浅谈身势语-A Brief Discussion on Body Language [3]
论文作者:叶显萍论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-06编辑:黄丽樱点击率:28579
论文字数:5693论文编号:org200904061119181300语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:Nonverbal CommunicationBody LanguageCultural Differences and SimilaritiesPrinciples非语言交际身势语文化异同原则
t of technology, traffic and contact all over the world, the meanings of body language are renewing every day. In this
essay, we intend to make a comparison and contrast of the similarities and differences on body language in order to avoid misunderstanding and make efficient communication.
In general sense, the study of body language began in 1950s. And during 1970s, the study of body language entered a fully developing period. From the late of 1970s to the early period of 1980s, body language contained more contents, and had a great influence on the other fields. And Doctor R.L.Bird Whitell is the representive of study of body language. His research indicated: eyebrows could change for 23 positions and people could make 250,000 different facial expressions. “And psychologist David Aberconbie also pointed out: ‘we speak with verbal organs but we talk with our body.’”[5]p34 Body language contains eye language, gestures, postures, facial expressions, manners and behaviors and touch and so on. As the most important part of nonverbal communication, body language, like verbal language, has notable cultural features. Some parts of body language are innate, some are acquired and others are conscious. For example,
(1) A baby can cry when it is born. It can suck its fingers when it is hungry. When we are excited, our pupils will enlarge distinctively. Our eyebrows will move rapidly when we greet. And we will frown when we are unsatisfied. We are yawning when we feel sleepy.
And acquired body language is greatly affected by social environment and accepted through common practice. It often becomes a distinctive culture. Every country, every nation, and even every region has its own historical and cultural background. So the body language people use is quite different. For example,
(2) Americans like to shrug when they have no idea about something. But Chinese don’t do the same thing. Stretching out one’s tongue means contempt in America, but in China it means surprise and respect for guests in Tibet.
We can control some body language and we can do some postures consciously. For example,
(3) If a public speaker is fiddling with a pencil or with his glasses all the time while he is talking, he is telling quite clearly that he is nervous. But some experienced speechmaker will pretend well and show confidence.
4. Cultural Differences of Body Language
Different believes are the causes of the differences of body language. According to the theories proposed by American anthologists Barnettt Pearce, Verrion Cronent, people’s behavior, the way of thinking and so on are affected by their believes. And every culture has its distinctive belief system. A normal action in this culture will be abnormal in another one. A positive behavior in one culture will be negative in another. People from eastern world advocate modesty, tolerance, mutual-support and responsibility for the group. But western people admire independence, self-respect, free development, and requiring individual space and so on. Next, we will go to the differences of body language from five parts.
4.1 Eye Language
As saying goes “The eyes are the window of the soul”. That is to say, we can read one’s mind through his/her eyes. Eye language can express complicated feelings and it is an important way to judge the intimacy of communicators. People from English speaking countries have more eye contact when they are in conversation. According to American tradition, communicators must
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