Human communication is said to be primarily expressed and interpreted through body language. I firmly believe in this. From our tone of voice to mere eye contact, we are capable of conveying our moods, beliefs, interests, etc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language)
The same, simple body gestures can indicate different meanings under certain circumstances. For instance, the raised eyebrow can indicate shock, excitement, or even condescension. When someone is astonished by, say, a surprise birthday party, he most likely raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth widely in awe. When, however, a haughty individual patronizes a store, she may superciliously raise her eyebrows when talking to an employee and behave as if she is "above" said employee. (I have discerned this many times at my job, unfortunately.)
Tone of voice can manifest the mood of an individual. If a mother loses her patience to a rambunctious child, she will usually raise her voice peremptorily to denote her intolerance to the child's bad behavior.
Eye contact--or lack thereof--is a powerful form of body language. If somebody is giving a captivating oral presentation in class, the audience will probably remain focused on the speaker. If, however, the speaker's presentation is wanting, the audience may shift their eyes to different objects due to boredom, or even fall asleep.
There are many other forms of body language that reveal people in some manner. We even use body language unconsciously.
-Chloe Martianou
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Do you consider tone of voice body language? You talk about it here and I agree that it is very important for comprehending exactly what the person is talking about, but I definitely do not consider it body language. Phone conversations can sometimes cause people to interpret others incorrectly because they cannot see the body language in the conversation, but they can hear tone of voice, so I think a lot fewer misunderstanding occur.
ReplyDelete-Alexa Kaczmarski
I don't doubt body language is important, but to say it's the primary method of communication is a little excessive.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?sid=22701
I used this cartoon in my scrapbook, and I think it perfectly shows the limits of body language. After all, the reason why language developed was because body language just isn't enough.
-Bryce Cody
I think that there are three parts to spoken language: words, body language, and tone of voice. All three of these parts are necessary to get your EXACT point across to your listener. Like Alexa said, it is often hard to understand people's meanings on a phone because one cannot see their body language. (Even more difficult is to understand people's meanings while texting, when only words are available, and not body language or tone of voice.) In the cartoon Bryce showed, the employee may have been saying the right words and using the right tone of voice, but his body language was confusing.
ReplyDeleteWhile body language is a big part of expression, it needs to be combined with the correct words and tone of voice to accurately convey an idea.
-Audrey Kindsfather
Body language is also used separately from spoken words (the OK signal, or the "come here" gesture in our book). Tone cannot be separated from words though, and also cannot be connected to body language. All three are uniquely independent and dependent on each other. Using words and tone yield hints of sarcasm, joking, and other social signals. Humans are raised hearing jokes and sarcastic comments so that when grown up, they can interact successfully.
ReplyDelete-- tori lee