论跨文化交际中的体态语On Body Language in Intercultural Communic

论跨文化交际中的体态语On Body Language in Intercultural Communicatio

Abstract: Nowadays, with the continuous development of economy and culture, the international exchanges have become increasingly frequent. There is an old saying “to watch the weather outside and the face inside,” which is very beneficial to intercultural communication. As an important part of non-verbal communication, body language also plays a crucial role in intercultural communication. However, by different cultural traditions body languages are not exactly the same. They are restricted by culture and meanwhile have unique cultural connotation. In order to succeed in the intercultural communication, we should have a correct understanding of the cultural differences and similarities between body languages in different cultures. This paper, on the basis of some examples concerning gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, postures and space, attempts to make a comparison between body languages in different cultures. It also aims at enumerating the cultural differences and similarities of body language, putting forward the principles that should be followed in intercultural communication, and making an effective contribution to cultural communication.

Key words: Intercultural communication; Body language; Cultural differences; Cultural similarities; Principles

Contents
Abstract. I
1 Introduction 1
2 Body Language 1
2.1 The introduction of body language 1
2.2 The importance of body language in intercultural communication 1
3 The communicative functions of body language in intercultural communication 2
3.1 Expressing true emotions 2
3.2 Showing and hiding emotions 3
3.3 Replacing verbal words 3
3.4 Meeting the need of social communication 3
3.5 Reflecting social relationships 4
4 The classification of body language 4
4.1 Gestures 4
4.2 Facial expressions 5
4.3 Eye contact 5
4.4 Postures 5
4.5 Space 6
5 The cultural differences of body language 6
5.1 Traditional cultures 6
5.2 National characteristics 7
5.3 Social customs 8
6 Conclusion 8
References 10
Acknowledgements 11
 
1 Introduction
There are two kinds of communication existing in the human society. They are verbal communication and non-verbal communication. The non-verbal communicative behavior refers to the process that people use the natural characteristics of body to transfer information and express specific thoughts and ideas. It includes body language, object language and context language. Body language, of the three kinds of non-verbal communication, is the most important part in communication both home and abroad. With the rapid economic and cultural development in the latest decades, intercultural communication is becoming a fashionable trend in international affairs, and meanwhile, body language in intercultural communication is inevitably a hot topic among people and scholars of various fields.#p#分页标题#e#
2 Body language
代写英语dissertation2.1 The introduction of body language
Body language in intercultural communication has always played an important role in the study of various scholars. It was not until 1950s that some scholars made a systematical study of body language in intercultural communication. From the late of 1970s to the early period of 1980s, more contents have been added to body language, which have a great influence on the other fields. Today, body language has achieved great developments and become a marginal subject in foreign research. Birdwhistell, the professor at the University of Pennsylvania of America, made an accurate evaluation of the quantity of language communication. According to his study, verbal language only takes up 30% of the whole communication while nonverbal language (mainly body language) accounts for almost 65% of that (Birdwhistell, 1970:189). And psychologist David Aberconbie also pointed out that we speak with verbal organs but we talk with our body. And in China, famous scholar Bi Jiwan stated in 1999 that non-verbal communication was the most important part of the communication (Bi, 2001:9). All these researches home and abroad are vital evidences showing the importance of body language in intercultural communication.
2.2 The importance of body language in intercultural communication
Nowadays, with the rapid economic and cultural development, international communication is becoming particularly important. Intercultural communication refers to the interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Broadly speaking, intercultural communication includes not only the international cross-cultural communication and interracial communication across the nation, but also the communication between different groups which belong to the same cultural background. With the expansion of cultural exchanges of western and eastern countries, more and more attention is being paid to intercultural communication by people around the world.
In the meanwhile, body language is an important factor which can not be neglected in intercultural communication. However, body languages deriving from different cultural traditions are not exactly the same. They are confined by culture and have unique cultural connotations. For example, in the year of 1959, after visiting America and stepping onto the airplane, Khrushchev clapped his hands above his heads in order to express friendship to Americans. But it was the gesture that made Americans feel uneasy and caused a misunderstanding. This gesture in Russia is a symbol of friendship, which in America it is usually expressed after the victory, pride, and satisfaction. And especially Khrushchev had mentioned words that he wanted to bury American capitalism. Many Americans considered this gesture a show of Khrushchev (Deng, 1989:45). Why did such a little gesture cause so much misunderstanding? This is actually the cultural differences of body language. So, in order to succeed in the intercultural communication, we should have a correct understanding of the cultural differences between body languages in different cultures. And at the same time we must admit that body languages around the world also have some similarities.#p#分页标题#e#
代写英语dissertation3. The communicative functions of body language in intercultural communication
Body language is one of the most common means of non-verbal communication in intercultural communication. It is well known for its expressiveness and a sense of humor. The communicative functions of body language can be divided into five categories according to its classification (Claire, 2000:27).
3.1 Expressing true emotions
Body language is very effective in expressing emotions. Both the “make eyes at somebody” in Chinese and the “cast sheep’s eyes at somebody” in English seems to be self-evident that body language can express emotions. For example, Chinese young people often use eyes to express their feelings when they fall in love with somebody. In the first stage of love, they will look away shyly; thereafter throw one glance at each other, and then turn their head to one side (Hu, 1988:76). Due to the influence of Chinese traditional culture, Chinese people often show their feelings in a reserved way, and control their emotions in a proper way. In China, it is common to see a woman smiling with her hands covered her mouth. However, it is quite opposite for Americans who often show their true emotions. Therefore, westerners can not guess easterners’ true feelings according to their facial expression on many occasions. In our daily life, our conversation is always accompanied by some body languages unconsciously. A good command of body language is helpful to perceive people’s true emotions.
3.2 Showing and hiding emotions
    Body language sometimes reveals real feelings. People often smile when happy while make a blessing expression when anxious. The change of facial expression is generally an expression of true feelings（Jia,1997:23）. For example, in a football game, we can often see the players take off their shirts or run on the pitch to express a feeling of excitement when they kick a ball. In addition, body language can also conceal the real feelings. People often hide their uneasy feelings by some petty acts such as scratching, rubbing hands, or dusting the clothes. For instance, in the classroom, student who can not answer the question will sometimes use his forefinger to make a friction on his nose in order to hide the nervous mood. But this act may be misunderstood by a foreign teacher. That is because in western countries, people who use the forefinger to make a friction on the nose may be thought as a liar. In our daily life, one’s body languages are so complicated that can easily show or hide emotions. If one wants to perceive people’s inner emotions correctly, try to read their body languages first.
3.3 Replacing verbal words
   Body language can be used to replace verbal words. It plays a unique role on many occasions. An illustration can make the point clear. The police usually use body language to command the moving of traffic. And basketball referees use body language to organize a basketball game. In daily work and life, people often use body language to communicate with each other. They use handshake to show greeting, hand wave to show farewell, applause to show welcome, and thumb to show praise and so on. However, the same body language may have the different connotations in intercultural communication due to the cultural differences. For instance, putting tongue out can be understood in America as a feeling of contempt and arrogance, whereas in China, putting tongue out is a kind of easing embarrassment. Stretching the thumb and the forefinger in America means “2”, while in China, the same body language means “8”. Therefore, body language is a silent language which can express us most effectively and efficiently.#p#分页标题#e#
3.4 Meeting the need of social communication
Body language plays an important role in meeting the need of social communication. In social communicative situations, especially in face-to-face conversation, people often use body language to figure out the message from the conversation to go on or finish a speech. A case in point is that people may intend to finish a talk by watching his watch from time to time. If people are interested in the topic, they may exchange eyes with the speaker. For American speakers, they will scan the audience with eye mutually in the process of a speech, and the audience will respond to the speaker with the same body language to show their interest in the speech. On the contrary Chinese audiences usually avoid eye contact with the speaker. So many western speakers assume that their speech is not appealing. A misunderstanding which could be prevented is caused. Thus, in daily social communication, body language may be helpful when you are puzzled in a talk.
3.5 Reflecting social relationships
Body language sometimes is a symbol of social relations. In the process of communication, we can often know people’s social status, family background and education background through their body language. For example, the relationship between two persons is subordinate or equal can be speculated by their sitting or standing postures. In a face-to-face conversation between Chinese, whether the superior and the subordinate or the elder and the younger, the later ones always sit or stand pretty straight to show respect while the former ones always sit backward to show dignity. However, it is opposite in the western countries, generally speaking, the people standing are much superior to the people sitting both in age and rank. And kissing in western countries is commonly used to show politeness in the public. We can judge the relationship and their social status by looking the body parts where they kiss each other. It’s a custom that the husband and the wife always kiss on the lip while the elderly and the younger always kiss on the cheek or forehead. And two peers can make a cheek-cheek touch and a gentleman can kiss a beauty’s hand to show friendship. In this aspect, body language can fully show us the correct relationship of people whom we don’t know well.
4 The classification of body language
Language is the main but not the only means for humans to exchange ideas and feelings. People often need to and even have to use non-verbal means in daily communication such as body language, dressing and color, of which body language is the most important (Xu, 2001:62). Human’s non-verbal language such as eye movement and facial expressions are so rich and colorful that they can easily convey meanings that verbal language can not express, properly making up for deficiencies of verbal language. Body language is also as various as verbal languages. Some body language is very specific and some are very general. And some are used to communicate only and some are used to provide information only. Body language is one part of a country or nation, making a close contact with the national culture. One must first observe and study the gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, and postures and so on if he wants to understand body language comprehensively (Knapp, 1978:65).#p#分页标题#e#
4.1 Gestures
Gestures are the main part of non-verbal communication, whose meaning is quite colorful. The reason why gestures are widely used to communicate is that our hands are very flexible and most easily seen. It has been generally accepted that if one spreads his forefinger and middle finger, he must have the determination to win something or wants to share his joy with others. And some professional persons even use gestures to form their unique image. For example, the conductor with diverse gestures can direct dozens of, even hundreds of musicians with different instruments to play an excellent symphony orchestra. And the traffic police with standard gestures can command the busy traffic flow orderly. And the international referee with various gestures can handle the complex situations on the playground smoothly. What these professional persons need is accurate, rapid and resolute gestures instead of the slow, vague and hesitant gestures.
4.2 Facial expressions
   People from different nations may have the same facial expressions and body movements. Some people, like poets, novelists and artists, are inclined to stress the facial expressions in communication. They often focus on the facial expressions in portraying a character, which can reflect the inner world of a person. Therefore, we can say that facial expression is the mirror of the soul and at the same time the reflection of the thought. Some examples can be cited, making mouth upward may mean delight, happiness and modesty while mouth downward may mean sorrow, despair and arrogance. And the opening of lips may mean numb and silly while the shivering of lips may mean anger and excitement. In a word, every part on the face can not be isolated to express a complex idea. Only the coordination of mouth, nose, lips and eyebrows can express various emotions.
4.3 Eye contact
   People’s eyes are one of the most important parts to deliver information. According to foreign statistical data, we know that people can transmit thousand of kinds of information only with their eyes. Some examples are easily noticed in our daily life. Usually people will laugh with eyes like a line when happy, and their eyes will be looked aggressive when angry. And every eye contact in our daily talk is closely connected with the speaker’s inner mind, conveying much information to listeners. Eye contact can reflect not only the inner world to a large extent, but also the complex thoughts of different characters. Generally, the eyes of those who are honest and broad-minded must be calm, and the eyes of those who are cunning and insincere must be treacherous. So, we should be cautious to watch the eyes of your talking partner in communication because they can show the real meaning and inner world to some extent.
4.4 Postures
    Postures are usually known as “kinetics”, which often refer to the rich gestures, facial expressions and body expressions of the participants in communication. In different ethnic culture, the same posture may convey different meanings. Therefore, postures are an important study for cultural differences. People in different situations can use postures accompanied by few words to express different meanings such as being angry, happy or confused. We can often observe some postures from our daily communication. For example, when we talk, the listeners always lay their backs against the chair, and their arms and legs are always crossed. But when they do not agree with the speaker’s view, they will change their postures; maybe they will lay their backs forward and leave their arms and legs apart, getting ready to put forward their own ideas. Usually if you see a listener move his body closely forward to the speaker, which means the listener is interested in the conversation with the speaker. Thus, different postures can be adopted according to different people and different occasions.#p#分页标题#e#
4.5 Space
Space is a study of distance learning, which makes up a research on the interaction of space of the communicators in conversation. Usually the space of communicators plays an important role in the communication, which shows not only the relationship between the communicators, but also the national and cultural characteristics. Space is a research on how to use space distance to express thoughts and information. People always have a feeling of occupied space distance, which will be different because of cultural differences. For example, Japanese think a close space distance is a pleasant feeling while Americans and British like to make a distance of one arm in conversation. Edward Hall, the anthropology professor at Northwestern University, divided the individual space into four areas (Xu, 2001:78).
1. Close area: 0-18 inches. This close area belongs to the space distance between family members, lovers and close friends. In this area, the two communicators can make a close touch such as kiss, embrace and so on. Usually they talk quietly and closely.
2. Acquaintance area: 18 inches-4 feet. This acquaintance area belongs to old classmates, harmonious neighbor and so on. In this area, the two communicators always have words to talk to each other, but their relationship is not very close. This area is a private space. And it includes close private distance and far private distance. The close private distance is a space for husband and wife. If another woman bumps into this area, maybe she has a wild desire into other people’s inner world. Far private distance is often seen between people in a party, which will make people feel comfortable and warm.
3. Social area: 4-12 feet. This social area belongs to those who are known each other but are not acquaints. Communicators in this area always just make a greeting to each other.
4. Presentation area: above 12 feet. This presentation area belongs to those who make presentation in big classroom or auditorium.
5 The cultural differences of body language
5.1 Traditional cultures
It is believed that culture is all the form of activities of a nation (Nida, 2006:85). China and western countries all have their own social soil and cultural atmosphere. And due to their independent development of long history and special space, they have their distinct national characteristics. Body language reflects features of a nation, including national history, cultural background, and attitude towards to life. And body language also reflects people’s life style and their way of thinking.
Some people regard the old Chinese civilization as “the cultural circle of the Chinese people”. The reason why people call it a circle is that China has been in a relatively closed condition of self-sufficiency due to thousands of years of geographical factors and influence of Confucianism. In the reserved “circle”, Chinese form a cultural system of giving priority to family life. In the past, house was always a courtyard, city was always quadrate. Old Chinese people often value family and harmony, forming a behavior pattern of “circle-type”. #p#分页标题#e#
The “circle-type” is fundamental conflict with westerners’ idea of individualism. Westerners always have a weak idea of family. Although they may say that “East, west, home is best”, they are actually expressing homesickness rather than a family feeling. They do not agree with family idea, needless to understand the generations living under the same roof, which is very divine to Chinese people. The reason is that essentially western civilization is a kind of “sailing” and “nomadic”. It is a snowball expanding outward instead of a closed self-sufficient circle. Therefore, what westerners pursue is a spirit of being independent. Thus in the long history they have formed a behavior pattern of “dispersed type”.
There is obvious reflection on body languages between different nations. Take “individual space” as an example. The individual space refers to an invisible area surrounded by each person. In daily communication, if some people enter the individual space, then they will be thought as rude invaders. But if some people stand far away from the individual space, then we feel we are alienated. Chinese people and westerners have a rather different view about the individual space. Chinese people like a close distance while westerners like a far distance. All this differences are caused by “circle-type” and “dispersed type”.
5.2 National characteristics
National characteristics are a relatively fixed and develop gradually in the long history of culture (Mehrabian, 1978:85). Every nation has its own distinct national characteristics. China and western nations have a great contrast in body languages because of the national characteristics. China has long been a country of decorum. With the feudal autocratic centralized pattern and the most stable and long traditional culture, this national characteristic makes Chinese more humble, obedient, restraint and reserved. However, due to the developed traffic and the frequent ethnic migration, most western countries can hardly maintain their distinct historical continuity, thus form a multicultural mixed life pattern including variability and mobility style. At the same time, although the western countries withdraw feudal slave society long ago, they had some ideas of “republican” and “democracy” and stepped into the modern society much earlier than China did. Such historical cultures and social background cause westerners to advocate the spirit of adventure and independence.
The two distinct personalities formed two kinds of body languages. And the lack of the mutual understanding of each national characteristic can easily lead to cultural conflict. Westerners may take Chinese’s modesty and reservation as a lack of confidence or self-abasement. On the contrary, Chinese may consider westerners’ opening and outgoing as an expression of arrogance. Take bow as an example. As we all know, bow is a common polite gesture of all the human being, but this polite gesture is not completely the same in eastern and western countries. Chinese do bow slightly more often while westerners do the same body language much less. #p#分页标题#e#
In brief, the national characteristics forming in the long history have an apparent impact on body languages. We should pay much attention to these subtle differences, which can help avoid some unnecessary misunderstanding.
5.3   Social custom
Social custom is a special kind of cultural form, which partly results in the differences of body language in that body language is closely related to social custom. Therefore, each body language has a special color with social custom.
China had developed highly civilized manners in Shang Dynasty and continued to develop during the period of Ming and Qing Dynasty. And these civilized manners influence Chinese peoples’ behavior and thoughts. In China, two same-sex persons can make a body touch casually while a man and a woman must keep some moral rules in communication. Men can show their strong muscles while women have to dress in conservative clothes. Moreover, couples are not expected to express their intimacy in public. However, westerners show their own distinct features: they pursue body beauty and advocate freedom in heterosexual communication. Hug and kiss occur not only in private between lovers, but also on some social occasions in the presence of social partners. It is our fine tradition to respect the elderly and love the young. Rank idea has deep-rooted in China. But in western countries, usually they have a faint idea of rank system.
In short, social customs are the inherent characteristics of every country, and their cultural differences in body language are complicated. In intercultural communication, only by understanding the connotation of social customs can we effectively make sense of the various body languages. What we need to do is to have enough respect to each nation’s social custom and to widely spread the good aspects of those social customs. However, we should reject the bad aspects of those social customs resolutely.
6 Conclusion
     The differences caused by body language of China and western countries should catch our attention. Since Chinese make a relatively late study on body language, so in order to grasp body language of various countries and make a multinational exchange of body language, we should conduct the research of body language further and make a detailed contrast between different cultures, through which we can find out the root of cultural differences and conflicts. Only in this way can we eliminate cultural interference and create the common basis of intercultural communication.
Hegel, one of the greatest philosophers who have great impact on modern ideas, put it: “If a person can tell the obvious differences, for example, he can distinguish a pen and a camel, we would not think this person smart. If a person can distinguish the differences of two similar things, such as a monastery and a church, we would think this person very intelligent (Fasold, 2000:98)”. What we really need in intercultural communication is the ability to identify the similarities between the differences and the differences between the similarities. Body language now exists in all aspects of our social life. Nowadays, the rapid development of science has shortened the distance of countries all over the world. And body language has already developed in intercultural sphere. In China, the young generation has quickly absorbed some body languages from foreign culture such as the gesture of “OK”. And undoubtedly, with the increasing exchange of nations, the intercultural communication will surely be much more important. Therefore, we should develop a tolerant and understanding attitude towards the culture conflict caused by different body languages. As to the cultural conflict, we shall understand and analyze objectively, aiming to avoid demerits and make progress. All in all, a good understanding of body languages in intercultural communication can not only strengthen the ability to communicate, but also can develop a value on scientific theory. It is certain that with our efforts in intercultural communication, body language is sure to be a cultural bridge to link people from all over the world, promoting the communication of people in all countries.#p#分页标题#e#

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Acknowledgements

At the completion of the thesis, I wish to express my sincere thanks to all those who have given me kind help and valuable advice.
First of all, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my thesis supervisor, Ms.Shen Jufen, for her great kindness of supervising my thesis and for her constructive advice and thoughtful revision through all the stages of thesis writing. Without her illuminating instruction and sincere encouragement, this thesis could not have reached its present form.
My thanks also go to all the teachers of the School of Foreign Language, who have taught me and helped me in the past four years.
Finally, my thanks go to my friends, who are ready to help me in my hour of academic need. Debates and discussions with them are always fruitful and bring back lots of good memories.
The thesis is far from being perfect due to my limited reading and research. I am responsible for all the problems arising in it. In any case, its completion really spurs me into further exploration and greater expectations.