黔江峡谷公园:Cultural Differences Of Nonverbal Behaviors In Cross-Cultural Communication

Abstract: In our daily communication, we use both verbal behaviors and nonverbal behaviors; the two ways of communication all play an important part in human’s interaction.  And with the development of economy and technology, communication among different countries and nations which have different cultural background become more and more frequently. Consequently, in order to eliminate the conflicts and misunderstanding which are brought by the intercultural communication due to cultural differences and improper use of nonverbal behaviors, it is necessary to pay more attention to nonverbal communication and its cross-cultural differences. In this paper, I will discuss the differences of nonverbal behaviors during cross-cultural communication from some ways, and the functions、significances of nonverbal communication are analyzed to improve cross-cultural communication.
1.    Introduction
There are two ways to communicate: one is verbal behavior and the other is nonverbal behavior. And most of investigations indicate that most of messages are conveyed by nonverbal behaviors. Consequently, nonverbal behaviors are awfully significant in human society, Just as David Abercrombie said“We speak with our vocal organs, but we converse with our whole bodies1”.People can speak by each part of the body. But when people study communication, they always emphasis on the language itself while neglect the nonverbal behaviors. However, nonverbal behaviors indicate different meanings due to different cultural background, in order to improve intercultural communication and eliminate conflict caused by misunderstand; we should pay more attention to nonverbal behaviors.
1.1   The Definition of Nonverbal Communication
In the investigative field, there are various kinds of definitions for nonverbal communication. Different scholars have different views toward the definition, some definitions are very simple. For example, “Nonverbal communication is communication without the use of words”、“nonverbal communication indicates all communicative behaviors except oral speech2”. But some definitions are much more concrete. For example, “nonverbal communication is the qualities or behaviors known to all in a community without the use of words, and that such qualities are intentionally or thought to be intentionally given by the speaker and consciously received and responded to by the listener2”、“nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver3”. Among these definitions, some lay emphasis on the role of shared social conventions in nonverbal communication while some emphasis on the role of environment、the message value of nonverbal stimuli and the communication setting. The definition which made by Samovar is not only mark the boundaries of nonverbal communication, but also reflect how the process actually works. Meanwhile, the definition also permit us to include unintentional as well as intentional behavior in the total communication event, this approach is realistic because we send the preponderance of nonverbal message without ever being aware that they have meaning for other people.
Nonverbal communication is a valuable study which was attracted the eyes of western scholar for many decades. According to the scholar’s statement, in face-to-face communication, there are over 70% of all information is sent by nonverbal means while only 30% is conveyed through speaking. Moreover, communication is a complex process, especially in multicultural communication, because of the existence of different cultural backgrounds, it is easy to produce misunderstanding and conflicts. So understanding the knowledge of nonverbal communication is necessary and meaningful.
1.2   Sorts of Nonverbal Communication
According to Samovar、Porter and Stefani, the three authoritative scholars in this field, nonverbal behaviors can be divided into five groups: Kinesics、Paralanguage、 Proxemics and Time.
The study of how movement communicates is called kinesics3, kinesic cues are those visible body shifts and movements that can send messages about our attitude 、emotion state and desire. More commonly, it is referred to as body behaviors, which includes: postures、 gestures、 facial expressions 、eye contact 、appearance and touch.
Paralanguage involves the linguistic elements of speech, which is, how something is said and not the actual meaning of the spoken words, it can be divided into three kinds of vocalizations, which are: vocal characterizes、 vocal qualifiers and vocal segregates. Meanwhile, vocal characterizes includes laughing 、crying、 yelling、 moaning、 whining、 belching and yawning while vocal qualifiers are made up of volume、pitch、rhythm、tempo、resonance and tone, and vocal segregates are composed of “un-huh” “shh” “uh” “oooh” “mmmh” and  “humm”.
The study of the message system which is used to convey messages (space and distance) is called proxemics. According to Samovar &Porter, proxemics is concerned with three elements, which includes: (1) personal space; (2) seating; (3) furniture arrangement.
Samovar & Porter hold a view that a culture’s conception of time can be examined from three different perspectives: (1) informal time; (2) perceptions of past, present, and future; (3) Hall’s monochromic and polychronic classifications.
“Silence is also speech”, though Silence is only a part of Nonverbal Behaviors, it holds different functions and cultural connotation owing to different cultural background, and Silence can send us nonverbal cues concerning the communication situations in which we participate.
1.3   Verbal Behaviors and Nonverbal Behavior
In order to communicate with each other, human beings use phonetic organs as well as the whole body to express emotions precisely. Consequently, this phenomenon shows that verbal behavior and nonverbal behavior are both important in human’s life; they exist together and influence each other.
“Verbal behavior is the means which is used in concrete context to realize communicative purpose”. This concept was put forward by M. Malinowski in 1923, later developed by J.L.Austin and B.F.Skinner. According to these researchers, they believe that verbal behavior is the building blocks of social interaction and the deep structure of daily life.
Nonverbal behavior includes all stimulus created by human beings and environments except verbal act, which are the conditions for continuous verbal actions. Generally, nonverbal behaviors are made up of Postures、Gestures、eye contact、space and so on. Anyhow, there are various human behaviors exist in communication. These nonverbal behaviors are used as tools to intercommunion、change ideas、express feelings and so on, meanwhile, they also symbolize social positions and social relations among people. Therefore, nonverbal behaviors play a very important role in human being’s communication.
1.4   Characteristics of Nonverbal Behaviors
An English researcher called Desmond Morris once analyzed all gestures around the world, he studied the form、significance、characteristics and functions of gestures, and his research related to the characteristics of gestures is to utmost extent fit for nonverbal behaviors. Thus, according to Desmond Morris, nonverbal behaviors have the following characteristics:
(1)   A lot of nonverbal behaviors have more than one meaning;
(2)   Lots of nonverbal behaviors are multicultural and multinational, even across multi-language;
(3)   Some of nonverbal behaviors are only belong to particular associations or culture;
(4)   Some of nonverbal behaviors may have different meanings in the same association;
(5)   The geographic territory of nonverbal behaviors is very regular;
(6)   Some of nonverbal behaviors can expand quickly to become national behaviors due to their usefulness.5
相关:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_502d4841010098al.html
A Brief Introduction of Nonverbal Communication
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Cultural Differences Of Nonverbal Behaviors In Cross-Cultural Communicationhttp://www.docin.com/p-88790337.html
The Analysis of the Application of Body Language in Nonverbal Communication