Paralanguage And Proxemics English Lang

Paralanguage And Proxemics English Language Essay

INTRODUCTION
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. 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 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 encompasses much more, such as use of voice (paralanguage), touch (haptics), distance (proxemics), and physical environments/appearance. Typically overlooked in nonverbal communication is proxemics, or the informal space around the body and chronemics: the use of time. Not only considered eye contact, oculesics comprises the actions of looking while talking and listening, frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation, and blink rate. Even speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Nonverbal communication is an important part in our life. And culture plays an important role in nonverbal communication, and it is one aspect that helps to influence how learning activities are organized. Nonverbal communication involves the processes of encoding and decoding. Encoding is the act of generating the information such as facial expressions, gestures, and postures. Decoding is the interpretation of information from received sensations from previous experiences.
This study was made to find out how often and what expression does the students at Open University using nonverbal communication in their life.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Communication “Communication,” which is related to both “communion” and “community,” comes from the Latin word “communicare”, which means, “to make common” or “to share” (Weekley, 1967, p. 338). DeVito (1986) also noted that through a channel and many others participation of sound, communication is the act of transferring a message from a sender to a receiver (p. 61). Some would specify precisely by saying that the message is intentionally transmitted and conveyed the meaning in order to bring about change. Eleven years later, Oliver goes on by explaining that communication is the process of swapping ideas, emotions and opinion through arbitrary signs, words and written messages between two human being (1997). He also stated that this might be stated as “a technical fact”. However it is unsure that signs can be delivered or cannot, to what extent signs runs across the message transmission and how efficient of the transmission on the receiver (Kalla, 2005). Communication whether has advantages or disadvantages are an inseparable part of life and it has an important role on all activities (Ada et al., 2008). That is to say, communication covers every activity that a single human being does when he or she wants to make changes in someone else’s thought. Moreover, communication is also a process that contains producing, obtaining and comprehending (Banerji and Dayal, 2005). In line with Banerji and Dayal’s concept, Gerbner also emphasizes social aspect of communication and defines it as “social interaction formed by entries”. Communication is generally divided into 2 part: verbal and nonverbal communication. In this chapter, nonverbal communication is highlighted.

2.2. Nonverbal communication
2.2.1. Definition of nonverbal communication
In 1996, Burgoon, Buller and Woodall indicated that nonverbal communication shared almost the same meaning as verbal communication. They also noted that nonverbal behaviors are “typically sent with intent, are used with regularity among members of a social community, are typically interpreted as intentional, and have consensually recognized interpretations” (p. 113). Many show their disapproval because to them it sounds exactly like verbal communication, and it is the best to describe it as “symbolic and systematic” nonverbal communication. On one hand, in 1934 Mead distinguished between what he named as “gesture” versus “significant symbol”. On the other hand, nearly seven decades later, Buck and Van Lear are in contradiction with Mead’s view and argued that “gestures are not symbolic in that their relationship to their referents is not arbitrary”, a fundamental distinction between verbal and nonverbal communication (p. 524). Getting notice of all the way you unconsciously perform an action or move your body during the day. For instance, when you sit an exam or attend in your class, will you think of your nonverbal behaviors? In other words, most of the ways you present in class are performed in an unconscious way. Whereas we positively aware of using nonverbal communication consciously to share particular meanings, when having a closer look on this matter, it appeared that this channel of communication is not “an agreed-upon rule-governed system of symbols”. Spontaneous and unintentional are two words that fit the definition of nonverbal communication that is not followed the symbolic rule systems. In short, while the verbal communication usually refers to the words we use to share information with others, the nonverbal communication often direct attention to interaction which is produced by means rather than words such as eye contact, behaviors, gesture, posture, vocal cues (Knapp & Hall, 2002). Now that you have been given a brief definition of nonverbal communication, in this next section, we would like to direct your attention by clarifying six types of nonverbal communication we use regularly: kinesics, paralanguage, silence, oculesics, olfactics, haptics.

2.2.2. Six nonverbal communication codes
2.2.2.1. Kinesics
Birdwhistell – an American anthropologist – is the first person who defined kinesics as the study in which human body behaviors such as body movements, gesture, facial expression and eye contact is used to communication nonverbally (Birdwhistell, 1970). According to Ekman and Friesen, kinesics is the study of the way nonverbal communication is conveyed through body movements, and a categorization system of five principle types of movements is developed (1969).
2.2.2.1.a. Emblems
Emblems, which often are culture specific, refer to body gestures that are interpreted as words or phrases in a straight line. For example, in the United Sates, the act of waving your whole hand from side to side means say “hello”. However, this same waving act means “no” in the large part of Europe and means “insulting” in Greece (Axtell, 1993).
2.2.2.1.b. Illustrators
Illustrators are intentional gesticulation used to heighten the nonverbal messages. Examples of illustrators are gesturing towards the right when we mention something to the right, nodding our head when we agree or say yes or holding up two palms when we wish to say “I don’t know”.
2.2.2.1.c. Affect displays
Affect displays involves nonverbal movements of the face and body which serve the function of expressing feeling and emotion. How to react when your favorite football team wins, look at an upset woman shouts at anyone she meets or hear the door slam when an angry person leaves room are instances of affect displays.
2.2.2.1.d. Regulators
Regulators are behaviors that regulate, administer or control the current or rate of speaking. By the way of illustration, gazing on the floor displays we are disinterested, or we yawn when we are bored or tired.
2.2.2.1.e. Adaptors
Adaptors are gestures that we might do completely in private but in part when we are in public. Specifically, scratch at an itch or rub nose at home, but we would not perform in public.
2.2.2.2. Paralanguage
Paralanguage is the word we use to describe any nonverbal elements of the voice such as vocal qualities (pitch, intensity, inflection, rate of speech, and rhythm), vocal segregates (“uh”, “um”, “uh-huh”) or even vocal characterized (laughter, sobs). From the very first beginning of the research, all types of nonverbal communication are considered non-vocal; nonetheless, some nonverbal communication is actually vocal. Is it possible that the way we express our words can intensify the meaning of the actual words? Sarcasm and incongruency are the first two examples of this. The comedian Chi Tai stays much focus on his comedy’s paralanguage. The way he expresses his words in the monotone voice, goes along with blank facial during his performance. The verbal information that the speakers send are completely contradicted with what they say, whenever they take sarcasm into their conversation. Researchers have found that in classroom environment, using sarcasm can lead to backfire when students primarily concentrate on teacher’s verbal message rather than pick up their paralinguistic cues. Moreover, accent can be identified as an aspect of paralanguage. In many part of the world, specifically in Britain, people can recognize one person’s background through their accent. Everyone has their own accent; but we have to come up to a conclusion that some prove to be more acceptable than the others. In 1974, Ryan recognized that accent could be a problem that leads lo racism. A research conducted by Zerda & Hooper pointed out that standard speaker had higher potential of getting a supervisory position; however, “accented speaker” only received semiskilled positions (1979).

2.2.2.3. Silence
Silence is a form nonverbal communication that is understood in a very different way around the globe. Silence was defined as a non-attendance of speech or as interval at non-speech or non-vocalization in conversation (Zuo, 2002, p. 4; Tannen & Saville-Troike, 1985). Silence permits thinking time, emotional expression or responsive consideration. Whereas word was conventionally regarded as a prototypical speaker, silence was believed to be a prototypical non-speaker (Tannen & Saville-Troike, 1985). Nevertheless, some scholars disputed that silence is, in reality, communicative. As cited by Basso (1970, p. 213), a man who is silent does not mean he says nothing. In fact, researchers take a risk of neglecting a main part of communication by ignoring silence, because silence can convey meaning (Samarin, 1965, p. 115). People of the United States dominant culture – low-context culture – use silence to express disapproval, a suggestion that something is wrong or to gather their thoughts before they say something because they are uncomfortable with silence. Conversely, high-context cultures, such as Japan and Germany, are very comfortable with silence, so they use silence to examine what was said and to really comprehend the other person’s mentions. Culture of Asia and Scandinavia believe that silence is a fundamental component of communication. In Vietnam society, silence may mean agreement. The Japanese use silence after a presentation to show respect for what has been said because they would consider no periods of silence as very little thought sayings or the lack of focus. In contrast, Middle Easterners do not require periods of silence. 2.2.2.4. Haptics
Haptics or tactile communication is the study, which focus on using touch in communication. Touch is the foremost category of nonverbal communication we experience as human beings and it plays a pivotal role in our development and health (Dolin & Booth-Butterfield, 1993). For adults, touch is an effective means of communication (Aguinis, Simonsen, & Pierce, 1998; Fromme et al., 1989). The association of touch with the warmth and caring began from infancy to adulthood. People who are comfortable with touch are more likely to be satisfied with their past and current lives. Those who sustain positive touch in their lives will have a better mental and physical healthy than those who do not experience positive touch. They are self-confident, assertive, socially acceptable, and active in confronting problems. Our emotions and relational denotations are shared by touch. In addition, touching communication is extensively various among cultures and the amounts of kinds of touch vary with the age, gender, position, and relationship of the people involved. To be specific, in Thailand and Laos, it is rude for a stranger or acquaintance to touch a child on the top of the head. By and large, touch is reserved for family and romantic relationships in western society. In general, girls and women in same gender friendships are at liberty to convey touch as part of the relationship than men. Certainly touch can be misunderstood in some settings (Kane, 2006; Lee & Guerrero, 2001; Strozier, Krizek, & Sale, 2003). If two adult male friends walk hand in hand, people from the United States who assume the friends are homosexuals might frequently misunderstand them. However, because of the great demand for touch, men are quite sophisticated at finding ways to incorporate this into their friendships in socially acceptable ways – wrestling amongst adolescent and young-adult males. According to Henley, males may use touch to signify their power or their dominance (1973–1974). Touch is welcome, desired, and appreciated when it is utilized to communicate interest, consideration, and liking. In contrast, touch abuse can result in a breach of faith, nervousness, and aggression.

2.2.2.5. Oculesics
Oculesics is the study of communication sent by the eyes. Eye contact, or oculesics, is more importance in some cultures than in others. In the dominant U.S. culture, made up of people of European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern consider direct eye contact as important part in making conversation. In many Western countries, embracing the United States, eye contact with between two people is the way to signify of truthfulness, concern, honesty and sometimes dominance or status (Andersen, 1999). However, the American is not pleased about a steady, unbroken gaze; they are uncomfortable with long-lasting eye contact and may feel this behavior as disturbing, offensive or aggressive. At the very minimum, it is rude to stare at a person. Pearson (1985) found that men sometimes make eye contact to challenge others and to assert themselves. Women tend to hold eye contact more than men do, irrespective of the gender of the person they are interacting with (Wood, 2002). Some Eastern cultures avoid eye contact with others by the reason of an impolite invasion of privacy and they especially disapprove of eye contact with a person of higher status. Differences in the use of eye contact exist in United States co-culture. For examples, when African American speaks, they make direct eye contact; however, they look away when listening. Within the Native American co-culture, the Hopi and Navajos are insulted by straight eye contact. According to a Navajos myth, a person gives you the evil eye when this person looks intently at you (Martin & Chaney, 2006). The length of eye contact when two people are communicating adjusts to the culture. For instance, Greeks have more contact in public places and show their expectation as well. Ignored feeling of Greece appears if there is a failure in making eye contact. They do like to talk to someone who does not wear dark glasses because they are able to see the eyes. On the other hand, Swedish give less eye contact while conversing than other Europeans do. However, they do look at each other for longer periods
2.2.2.6. Olfactics
Olfactics is the study of communication via smell – one of the least understood sense. On account of the different cultures, distinct dimensions for olfactory communication have established (Hurn & Tomalin, 2013). The smell is direction for positive react or negative react of a person to other people. A person’s smell might stay in another person’s remembering long after this person has left. You smell when you do activity. What you eat and the scents you apply to your skin influence on smell. To be specific, because people of the United States eat more meat than people in many other countries, there is a different body odor between the Americans and people from other countries in which more vegetables and fish are consumed. If you meet people who are from the United States, you probably notice body odors, bad breath, perspiration, or too much cologne to be offensive. However, in other countries such as France, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, you will discover that men wear heavier fragrances than women. Japanese and Filipinos are cognizant of different fragrances and often complain to the Americans at their smell. Western culture fears of offensive natural smells; nonetheless, many other cultures consider natural body odors as normal like Arabic. Asian cultures – Filipino, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Indian – stress frequent bathing and often criticize Western culture of not bathing often enough! Not knowing how a culture perceives odors and how you are expected to react to the odors has many bad influences.
METHODOLOGY
This paper applied descriptive research to get information. We used quantitative method. This means we used questionnaires in order to collect numerical data. Basing on this data, we analysis to achieve the result. We create a questionnaire including some questions related to the topic “ paralanguage.” Then we carry out a survey with students in university. Respondents were asked to rate each item using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). ( cái này em ghi đại, không bik giống bảng câu hỏi của chị Thảo k, có gì chị sửa giúp em)
We choose this method because of basing the number; we could analysis easily the real state of affairs that we are researching. Moreover, from the data’s survey, we could make some charts to illustrate the issue of researching. That figure helps our figure out the problem simply. Besides, it makes our research more attractive and more interesting avoiding boring in process.
This paper applied descriptive research to get information. Based on the figure of our survey, we are going to use Microsoft excel to total up specific number. Then we apply the quantitative research method and some graphs to illustrate analysis and take out a suitable result for our research. Participants selected in the study were students in university. We are student of Open University. All of them have learned intercultural communication. This means they have the same knowledge. (cái này em k chắc, ghi đại) The equipment used in each step is questionnaire. The questionnaire contains some question related to the problem that we are researching. Then we use statistic software of computer to get figure. BỔ SUNG DÙM EM CÂU HỎI CỦA CHỊ.
ĐÂY LÀ PHẦN CỦA ANH HUY NÈ CHỊ. ANALYSIS. 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. 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. Everything communicates, including material objects, physical space, and time systems. Although verbal output can be turned off, nonverbal cannot. Even silence speaks. After making a survey on kinds of nonverbal communication, we’ve made a conclusion that most people often use kinds of nonverbal communication such as kinesics, haptics, paralanguage, silence, ofactics or oculesics in their everyday communication. Eye contact (or Oculesics) is the most widely-used kind of nonverbal communication. It is used even when the communicator is listening or talking. 65% of people asked said that they usually make eyes contact when they are listening while just 20% of them said that they usually did that when they were the talkers. All asked said that they did use eyes contact in everyday conversation and thought that it play an important role in their lives. Of all those which were surveyed, ofactics (or smell) seemed to play the less important role in communication. Even 33% people don’t think ofactics really influence their lives, and 5% people said that they didn’t use ofactics for communication. In my opinion, silence is the most interesting kind of nonverbal communication. 40% people said that they usually, and 30% people supposed they often used this kind of absolutely nonverbal communication in their everyday communication. One quarter people said they use this kind of communication to express feelings and emotions, while more than 60% people thought they used it to express opinions and thoughts. Relational meanings also play an important role in uses of silence when even 15% people asked said that they used silence to express this kind of information. Paralanguage seemed to play an important role in everyday communication when there are 40% people asked said that they often used this kind of nonverbal communication in their everyday lives. Only 10% people supposed they rarely used paralanguage and 30% people thought they sometimes did use it. One in ten asked said they always used paralanguage, and the same number of people thought they usually use pitch, volume, inflection, etc. in their everyday lives. Sadly, most people (60%) supposed they used it to express sarcasm and incongruousness. Only 5% thought they used it to express information. Even 15% people said they used it to express relational meanings when one in five used paralanguage to show their feelings. Most people asked said that they often used kinesics in their everyday lives. Just 5% rarely used it. One in five people always or usually made gestures, body movements, etc. to communicate. 15% people didn’t appeare to appreciate kinesics much when they supposed they just sometimes used this kind of nonverbal communication to communicate. Feelings, emotions, meaning and relational responsiveness are 4 things that are expressed through kinesics and they seemed to be equal importance. Haptics did appeared to be an important kind of communicative tool when all who were asked said that they used this kind of communication in their daily lives. 10% appeared to appreciate this kind of nonverbal communication when they said that they always used it to express their ideas. Even haft of them supposed they usually or often used haptics to communicate. One in five sometimes use it, and the same number of people didn’t appreciate haptics much when they said they rarely used it in their everyday conversations. Feelings and relational meanings are 2 kinds of messages that are considered the most important ones to be expressed when one used haptics. Even 95% asked said they used it to express these 2 kinds of messages. All of the people in our survey thought that nonverbal communication play an important role in their everyday communication that cannot be replaced. The way you listen, look, move, and react tells the other person whether or not you care, if you’re being truthful, and how well you’re listening. What you communicate through your body language and nonverbal signals affects how others see you, how well they like and respect you, and whether or not they trust you. When your nonverbal signals match up with the words you’re saying, they increase trust, clarity, and rapport. When they don’t, they generate tension, mistrust, and confusion. If you want to become a better communicator, it’s important to become more sensitive not only to the body language and nonverbal cues of others, but also to your own.