crying, moaning,

etc.)

Individuals can monitor their use of vocalics to

achieve different interaction results (high-power

vs. low-power groups)


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6.2.Expressing emotions and

attitudes

Cultural universalists:

Emotional facialexpressions are

innate and serve

basic human

adaptation functions

Cultural relativists:

Culture shapesemotional expressions

through continuous

cultural reinforcement

process.

Feelings & attitudes are typically inferredthrough kinesics & vocalics.


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Individualists vs. Collectivists

Individualists think itis their right to freelyexpress their personalfeelings.

They tend to be moreconcerned withexpressing andrepairing self-focusedemotions (anger,frustration,resentment, etc.)

Collectivists tend tobe more concernedwith other peoplesopinions and

reactions.

They guard theiremotions morecautiously and aremore concerned withother-focusedemotions (relationalshame, hurt, etc.)


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11/18/2010 LHD-Communication & Culture 16

Reflect? Do you agree/disagree?

Cultural members tend to use theirnonverbal cultural frame of reference tojudge the others miscued performance.(Ting-Toomey, 1999, p.120)

There is relative universality in thedecoding of basic facial emotions,including anger, disgust, fear, happiness,

sadness and surprise.

The more similar the cultures, the moreaccurate is the nonverbal decodingprocess.


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Cultures appears to play a powerful role interms of the types of emotions that should

be displayed or suppressed in different

interactive situations. (Gudykunst & Ting-Toomey, 1988, cited in Ting-Toomey,

1999)


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6.3. Conversational management

Kinesics: Hand gestures, Body postures

Oculesics: eye gaze, face gaze

Emblems: carry special meanings for

members of the in-group (greeting rituals,peace gestures, insult gestures, gang

signs, head movement, etc.)

Each culture has a rich variety of emblemswith specific meanings and rules of

displays


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Status position, gender role, and

situational norms strongly influence the

various uses of nonverbal cues,

Using adaptors (nonverbal habits/gestures thatare reactions to internal/external stimuli and are

used to satisfy psychological or physical needs)

in the wrong context/ at the wrong time can

create great distress or confusion incultural strangers.


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6.4. Time and space across cultures

Protective territory or sacred spacesatisfies humans needs for security, trust,

inclusion, connection, stability, etc.

Proxemics (Hall, 1966): intimate distance,

personal distance,

social distance,

public distance


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Haptics studies investigate the

perceptions, functions, and meanings of

touching behaviour as communication indifferent cultures.

Temporal regulation: reflects our spiritual,

relational, and task-oriented attitudestoward the time frame in which

communication is taking place.

Chronemics: concerns how people indifferent cultures structure, interpret and

understand the time dimension.


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3 factors affecting interpretation of

cross-culture non-verbal behaviors

A tendency ofovergeneralization

Mythical average person: the average

person of a culture is a hypothetical

construct.

Viewing cultural norms as static(in fact,

they are dynamic)


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7. Non-verbal Com.A Case of

English learning in Japan

A study was conducted to determine whichaspects of non-verbal communication

would be important to teach Japanese

university students studying English.

A survey was carried out by Ronald

Schmidt-Fajlik (2007), an English lecturer

in Japan


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Ex. Eye contact what does literature

say?

Eye contact is a very important aspect of

non-verbal communication (NVC) as

"the eyes are overwhelmingly the most

important part of the body of receiving

NVC, and, within the range at which they

can be observed, the eyes are probably

the most important part of the body forsending NVC" (Brosnahan, 1990, p.105).


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The use of eye contact may be an area

leading to misunderstanding, which mayalso be a source ofcultural conflict

because "each is likely to interpret the

others behavior as negative where it

contrasts, Japanese eye-droppingbeinginterpreted as intrusive or contradicting the

deference shown by the bow" (Brosnahan,

1990, p

.110

).


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Results of the survey Results of the survey were surprising as they often went

against views found in the review of research literature.With regard to oculesics, preliminary research indicated

that Japanese use little or no eye contact.

This may be found in statements such as "when Japanese talk face to face, they do not exchange eye-to-

eye contacts. They tend to glance at each other somewhere fromunder the eyes to around the mouth tenderly or vaguely" (Honna,1989, p.24)

"there can be little question that English place higher value onand practice more eye contact than Japanese case for case"(Brosnahan, 1990, p.112).

"Japanese must learn to have more eye-contact with westernersduring conversation than is customary in their ownculture"(Bochner, 1982, p.164),

"In Japan people do not look each other in the eye much, but aretaught to look at the neck" (Argyle & Cook, 1976, p.29).

(source: Ronald Schmidt-Fajlik, 2007)


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However,

Survey results indicated that a vastmajority of students use eye contact when

holding a conversation.

In terms of having a conversation with ateacher or a boss, the response was 73%

in favour of eye contact.

Responses in terms of conversation with afriend were even higher in favour of eye

contact at 88%.


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Pls. reflect on the concluding

remarks by Schmidt-Fajlik

Differences found in the review of literature and surveyresults demonstrates that teachers should considerdetermining the content of cultural material which is to beintroduced based on classroom research. By doing so,teachers may gain a better understanding of beliefs thatare currently held regarding culturally determined

behaviour in ones present teaching situation. This isespecially important when dealing with cultural materialsuch as non-verbal communication, as previously heldassumptions may have changed or have been incorrectlyinterpreted in the past. In dealing with culturally heldassumptions, pedagogy should be aware of currentcultural practice, which will further add to our ability todevelop rapport with other cultures, decrease chances ofmiscommunication, and avoid stereotyping based on pastor incomplete interpretations. (Schmidt-Fajlik, 2007)


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8. Implication for teaching

"Communicative Approach already containspotentials for culture-sensitivity" (Holliday, 1994,

p.165)

Increasing awareness of cultural differences,

particularly in terms of non-verbal communication

would allow learners to become more competent

communicators and lead to greater awareness of

aspects of their own culture and the role it may

play when interacting with someone with a

different cultural background from that of their

own.


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C

Big C where Culture is viewed too often as an elitestcollection of facts about art, literature, music, history and

geography" (Seelye, 1985, p.8)

Small C "the shared knowledge and schemes created by a

set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and

responding to the social realities around them"

(Lederach, 1995, p.9)

the cultural aspects which may play a role in communicationwhen they are an integral aspect of shared knowledge in

responding to a particular cultural groups social realities

communicative competence as a basis of CLT methodology

CLT is concerned with real language use in the real world,and the tradition of simply transmitting information about

heritage culture has had no place in the recent utilitarian

climate" (Pulverness, 2000, p.17).


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An awareness of differences in the use ofnon-verbal communication may contribute

to greater intercultural awareness in terms

of communication with not only nativeEnglish speakers, but also with non-native

English speakers from other countries and

with different cultural backgrounds as

greater sensitivity may be developedregarding these differences.


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Mindful non-verbal intercultural

communication

Identify the appropriate nonverbal displayrules in different cultures

Understand the cultural values andattributions attached to different nonverbalnorms and rules.

Realize that the fundamental functions andinterpretations of any nonverbal cues are

tied to identity, emotional expression,conversational management, impressionformation, and boundary regulationfunctions.


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Convey acknowledgement and culture-

sensitive respect in regard to different

nonverbal norms & behaviors in different

cultural/ethnic communities.

Deepen the complexities of their

understanding of nonverbal behaviourswithin each culture along with multiple

dimensions (age, gender, language, etc.)

Use culture-sensitive perception checkingstatements (mindful observation)


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References

Ting-Toomey, Stella (1999).Communicating across cultures. New York:The Guilford Press. (pp.114-144)

Holliday, A. (1994).Appropriatemethodology and social context.Cambridge: Cambridge

Ronald Schmidt-Fajlik (2007). Introducing

non-verbal communication to Japaneseuniversity students: Determining content.Journal of InterculturalCommunication,Issue 15. ISSN 1404-1634


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hou ma tesol com & culture week 7 nonverbal communications

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