NONVERBAL

COMMUNICATION
Introduction in Non-verbal
Communication
 Communication in general is process of
sending and receiving messages that
enables humans to share knowledge,
attitudes, and skills. Although we usually
identify communication with speech,
communication is composed of two
dimensions - verbal and nonverbal.
Non-verbal Communication
 Nonverbal communication has been
defined as communication without words.
It includes apparent behaviors such as
facial expressions, eyes, touching, and
tone of voice, as well as less obvious
messages such as dress, posture and
spatial distance between two or more
people.
 nonverbal communication is learned shortly after
birth and practiced and refined throughout a
person’s lifetime. Children first learn nonverbal
expressions by watching and imitating, much as
they learn verbal skills.

 Young children know far more than they can

verbalize and are generally more adept at
reading nonverbal cues than adults are because
of their limited verbal skills and their recent
reliance on the nonverbal to communicate. As
children develop verbal skills, nonverbal
channels of communication do not cease to exist
although become entwined in the total
communication process.
Humans use nonverbal communication because:

 Words have limitations: There are numerous areas where

nonverbal communication is more effective than verbal (when
explain the shape, directions, personalities are expressed
nonverbally)
 Nonverbal signal are powerful: Nonverbal cues primary
express inner feelings (verbal messages deal basically with
outside world).
 Nonverbal message are likely to be more genuine: because
nonverbal behaviors cannot be controlled as easily as spoken
words.
 Nonverbal signals can express feelings inappropriate to state:
Social etiquette limits what can be said, but nonverbal cues
can communicate thoughts.
 A separate communication channel is necessary to help send
complex messages: A speaker can add enormously to the
complexity of the verbal message through simple nonverbal
signals.
Nonverbal communication in
classroom
 Nonverbal communication is also a critical
aspect of interpersonal communication in the
classroom. The most credible messages
teachers generate, as communication sources
are nonverbal.

 Many of the cues students use to make

judgments about teacher’s competence or
characters are obtained by observing the
teacher’s nonverbal behavior.
Nonverbal communication in
classroom
 Nonverbal communication in the
classroom occurs with distance, physical
environment, facial expression, vocal
cues, body movements and gestures,
touch, time, physical attractiveness, and
dress.
BODY MOVEMENTS, GESTURES
AND POSTURES
 Movements and gestures by the hands, arms,
legs, and other parts of the body and face are
the most pervasive types of nonverbal
messages and the most difficult to control. It is
estimated that there are over 200.000 physical
signs capable of stimulating meaning in another
person (some social scientists state even
700.000). For example, there are 23 distinct
eyebrow movements, each capable of
stimulating a different meaning.
BODY MOVEMENTS, GESTURES AND
POSTURES
 Humans express attitudes toward themselves and vividly
through body motions and posture. Bodies movements
elucidate true messages about feeling that cannot be
masked. Because such avenues of communication are
visual, they travel much farther than spoken words and
are unaffected by the presence of noise that interrupt, or
cancels out speech.
 People communicate by the way they walk, stand, and
sit. We tend to be more relaxed with friends or when
addressing those of lower status.
 Body orientation also indicates status or liking of the
other individual. More direct orientation is related to a
more positive attitude.
BODY MOVEMENTS, GESTURES AND
POSTURES
 Body movements and postures alone
have no exact meaning, but they can
greatly support or reject the spoken word.
It these two means of communication are
dichotomized and contradict each other,
some result will be a disordered image
and most often the nonverbal will
dominate.
Body movement and gesture in the
classroom
 Body postures and movements are frequently indicators
of self-confidence, energy, fatigue, or status. In the
classroom, students keen to receive body message of
enthusiasm or boredom about the subject matter being
Gestures
taught can sense confidence or frustration from the
unconscious behaviors of teachers.
 Gestures
 gestures operate to clarify, contradict, or replace
verbal messages. Gestures also serve an important
function with regard to regulating the flow of
conversation.
Gestures
 For example, if a student is talking in class,
single nods of the head from the teacher will
likely cause that student to continue and
perhaps elaborate.
A sample gesture
Posture
used to indicate attitudes, status, affective
moods, approval, deception, warmth, and
other variables related to classroom
interaction.
 conveys gross or overall affect (liking),
while specific emotions are communicated
by more discreet, facial and body
movements. (Ekman and Friesen)
Facial Expression
 The saying “A picture is worth a thousand
words” well describes the meaning of
facial expression. Facial appearance -
including wrinkles, muscle tone, skin
coloration, and eye color-offers enduring
cues that reveal information about age,
sex, race, ethnic origin, and status.
Varieties of expressions
Face talks
Facial Expression
 may be unintentional or intentional.
 can also be voluntary, as when an
individual wants deliberately to hide
feelings for different reasons
 Often people try to hide feelings and
emotions behind masks.
 All humans are capable of faking a happy
or a sad face, a smile or a frown.
Facial Expression
Facial expression in the classroom
 All people and thus certainly teachers and
students use facial expressions to form
impressions of another.
 Facial expression involves some of the smallest
body movements, but its impact in the
classroom may be greater than any other body
language the teacher exhibits. The teacher
probably communicates more accidentally by his
or her facial expression than by any other
means.
 When teachers are responding to students,
these changes in facial expression can serve as
reinforcers to the student or as non-reinforcers.
How many birds in seven soft-boiled eggs?
Paralanguage
 the study of nonverbal cues of the voice.
Various acoustic properties of speech
such as tone, pitch and accent, collectively
known as prosody, can all give off
nonverbal cues.
 may change the meaning of words
 The linguist George L. Trager developed a
classification system which consists of the
voice set, voice qualities, and vocalization.
 The voice set is the context in which the speaker is
speaking. This can include the situation, gender, mood,
age and a person's culture.
 The voice qualities are volume, pitch, tempo, rhythm,
articulation, resonance, nasality, and accent. They give
each individual a unique "voice print".
 Vocalization consists of three subsections:
characterizers, qualifiers and segregates. Characterizers
are emotions expressed while speaking, such as
laughing, crying, and yawning. A voice qualifier is the
style of delivering a message - for example, yelling "Hey
stop that!", as opposed to whispering "Hey stop that".
Vocal segregates such as "uh-huh" notify the speaker
that the listener is listening.
Functions of nonverbal
communication
Five primary functions of nonverbal bodily behavior
in human communication:
 Express emotions
 Express interpersonal attitudes
 To accompany speech in managing the cues of
interaction between speakers and listeners
 Self-presentation of one’s personality
 Rituals (greetings)
Interaction of verbal and nonverbal
communication
 When communicating, nonverbal
messages can interact with verbal
messages in six ways: repeating,
conflicting, complementing, substituting,
regulating and accenting/moderating.
Repeating
 "Repeating" consists of using gestures to
strengthen a verbal message, such as
pointing to the object of discussion
Conflicting
 Verbal and nonverbal messages within the same
interaction can sometimes send opposing or
conflicting messages. A person verbally
expressing a statement of truth while
simultaneously fidgeting or avoiding eye contact
may convey a mixed message to the receiver in
the interaction. Conflicting messages may occur
for a variety of reasons often stemming from
feelings of uncertainty, ambivalence, or
frustration. When mixed messages occur,
nonverbal communication becomes the primary
tool people use to attain additional information to
clarify the situation; great attention is placed on
bodily movements and positioning when people
perceive mixed messages during interactions.
Complementing
 Accurate interpretation of messages is made easier
when nonverbal and verbal communication complement
each other. Nonverbal cues can be used to elaborate on
verbal messages to reinforce the information sent when
trying to achieve communicative goals; messages have
been shown to be remembered better when nonverbal
signals affirm the verbal exchange
Substituting
 Nonverbal behavior is sometimes used as the sole
channel for communication of a message. People learn
to identify facial expressions, body movements, and
body positioning as corresponding with specific feelings
and intentions. Nonverbal signals can be used without
verbal communication to convey messages; when
nonverbal behavior does not effectively communicate a
message, verbal methods are used to enhance
understanding
Regulating
 Nonverbal behavior also regulates our
conversations. For example, touching someone's
arm can signal that you want to talk next or
interrupt.
Accenting/Moderating
 Nonverbal signals are used to alter the interpretation
of verbal messages. Touch, voice pitch, and gestures
are some of the tools people use to accent or amplify
the message that is sent; nonverbal behavior can also
be used to moderate or tone down aspects of verbal
messages as well. For example, a person who is
verbally expressing anger may accent the verbal
message by shaking a fist.
Dance and nonverbal communication
 Dance is a form of nonverbal communication
that requires the same underlying faculty in the
brain for conceptualization, creativity and
memory as does verbal language in speaking
and writing. Means of self-expression, both
forms have vocabulary (steps and gestures in
dance), grammar (rules for putting the
vocabulary together) and meaning. Dance,
however, assembles (choreographs) these
elements in a manner that more often resembles
poetry, with its ambiguity and multiple, symbolic
and elusive meanings.