BODY LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

The ways we use body language in English communication:...9 2.4.. Body language goes both ways:  Your own body language reveals your feelings andmeanings to others... Theoretical basis:

1 FOREWORD 1

1.1 The reason to choosing the theme: 1

1.2 The purposes of the reseach: 2

1.3 Subject of the reseach: 2

1.4 Reseaching methods: 2

2 CONTENDS: 3

2.1 Theoretical basis: 3

2.2 The reality of the problem before applying experience: 5

2.3 The solutions to solve the problems: 5

2.3.1 What is body language? 5

2.3.2 The importance of body language: 6

2.3.3 The ways we use body language in English communication: 9

2.4 The effect of the experience on educational operations, myself, colleagues and centre: 17

3 CONCLUSION: 18

3.1 Conclusion: 18

3.2 Proposal and petition: 18

REFERENCES 19

1 FOREWORD

1.1 The reason to choosing the theme:

As globalization trends and it is very important whenVietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), foreignlanguages, especially English have special importance in ourcountry Using English fluently is particularly important becauseour country is striving to have a science, engineering, advancedtechnology, an industry development and modernization inorder to integrate effectively and safety Although not anexplicit assertion, English almost be regarded as theinternational language Therefore requires our country to have

a moderate human resources professionals are trained in a waythat all the systems, quality, moderately meet the deliveryrequirements of international communication Due to suchrequirements recent years the Ministry of Education andTraining has taken English courses at all levels of education:elementary school, junior high, high schools to colleges, theUniversities English is one of the subject that students willhave to take exam when they want to enter some Universities

or colleges, especially English exams on the internet has beenresponded by students and their parents That was partlyproved the importance of English for the country'smodernization and international integration Learning bodylanguage in English communication is an important part forEnglish learners

Body Language is a significant aspect of moderncommunications and relationships

Body Language is therefore very relevant to managementand leadership, and to all aspects of work and business wherecommunications can be seen and physically observed amongpeople

Body language is also very relevant to relationships outside

of work, for example in dating and mating, and in families andparenting

Communication includes listening In terms of observablebody language, non-verbal (non-spoken) signals are beingexchanged whether these signals are accompanied by spokenwords or not

Body language goes both ways:

 Your own body language reveals your feelings andmeanings to others

 Other people's body language reveals their feelings andmeanings to you.

The sending and receiving of body language signalshappens on conscious and unconscious levels

Body language, and more technically the study of bodylanguage, is also known as kinesics (pronounced 'kineesicks'),which is derived from the Greek word kinesis, meaning motion.Body language is an effective and important way of communicating Itdirectly supports expressing the attitude and emotions of the speakers However,

if you do not know the body language – it can cause misunderstands For these

reasons, I choose the theme “BODY LANGUAGE IN ENGLISH COMMUNICATION” as my experience.

1.2 The purposes of the reseach:

Body language is an effective and important way ofcommunicating It directly supports expressing the attitude andfeelings of the speaker Students may good at English in fourskills: speaking, reading, listening and writing; they may verygood at communication as well However, body language seem

to be strange to them Learning English without knowledgeabout body language can cause misunderstand This lead tounconfident to speak English With the desire to help mystudents become more confident in communicating with nativesspeaker, I have initiated “body language” as a experience Inaddition, understanding the body language also helps studentsunderstand more about the culture of English people

1.3 Subject of the reseach:

This experience initiative studies the body language inEnglish communication, mainly about the common way ofcommunication This topic explores the age of students ofcontinuing education

1.4 Reseaching methods:

- Summarizing experience through the teaching process

- Reading book for more information

- Reseaching methodology to construct the theory.

2 CONTENDS:

2.1 Theoretical basis:

A good reason for broadening the scope of body language is

to avoid missing important signals which might not beconsidered within a narrow definition of body language

Nevertheless confusion easily arises if definitions andcontext are not properly established, for example:

It is commonly and carelessly quoted that 'non-verbalcommunications' and/or 'body language' account for up to 93%

of the meaning that people take from any humancommunication This statistic is actually a distortion based

on Albert Mehrabian's research theory, which while itself issomething of a cornerstone of body language research,certainly did not make such a sweeping claim

Mehrabian's research findings in fact focused oncommunications with a strong emotional or 'feelings' element.Moreover the 93% non-verbal proportion included vocalintonation (paralinguistics), which are regarded by many asfalling outside of the body language definition

Care must therefore be exercised when stating specificfigures relating to percentages of meaning conveyed, or inmaking any firm claims in relation to body language and non-verbal communications

It is safe to say that body language represents a verysignificant proportion of meaning that is conveyed andinterpreted between people Many body language experts andsources seem to agree that that between 50-80% of all humancommunications are non-verbal So while body languagestatistics vary according to situation, it is generally acceptedthat non-verbal communications are very important in how weunderstand each other (or fail to), especially in face-to-face andone-to-one communications, and most definitely when thecommunications involve an emotional or attitudinal element

In his renowned research on nonverbal communication,UCLA Professor Albert Mehrabian concludedthat communication consists of three separate elements: words,tone of voice and body language

He researched how people communicate feelings andattitudes, and found that only seven percent of thatcommunication comes from words Meanwhile, 38 percent of

messages are communicated by tone of voice, and 55 percent

of messages are communicated by body language

Body language is especially crucial when we meet someonefor the first time

We form our opinions of someone we meet for the first time

in just a few seconds, and this initial instinctual assessment isbased far more on what we see and feel about the other personthan on the words they speak On many occasions we form astrong view about a new person before they speak a singleword

Consequently body language is very influential in formingimpressions on first meeting someone

The effect happens both ways - to and from:

 When we meet someone for the first time, their bodylanguage, on conscious and unconscious levels, largelydetermines our initial impression of them

 In turn when someone meets us for the first time, theyform their initial impression of us largely from our bodylanguage and non-verbal signals

And this two-way effect of body language continuesthroughout communications and relationships between people.Body language is constantly being exchanged andinterpreted between people, even though much of the time this

is happening on an unconscious level

Remember - while you are interpreting (consciously orunconsciously) the body language of other people, so otherpeople are constantly interpreting yours

The people with the most conscious awareness of, andcapabilities to read, body language tend to have an advantageover those whose appreciation is limited largely to theunconscious

You will shift your own awareness of body language fromthe unconscious into the conscious by learning about thesubject, and then by practising your reading of non-verbalcommunications in your dealings with others

It is no wonder that so many people are fascinated by bodylanguage We are all "people watchers" and amateurpsychologists, partly because we have to be In every aspect ofcommunication at work - the selection interview, the annual

appraisal, the board meeting - we need to observe otherscarefully to try to understand better what they are feeling aswell as (really) saying.

Being adults, we are all skillful deceivers; we have learnt,for myriad reasons, to present ourselves in a particular way; tomanage the impression we leave; not always to say directlywhat we mean (perhaps to protect others' feelings); to sellproducts or ideas; and to explain away some undesirablebehaviour

Politicians and CEOs are often trained by actors to presentthemselves in a particular way They know that whilst they mayhave very clever speech writers, it is as much about how thespeech is delivered as what is said This is all more the case in atelevision age where the camera can focus in on small beads ofsweat, finger nail biting, or occasional scowls of importantspeakers

Experts now record speeches and analyze frame-by-framethe minute changes in facial expressions and body movements,usually to explore evidence that the speaker is being insincere.All actors know the importance of body language whenportraying a character, as do comedians who mimic or "takeoff" famous people Often a very simple mannerism, ifexaggerated, can immediately signal who it is they areattempting to "impersonate"

As a result, many people believe messages conveyed bydifferent body signals, particularly emotional states andattitudes to oneself and others, are somehow more real, morefundamental We send and "leak" nonverbal signals, which may

or may not be "picked up" in the communication process Thesender of the message may be aware or unaware of the signals

he or she sends Indeed, receivers may not always be aware ofthe messages they are actually picking up For instance, mostpeople are not aware of their pupil dilations; nor are observersaware that they can on specific occasions respond positively todilated pupils (when people are sexually aroused)

2.2 The reality of the problem before applying

experience:

English is more and more become a popular language and

an effective mean of study, research and integration However,learning English is not enough Students in general as well asstudents in vocational - continuing educational centre in

particular need to know more about the body language to bemore confident in communication Further more, during theteaching process, I realized that the students did not knowabout the body language but and they are trained the four mainskills mainly Not knowing body language will lead tomisunderstandings when comunicating Beacause students donot know about this topic, so in this experience I mention sometheories and situations to help students understand what isbody language in communication is.

2.3 The solutions to solve the problems:

2.3.1 What is body language?

Body language is a language in which physical behavior,

as opposed to words, is used to express feelings Such behaviorincludes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eyemovement, touch and the use of space Body language exists inboth animals and humans, but this article focuses oninterpretations of human body language It is also known

as kinesics

Body language must not be confused with sign language, assign languages are full languages like spoken languages andhave their own complex grammar systems, as well as beingable to exhibit the fundamental properties that exist in alllanguages Body language, on the other hand, does not have

a grammar and must be interpreted broadly, instead of having

an absolute meaning corresponding with a certain movement,

so it is not a language like sign language, and is simply termed

as a "language" due to popular culture

Body language is communication without words It isanything someone does to which someone else assignsmeaning Not all of the "signals" a person sends are intentionaland often they are "not picked up" or misinterpreted Nonverbalbehavior is complex, subtle, and multichannel It may bestructured (following certain rules) but is more likely to beunstructured; it may be continuous, unlike language, whichcomes in disconnected units; it may be learnt but somefunctions seem innate; and it may be "right-" as opposed to

"left-brained."

Body language can be subtle or blatant; it can beconsciously sent and unconsciously received; it can be carefullypracticed and displayed but also physiologically uncontrollable;

it can let you down by revealing your true beliefs and

behaviours; but also (when learnt) help enormously to putacross a message Facial expressions, gestures, head and gazemovements, body contact and orientation, sheer physicalproximity as well as tone of voice, clothes and body adornmentssend clear messages - some even intended!

Body Language is also referred to as 'non-verbalcommunications', and less commonly 'non-vocalcommunications'

The term 'non-verbal communications' tends to be used in awider sense, and all these terms are somewhat vague

For the purposes of this experience, the terms 'bodylanguage' and 'non-verbal communications' are broadlyinterchangeable This guide also takes the view that bodylanguage/non-verbal communications is the study of howpeople communicate face-to-face aside from the spoken wordsthemselves, and in this respect the treatment of the subjecthere is broader than typical body language guides limitedmerely to body positions and gestures

Nonverbal communication is a rather misleading term

"Nonverbal" excludes vocal or paralinguistic cues and signalslike emotional tone of speech, which is clearly very important.Communication suggests furthermore that giver and sender(encoder and decoder) are conscious speakers of the samebody language! Intentional messages may or may not beintentionally received Body language also excludes vocal cues.nonverbally Equally, unintentional messages may beunintentionally sent and received

What is body language? We can define it as the way peopledemonstrate their emotions through body movements such asfacial expressions, eye contact, and hand gestures It can eveninclude personal space and the way one dresses The thumbs

up example above illustrates that not all cultures have thesame norms when it comes to body language

2.3.2 The importance of body language:

Have you ever been in the situation when you really didn'tbelieve what someone was saying? Did you have a sense thatsomething didn't ring true or a gut feeling that all was not right?Perhaps they were saying "Yes" yet their heads were shaking

"No"?

The difference between the words people speak and ourunderstanding of what they are saying comes from non-verbal

communication, otherwise known as "body language." Bydeveloping your awareness of the signs and signals of bodylanguage, you can more easily understand other people, andmore effectively communicate with them.

There are sometimes subtle – and sometimes not so subtle– movements, gestures, facial expressions and even shifts inour whole bodies that indicate something is going on The way

we talk, walk, sit and stand all say something about us, andwhatever is happening on the inside can be reflected on theoutside

By becoming more aware of this body language andunderstanding what it might mean, you can learn to readpeople more easily This puts you in a better position tocommunicate effectively with them What's more, by increasingyour understanding of others, you can also become more aware

of the messages that you convey to them

There are times when we send mixed messages - we sayone thing yet our body language reveals something different.This non-verbal language will affect how we act and react toothers, and how they react to us

Body language is a part of communication that very fewactually study yet it makes up most of what we use tocommunicate and is generally much more accurate a judge ofmeaning than are the words we use I’m going to share somereasons why body language is so important and then give you avery short quiz to take to see how well you understand itsmeaning

They say actions speak louder than words and sometimes

we can communicate things even without the aid of a singleword We can shrug our shoulders and, without a word, we’vejust said, “I don’t know.” We can raise our eyebrows and we’vejust said, “Excuse me? Did I hear you right?” We can turn ourhands over palms up in front of us to say, “I don’t know whatelse to say That’s all I’ve got.” And we can point to our nose

to indicate that the other person’s “got it right!”

Some of the things we say with our bodies can help usreinforce why we are saying it Simply saying “I don’t know”has got nothing on adding the following gestures We can turnour hands over face up in front of us as we raise our eyebrowsand invert our smile while we stick our bottom lip slightly outand look to the side Now we’ve also made someone laugh and

perhaps taken a bit of the pressure off ourselves or the otherperson who was a bit nervous about not knowing whatever itwas we didn’t know.

Further, paying attention to someone’s body language canhelp us discern when someone is not telling us the whole truthand nothin’ but the truth (An important communication skillwith your kids, right?) Here are a few signs that someone might

be lying Often a person who is not telling the truth or all of thetruth will not want to make eye contact for fear the eyes are thewindows to their lying souls However, there are also othersigns of lying A person who isn’t telling the whole truth mayclear their throat, stammer or change their pitch as if to try andsway your attention away from their lie or in order to stall sothey may have time to think up a valid answer or plausibleexplanation Additionally, foot tapping or bouncing, blushing,putting their hand to their face, turning away or raising theirshoulders may all be indicators that they are uncomfortablewith the conversation because they are not telling the truth.These are just a few things that are important for every daycommunication

Another important function of body language is to expressour feelings about what we are discussing Body language canhelp us determine how someone feels about what they aresaying For example, a person may tell her boss that she would

be happy to take the account but her body language mightindicate that she is actually not at all happy about it This can

be an important tidbit that can help a manager, and others in

a leadership position, determine who is the best person tohandle this assignment If her heart isn’t in it, she may do anadequate job when another employee might turn this small jobinto a lifelong client

Body language may be the determining factor in a jobinterview If the applicant’s body language conveys that he is

at ease with the subject matter and conveys confidence, he has

a higher probability of getting the job, especially in this toughjob market We talked earlier about the fact that some bodylanguage is interpreted as being uncomfortable and out ofcontrol These are some of the same traits that make a jobapplicant appear less than confident and comfortable as well

In a friendship, one’s body language can indicate thatsomeone is paying attention or doesn’t really care about whatthe other person is saying Leaning forward into the

conversation indicates that this person is interested in hearingwhat the other person is saying Leaning back would indicatethat he was disinterested or felt himself superior Leaningforward and standing close while talking may indicate thatsomeone is aggressively trying to persuade the other person ortrying to dominate the conversation Listening to someonewhile not making eye contact indicates that you are not reallypaying attention, but are waiting for your chance to speak Thisgives your friend the feeling that you don’t really care aboutthem and what they have to say and may cause them not tolisten carefully to you when it is your turn to speak in theconversation.

Another important function of body language is to expressour feelings about what we are discussing Body language canhelp us determine how someone feels about what they aresaying For example, a person may tell her boss that she would

be happy to take the account but her body language mightindicate that she is actually not at all happy about it This can

be an important tidbit that can help a manager, and others in

a leadership position, determine who is the best person tohandle this assignment If her heart isn’t in it, she may do anadequate job when another employee might turn this small jobinto a lifelong client

Body language may be the determining factor in a jobinterview If the applicant’s body language conveys that he is

at ease with the subject matter and conveys confidence, he has

a higher probability of getting the job, especially in this toughjob market We talked earlier about the fact that some bodylanguage is interpreted as being uncomfortable and out ofcontrol These are some of the same traits that make a jobapplicant appear less than confident and comfortable as well

In a friendship, one’s body language can indicate thatsomeone is paying attention or doesn’t really care about whatthe other person is saying Leaning forward into theconversation indicates that this person is interested in hearingwhat the other person is saying Leaning back would indicatethat he was disinterested or felt himself superior Leaningforward and standing close while talking may indicate thatsomeone is aggressively trying to persuade the other person ortrying to dominate the conversation Listening to someonewhile not making eye contact indicates that you are not reallypaying attention, but are waiting for your chance to speak This

gives your friend the feeling that you don’t really care aboutthem and what they have to say and may cause them not tolisten carefully to you when it is your turn to speak in theconversation

2.3.3 The ways we use body language in English communication:

If everyone said what they truly meant, it would be mucheasier to communicate in English (and any language!).Unfortunately, that is not always the case

Sometimes people fail to express themselves clearly withwords Sometimes people intentionally say the opposite of whatthey mean

Therefore, learning a few common body gestures thatindicate a contradiction, sarcasm or confusion can be helpful toavoiding misunderstandings

+ Eye rolling

Most people roll their eyes to show disapproval orannoyance, as in this clip from the American TV Show “30Rock.”

English speakers will also roll their eyes when they feelskeptical about something

For example, if your friend rolls her eyes while saying “Iwonder if my brother is going to be on time,” she is probablyimplying that she thinks he will be late as usual

Many English speakers roll their eyes while using the

sarcastic phrase yeah, right This actually means “I doubt it” or

“probably not.”

“He told me he is dating a movie star.”

[Eye roll] “Yeah, right.”

“My roommate said that she could not come because she is[air quotes] working.”