 Human language is a remarkably complex form of communication, consisting of countless languages and ever growing dialects and colloquialisms. Despite the vast array of language differences, one constant persists – non-verbal aspects of communication remain stable and universal. Show The ways in which your body either emphasizes or contradicts spoken words is just as important as the words you use, or even more so, in those moments when actions speak louder than words. This is known as non-verbal communication, non-verbal cues, or often described as body language (kinesics). What does body language mean?Non-verbal communication is information that is passed without the use of spoken or written words. The non-verbal platform includes eye contact (oculesics) or the lack thereof, facial expressions, gestures, posture, personal appearance, the physical environment and the artefacts/objects that compose it, touch (haptics), paralanguage (vocalics), the use of time (chronemics), and the distance between you and your audience (proxemics). For example, when interviewing for a job, we might not realize that employers will evaluate what we do as much as what we say. Crossed arms can imply defensiveness, poor posture may seem unprofessional, and a downward gaze (avoiding eye contact) will draw away from the confident impression we want to give. Verbal and non-verbal communicationVerbal and non-verbal communication occur simultaneously, with the latter generally being under less cognitive control and revealing more of what we actually think and feel. Body language, facial expressions and vocal characteristics are not easy to control, whereas verbal communication is done intentionally and is easier to manipulate. As a result, we have more faith in non-verbal cues than what is actually said. If a person says one thing, but sends a contradicting message non-verbally, the receiver is more likely to trust the non-verbal signal. Therefore, having a conscious awareness of your non-verbal communication while verbally communicating can help others receive messages the way you actually intended to give them. Also, don´t be “all talk and no substance”. Next time you want to make a positive impression, make sure you have not only prepared what you are going to say, but that you have practiced conveying your messages through appropriate body language (practice makes interview perfect). There is countless research regarding types, effects, and expressions of unspoken communication and behaviour. To narrow it down, we will repeat the basics offered by psychologists Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen (1969), who identified six important ways how non-verbal communication can interact with our verbal discourse: repeating, conflicting, complementing, substituting, regulating and accenting. What type of communication describes our body language?
Respectively, we can agree that spoken language is normally used for communicating information about events external to the speaker, while non-verbal communication is used to create and maintain interpersonal relationships. Body language in business communicationGoing a step further is the analysis of non-verbal communication in business. Since business often involves recurring human interaction, understanding the elements of non-verbal cues can be a great asset when working with colleagues, teams, competitors, and current/potential clients. Managers will use body language to effectively lead employees and team members. On the other hand, employees and team members will use their body language to send messages outside the business. Within MIUC´s BA Psychology module “The Basics of Interpersonal Skills: Experiential Groups”, the first-year student Tapanga Jansen tackled the topic of “The Power of Non-Verbal Communication in Sales”. Tapanga presented the theoretical and practical aspects of body language, its importance in the sales process of any company, and how it has an impact on the decision making process. Moreover, in her presentation she highlights different aspects of non-verbal communication both from the client´s and seller´s aspect, how certain connections with people can create a trustworthy, professional and credible environment, and consequently, how body language can add interest, clarity and trust. For tips on non-verbal communication that can make or break a sale, watch the following link. To conclude, it must be said that to build good habits one must practice non-verbal communication and know what gestures are likely to resonate with your speaker (clients and prospects), as to improve the chances of making a good impression. Practicing non-verbal cues will ensure your skills are up to par. The more often you instate adequate body language, the more likely it will become second nature, and you will feel comfortable while networking. So instead of clammy hands and a sweaty brow, aim for establishing credibility and trust in your non-verbal behaviour. The less nervous you are, the better communication you will have, both verbally and non-verbally. Eva Berkovic Man needs to communicate with others in his daily life. Daily activities show that many activities cannot be performed without communicating with others. Many researchers and experts have defined communication. For example, Aristotle defined communication as the use of available resources to find a way to encourage others express their ideas and opinions. The aim of communication is to develop motivation in the addressee. Communication means social development and the source of culture and spiritual development so that lack of communication leads to a relative static state in human life, which prevents any kind of social development (6). One of the characteristics of professional teachers is their ability to engage in effective, meaningful and purposeful relationship with educators. In case a teacher is scientifically competent but is not able to communicate effectively with the learners, he/she is not able to teach satisfactorily; thus, the teaching-learning process has not been fully implemented. To this end, for more teachers’ familiarity, scholars of the field of education should firstly acquire the information and skills which are required to communicate well with students. Various methods of communication suggest these skills as those of the relationship between voluntary and involuntary, formal and informal, one-sided and two-way, and verbal and non-verbal communication. To this end, for more teachers’ familiarity, scholars of the field of education should firstly acquire the information and skills which are required to communicate well with students. Various methods of communication suggest these skills as those of the relationship between voluntary and involuntary, formal and informal, one-sided and two-way, and verbal and non-verbal communication. Safavi (7) points out in his research that different definitions of teaching have been provided by different researchers, all of which have two characteristics in common:
Thus, teaching can be defined as teacher’s planned activities to create an ever-lasting change in the learners’ behavior which is done in the form of a mutual relationship. The stronger this relationship and the communication skills are, the deeper the outcome of this interaction will be, i.e. the stable and effective learning. Only in this way the teacher can develop and emerge the students' potentials. Therefore, before any action for teaching, the teacher’s relationship with the students should be strengthened at the beginning. Non-verbal communication is often more subtle and more effective than verbal communication and can convey meaning better than words. For example, perhaps a smile conveys our feeling much easier than words. Silent speech is of great importance in human’s daily interactions and it influences one’s chances of failure or success in personal and professional social encounters. Also, the Holy Quran in several cases refers to this point, for example for the tolerant and poor people, it is stated: “You would know them by their appearance” and says about the hypocrites: “and you will know them by the tone of their speech”. Also, Imam Ali (AS) believed that one’s appearance is the indicator of his/her internal state. Whenever a person conceals something in his/her heart, it manifests itself in the expressions of his face. “No one can hide anything in the unseen since it is evident in his/her thoughtless words and his/her face”. According to the studies conducted, at each conversation only seven percent of the concepts are expressed in the form of spoken words. Most of the information is transferred through the complex combination of appearance, posture, limb movement, sight, and facial expressions. On the other hand, the effect of most body language acts lower than the addressee’s awareness, i.e. the addressee receives the profound effects of the issue without being aware of it. So, the people who have the ability to use these skills have the potential to guide others in a particular direction to achieve their goals, and precisely for this reason most of the human interactions involve non-verbal communication. Body language has the power to transfer the attitudes and feelings of people to others and in many cases can be even more effective than verbal messages (8). In this regard, numerous studies have been conducted by Oskouhi et al. (1) on the role of non-verbal communication on educational performance of faculty members of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resource University in Sari; the results of the study showed a significant positive correlation between non-verbal communication skills and educational performance of Sari faculty members of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University. As mentioned above, proper communication between the teacher and students is the most important skills in teaching. If this relationship is well established, educational goals will be more easily realized with a high quality. In the process of communicating, three main factors play a role, including signaling (teacher), messages (instructional), receiver (student) (9). Accordingly, first of all, the teacher himself/herself or by teaching aids sends a message to the students as the receiver of the message. In the next step, the students respond to teacher’s messages and send a new message to the teacher who is the receiver of the message this time. An important point in communication process is that the teacher-students relationship in the classroom is one of the complex human relationships, and certainly different ways are involved in how to establish this communication, e.g. two types of verbal and non-verbal communication. Such communication can be defined as total relationships that can be achieved through speaking and conversation. Teachers should use the words carefully to be successful in teaching. Each word provokes a feeling in people, specific emotions, and distinct function. If the words are applied in their proper place, it would affect the soul and body of the audience immediately. Therefore, it is appropriate that the teacher avoids using negative words in dealing with the students, i.e. such words as “I can’t, it’s impossible, is not possible, never, etc...”. A successful educator in the field of teaching should be aware of the power of words and its impact on the audience and avoid using words habitually without thinking. Also, ordering is one of the conflicts which leads to failure in human interaction. The teacher should express his opinion with proper words and within the defined framework for his comments to be effective and penetrating. Therefore, the teacher, as the sender of the message, should first determine the framework of his message and then express his expectations of the students frankly with appropriate tone and words (3). Expression of words clearly and eloquently by the educator causes the students to listen with dignity and willingness, sum up the facts, and think to solve the problem and supply the teacher’s comment without any tension or boredom. But using biased phrases often raises a sense of stubbornness and humiliation in the trainee, puts him out of the cycle of learning and deep understanding of scientific content completely, and leaves irreparable psychological effects on the student. In the selection of words, the intended concept must be exactly in the words of the educator. It is appropriate to use clear, concise, accurate, polite, correct and rich expression in oral communication with the audience to transmit the speaker's intentions to the audience properly (4). Verbal skills are generally divided into four parts: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these skills, speaking has the higher degree of importance and usefulness and has more decisive impact on oral communication with the audience (10). It is worth noting that speaking skill requires non-verbal communication, or body language to complete its impact on the audience. In interactive communication which is based only on words and phrases, and the message sender does not use any non-verbal communication methods such as facial expressions, eye contact, and overall condition of the body and hands movement, we cannot not expect proper understanding of the message from the audience More than half of our face to face conversations are non-verbal and sign language, and gestures express our feelings and attitudes without saying a word. There was a significant correlation between the teacher’s appropriate and timely verbal and non-verbal behaviors and students’ achievement and good behavior (2). The results of the present study indicated that there was a correlation between the teachers’ verbal and non-verbal communication skills and students’ learning and motivation. Ambiguity in the teacher’s speech is known as the main obstacle in the teachers and students’ relationship, and in total, according to the teachers, most of the communication barriers in schools are related to human. If the teacher has an encouraging manner tailored to the students’ status, he/she can achieve effective results with his communication with students. Also, if the teacher uses humiliating speech, his relationship with the students will deteriorate (3). Facial expression, eye contact, physical appearance, etc. … express a message. Facial expression is more effective than other modes of non-verbal cues and gives us a lot of information about the emotional status of others to the extent that some theorists believe that facial expression is the most important source of information after language. In the field of teaching, certainly one of the main characteristics of good teachers is good communication skill in classroom, and most of the observed stress in the classroom arises from the lack of proper communication (4). The classroom administration and constructive conflict resolution in the classroom require good communication skills, the most important of which is non-verbal skills. By using this skill, teachers can play a major role in the success of their students. Through the use of non-verbal language, teachers draw the student’s attention to more understanding and motivate the students and even bring excitement to the bored students. The students unconsciously receive non-verbal signals sent from the teacher; they immediately notice that the one standing before them is teaching by all his/her will or is constantly waiting for the class to be ended. Therefore, it should be mentioned that non-verbal communication can supplement or replace verbal communication; it is either a repetition of verbal messages, making verbal communication more prominent and specific, or completes the verbal communication. Human beings use non-verbal behavior in order to complete their interpersonal interaction; they rely on non-verbal behavior to recognize when to speak, when to let others to speak, and how to speak. Non-verbal communication often makes interactional concepts since communication always has two literal and conceptual levels of meaning, and this type of communication is associated with semantic level. It reflects cultural values. This claim implicitly indicates that most of the non-verbal behaviors are acquired during socialization and are totally variable, depending on culture and traditions (11). An important point in non-verbal communication is the use of this relationship, especially when teaching correctly and timely (12). Teachers who had used non-verbal communication techniques in interacting with students with physical and motor impairment in Tehran province had played an effective role in increasing the students’ self-esteem and reducing their shyness (13). An appropriate method of using non-verbal communication is that the teacher gives problem solving assignment to the student according to their intellectual ability. He shows them that he is aware of their abilities and creates motivation in them. Thus, he is willing to solve the problem; on the other hand, if the teacher indirectly tells the students that he doesn’t think he is able to solve the problem, the student will be afraid as well. These mutual reactions are not important in school; rather, they are important in all human relationships, especially between parents and children (14). The teacher’s timely use of non-verbal communication can be done through a simple greeting with students which is the best way to start the class, and is of course impossible without non-verbal language (5). An experienced speaker begins his speech by talking directly to one of the listeners, tries to look at each student throughout the speech one by one, and changes the tone of his voice during a speech so that the students do not get tired. Teachers’ non-verbal language can be effective if students can see the teacher rather than the teacher was being hidden behind a desk or board or teaching while turning his back to students. The best place for the teacher in class is standing near his/her table and all students see him. The teacher should not put his hands in his pockets, as this limits his activeness. It is best for the teacher to keep his/her hands free; this indicates the readiness of teachers to communicate with the students. The teacher must sometimes change his place, but if he/she always changes his/her place physically in class, the focus of learners will reduce and learning process will not proceed. Another important point is that the teacher must look at individual students. Otherwise, the students will have the impression that the teacher is ignoring them, so the effect of looking at the audience is undeniable. The right way for addressing the student is that the teacher should not point to the student by his/her finger when asking question because the student feels fearful and anxious in this case. The best method is that the teacher assumes a space with the student looks at him/her directly and points to him/her with full hand (8). Conscious use of non-verbal language is not a show, but rather it makes the effects of individual words better; the more natural the non-verbal language is, the more acceptable it is to the audience. Teachers who use non-verbal language properly have a better relationship with their students. Often some barriers to effective communication, both verbal and non-verbal, arise in the classroom. In order to communicate properly, especially in the case of non-verbal communication, it is necessary that the educator identifies the factors detrimental to effective communication and resolve them. The main obstacles are as follows (9): 1- Teachers’ lack of awareness of student’s level of understanding: Experience has shown that if educational activities are not in the domain of the students’ knowledge and level of understanding, learning and achieving educational goals are little or they do not happen at all. To prevent these problems, first of all educational message should be presented according to the students’ level of understanding and then different methods should be used, especially non-verbal communication, for better understanding. 2- Long oral arguments: When teachers teach just orally for a long time, students gradually get discouraged from pursuing the teacher’s discussions. This indicates that human beings automatically listen to the favorite sounds at first, and then they block their sense of hearing on inappropriate content. To resolve this problem, a variety of teaching methods, ways of communicating, etc. can be useful. 3- Boring message: When the educational activities in the classroom are not interesting to the students, they pay less attention to it, so good communication will not take place during learning. To generate interest and motivate the students, teachers can use different communication methods. 4- Dreaming: Another factor impacting effective communication is the student’s daydreaming during teaching, which makes them temporarily out of the classroom and into their personal experience and their dream. According to the principles of psychology, personal experiences can be more attractive for individuals and they can replace and set aside materials which are less attractive for students. Experienced and knowledgeable teachers can identify such students, and use more interesting methods to communicate with them. Of course, in such cases the use of non-verbal communication methods will be very effective. 5- Inappropriate physical factors: Inappropriate physical condition can disconnect the learners from their teachers. So, the suitability of light and color in the class setting, comfortable seats, etc. … can be effective to prevent the occurrence of these factors. Verbal and non-verbal communications have differences and similarities (14): In these cases, the following differences can be noted: 1- Non-verbal communication is more reliable: One of the main differences in the two kinds of communication is that non-verbal communication is more reliable for the audience, especially when verbal and non-verbal messages are inconsistent. 2- Non-verbal communication is multi-faceted: The second difference between the two systems of communication is that non-verbal communication is often established simultaneously in two or more channels. 3- Non-verbal communication is continuous: Compared to verbal communication that is less continual, non-verbal one is. Moreover, the similarities include:
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When nonverbal signals do not match the spoken word what happens to the validity of the communication?
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