Non-verbal communication:

Humans as the social creatures will always be faced with interaction between them in

social life. This interaction can be called as communication. Watzlawick and Beavin in

(Liliweri: 1994, P.v) stated in their theory that human cannot avoid communication. If people

chatting it means communication, even if someone is silent, in some conditions it can be

called as communication. The later is composed of two dimensions; verbal and non-verbal.

The non-verbal one is our focus.

Nonverbal as one of the kinds of communication can be defined as the communication

without using words. Nonverbal communication includes most of the aspects of human

communication except the verbal aspect. Nonverbal relates to the unspoken word and a means

to send messages that are “not sanctioned for verbal delivery by our culture” (Wiemann,

1975), Doi (2009, P.1) states that nonverbal communication is the process of communication

through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) cues between people. It is sometimes

mistakenly referred to as body language (kinesics), but nonverbal communication includes

much more and not limited only to: use of voice (paralanguage), touch (haptic), distance

(proxemics), and physical environments/appearance.

History of non verbal communication:

In 1507, Leonardo da Vinci revealed his new legendary painting Mona Lisa. Studied

by many and known by all, this painting was the first study to look at body language. It

intrigues so many people because the painting is so complex, just like body language. The

most interesting aspect of this painting is Mona’s smile. This smile portrays more than just

one emotion. In addition, Mona’s gaze follows the viewer no matter the angle she is viewed

from. There are many meanings and emotions hidden in this picture and that is why it

arguably is the best-known painting in the world (Riding, 2005, lines 4-6).
 The first scientific study of non-verbal communication was Charles Darwin's book

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872): (as cited in Anderson, 2001). He

argued that all mammals show emotions reliably in their faces. In his book, The Expression of

the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin (1872) looked at how our emotions

express our feelings and thoughts. Through his many studies, Darwin was able to prove that

our expressions of emotions portray more than words. Darwin studied the eyes, nose, arms,

voice, and many other body features in order to verify a correlation between body language

and others’ perceptions. Often, our facial features correlate with our tone of voice in order to

express a certain feeling, “The pitch of the voice bears some relation to certain states of

feeling is tolerably clear” (Darwin, 1872, p. 303). This being true, one can easily sense

another’s emotion, such as high spirits, by simply focusing on the unspoken word.

Then the term nonverbal communication was introduced in 1956 by psychiatrist

Jurgen Ruesch and author Weldon Kees in the book "Nonverbal Communication: Notes on

the Visual Perception of Human Relations."

Nonverbal messages have been recognized for centuries as a critical aspect

of communication. For instance, in "The Advancement of Learning" (1605), Francis

Bacon observed that "the lineaments of the body do disclose the disposition and inclination of

the mind in general, but the motions of the countenance and parts do further, disclose the

present humour and state of the mind and will."

Studies now range across a number of fields, including, linguistics, semiotics and

social psychology. Non-verbal messages often work in concert with verbal messages. While

the complementary ability of non-verbal cues is significant, several studies advocate the role

of non-verbal communication in the process of communication. The perusal of the following

studies reveals this.

Galloway (1972) reported in his article that by improving non-verbal skills, teachers learn

their own behavior and its meanings to students, and they learn to observe and detect non-

verbal information from students. He also stated that non-verbal training and skill

development are in the beginning stages and mentioned the difficulties facedby the

researchers to study and analyze the non-verbal data - (i) when to look (ii) what to look for

and (iii) how to observe. He has indicated the implications of non-

verbal communication for teacher education by stating that the teacher educator enhances the

study of pedagogy when studies of non-verbal cues are included in the information has

significance for better understanding the nature of teaching and learning.

Mehrabian (1972) investigated the decoding of consistent and inconsistent communication of

attitudes in facial and vocal channels. He found that within a two-channel communication

process, 41.4% of the message was decoded via facial expression and 19.3% was decoded via

vocal channels, supporting the theory that non-verbal—in this case, facial—messages have a

stronger effect Than vocal messages. Moreover, the non-verbal aspect of this research

continues to support findings that 93% of one’s face-to-face communication is non-verbal.

This established a foundation supporting the dominance of the non-verbal message.

Hinton (1985) reported in his article that when two people say something or, just as

importantly, say nothing, communication is taking place. No matter how one may try, one

cannot not communicate. Activity or inactivity, words or silence, all have message value: they

influence others and these others, in turn, cannot not respond to these communications and are

thus themselves communicating. Moreover,, an understanding of non-verbal cues affords the

instructor the ability to stay away from non-verbal cues that can hinder learning.
 The importance of Non-verbal communication:

People use body language to help drive interaction and keep others engaged. But what

happens when our body language is not the same “language” as someone from another

country? This poses a problem not only in society but in classrooms as well. Teachers are

being asked more and more to create an atmosphere of inclusivity in order to accommodate

for diverse populations including gender, ethnicity, religion, and ability. Debra Pitton et. al.

(1993) stated teachers have a responsibility to provide the best possible educational

experience day to day and this experience must include body language for many reasons:

By incorporating the study of nonverbal messages into pre-service studies,

teachers will more readily be able to help students become cognizant of

culture, ethnicity, and gender as important variables in everyday life. This will

also help students, as they will benefit from an increased appreciation of

diversity when they assume their future roles as parents, teachers, community

leaders, co-workers, employers, and citizens. An inclusive education should

facilitate the changes in climate necessary to ensure ongoing change, and

knowledge of culturally specific nonverbal communication patterns can

enhance this process (p. 2).

Teachers’ goals are to help their students be active participants in their community and in

society. In order to do so, students must be able to understand verbal and nonverbal

communication signals as they relate from one person and one context to the next.

The Characteristics of Non-verbal Communication :

 Nonverbal communication is colorful and full of intrigue. A shrug of the shoulders and

a roll of the eyes allows us to say, "I don't like you," without uttering a single word. Better

yet, a warm smile and an outstretched hand says, "I'm so glad to see you."

Non-verbal communication has some characteristics that should be recognized to help

people do the appropriate non-verbal signs in communication. Based on Liliweri (1994, P.98-

100), there are 4 main characteristics of non-verbal communication. They are

1. Every people cannot avoid communication especially non-verbal communication

2. Non-verbal communication express feelings and emotions.

3. Non-verbal communication conveys more explanation of verbal communication

4. Sometime non-verbal communication is more reliant that

verbal communication in human relations

The Influence of Non-verbal Signs in Communication

Most of non-verbal communication cannot stand alone. It also occurs in verbal

communication. Both verbal and non-verbal communication influences each other in the

process of communication.

Based on Verdeber in Liliweri (1994, P.106-107), there are 3 steps to show that nonverbal

communication influences verbal communication in delivering message. They are,

1. Non-Verbal Communication as Complement

In delivering message, gestures or signs are very useful to empower what the speaker want to

say. Speaker can show how the thing looks like by gesturing his/her hand. Non-verbal signs

can be also used to give direction while verbal communication explains about the cognitive

information. This non-verbal signs strengthen the message that speaker want to deliver to the

receiver.
 2. Non-verbal Communication as Independent Sign

In some condition of communication, non-verbal communication has its own power to be

independent in delivering message. For example, after football match, the result of the match

can be seen from the players’ expression or gesture. The players do not need to say if they

were winning or not. They just need to express it through non-verbal signs.

3. Non-verbal Communication as the Opposite Message

In this case, non-verbal message is not only the complement of verbal communication.

Non-verbal takes the control of the message by changing its meaning. For example, when

someone is angry, even he/she says “I’m not angry” verbally, but if his/her non-verbal

message sends different message, such as slamming the door. It is enough to show that the

person is angry.

Types of Nonverbal Communication

There are many different forms of nonverbal communication. The main categories of

nonverbal cues include:

1. Kinesics (or body movements): Body language is the way someone situates their body

naturally depending on the situation, the environment and how they are feeling.These

include deliberate hand gestures and head movements like a thumbs-up or

affirmative head shake. This is one of the most easily controllable of the nonverbal

forms of communication.

2. Proxemics (or closeness/personal space): This is the measure of physical distance

between people when they communicate. The standard amount of personal space

expected by someone varies depending on setting and is somewhat culture-specific.

3. Posture: The way that you sit or stand and how open your body is to others around

you communicates a lot about your attitude and emotional state.

 4. Eye contact: This is one of the primary ways that human beings show interest or

disinterest. Wavering eyes tend to communicate unease or even dishonesty.

5. Haptics: Is delivering the message through touch. Many interactions begin with an

exchange of physical touch like a hug or a handshake. This form of communication

should be used sparingly and only when you know how the receiving party feels about

touch

6. Paralanguage: This category covers vocal qualities like loudness or tone of voice.

Paralinguistic signals are any aspect of the sound of a voice outside a direct verbal

translation of words being spoken.

7. Facial expressions: The human face is extremely expressive, able to convey countless

emotions of someone’s attitude  without saying a word. And unlike some forms of

nonverbal communication, facial expressions are universal. The facial expressions for

happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust are the same across culture.. An

emotional expression like a frown or smile can be hard to consciously control.

8. Physiology: This category includes changes in body physiology like an increase in

sweat or blinking rapidly. These are nearly impossible to deliberately control.

The Non verbal communicative competence:

To be understood and to understand are simple and basic human needs; however, they

are made complex when cultural differences are part of the equation.In our increasingly

interdependent and global world; people cannot afford to be ineffectual intercultural

communicators.
 Birdwhistell(1955), one of the pioneers in research on non-verbal communication,

estimates that in a conversation up to 65% of what is transmitted on the social, interpersonal

level is conveyed non-verbally. This implies that a considerable part of any message that we

are sending and receiving is encoded and decoded non –verbally. Consequently, although

only recently ,non-verbal phenomena have become a focus of interest in various disciplines

such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, and linguistics( cf.Kendon2004).