Quotations on non-verbal communication

Give your comments on the quotations below.

· I speak two languages: Body and English.

· If you smile make certain to involve your eyes.

· Talk low, talk slow, and don’t talk too much.

· The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.

· Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind.

· The wise man, even when he holds his tongue, says more than the fool when he speaks.

· It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.

· It’s a mistake to think we listen only with our ears. It’s much more important to listen with the mind, the eyes, the body, and the heart.

On the basis of his research while he was a professor of psychology at the university of Los Angeles, Albert Mehrabin developed this formula to describe how communication works.

· 7% of the meaning of a message is contained in the words that you actually say.

· 38% of the meaning is communicated by your tone of voice.

· 55% of the meaning comes from visual cues like posture, gesture and expression.

· From your experience would you agree with professor Mehrabian’s formula? Explain why or why not?

In his book about Silicon Valley, The New Thing, this is how Michael Lewis describes one of the computer industry’s leading business figures.

He had mastered the unnaturally sincere tone of voice of the Professional Man. When he wished to indicate seriousness, he dropped his chin down to his throat. When he took you aside to have a word, he looked and sounded as if he was giving a speech to an audience of a thousand people. To stress his points, which were rarely pointed or stressful, he’s pressеd his thumb against his forefinger as if he has just caught a fly by the wing. He wore suits. He hated strife. He loved consensus, or at any rate the idea of it.

When you’ve read the text, do the following:

ü Take turns to say this sentence in the style of the businessman described. Try to copy both his body language and his tone of voice.

ü Do you know anyone who acts in a similar way? Are you impressed by this kind of ‘Professional Man’? Explain why or why not.

ü If a businesswoman was trying to be a ‘Professional Woman’, how do you think that her body language might be different?

So what is body language? Give your definition of the term and communicate it to your partner. Then read 4 definitions of ‘Body language’. Discuss them with your partner. Is it different from yours? Choose the best one and memorize it.

The Oxford English Dictionary definition is:

"Body language - noun - the conscious and unconscious movements and postures by which attitudes and feelings are communicated [for example]: his intent was clearly expressed in his body language."

The Oxford Business English Dictionary offers a slightly different definition. Appropriately and interestingly the Oxford Business English Dictionary emphasizes the sense that body language can be used as a tool, rather than being an involuntary effect with no particular purpose:

"Body language - noun - the process of communicating what you are feeling or thinking by the way you place and move your body rather than by words [for example]: The course trains sales people in reading the customer's body language."

The OED dictionary definition of kinesics - the technical term for body language - depends on the interpretation of 'non-verbal communication':

"Kinesics - the study of the way in which certain body movements and gestures serve as a form of non-verbal communication."

We could define body language more fully as:

"Body language is the unconscious and conscious transmission and interpretation of feelings, attitudes, and moods, through:

· body posture, movement, physical state, position and relationship to other bodies, objects and surroundings,

· facial expression and eye movement, (and this transmission and interpretation can be quite different to the spoken words)."

Check some of the following non-verbal cues and you’ll recognize that you already speak and translate much of the language.

Match the pictures with what people say or think.


	"Well, I'm shocked!" "All right!"
"I don't know why I even bother going out with you!"
	"Bummed." "Listen up."
		"Dunno." (don’t know) "I'm surprised!" "You're wrong!" "No, you're wrong!"