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NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION1
Imagine you are at a party. During the evening you form impressions about the people around you. Tyrone seems relaxed and even-tempered, Nicole tense and irritable. Dorinda seems open and straightforward, Amy hostile and evasive. Amin seems happy to see you; Sethdefinitely is not. How do you reach these conclusions? To a surprising extent, you reach them not on the basis of what people say with words, but because of what they say nonverbally ?nbsp;with their posture, gestures, eyes, and facial expressions. Much the same thing happens in speechmaking. Posture, facial expression, gestures, eye contact ?nbsp;all affect the way listeners respond to a speaker. How we use these and other body motions to communicate is the subject of a fascinating area of study called kinesics2. One of its founders estimates that more than 700,000 possible physical signals can be sent through bodily movement. Studies have shown that in some situations these signals account for much of the meaning communicated by speakers. Research has also confirmed what the Greek historian Herodotus3 observed more than 2,400 years ago: "People trust their ears less than their eyes." When a speaker's body language is inconsistent with his or her words, listeners tend to believe the body language rather than the words.4 Here are the major aspects of nonverbal communication that will affect the outcome of your speeches. PERSONAL APPEARANCE If you were Madonna, you could show up to make an Academy Award presentation speech wearing a bizarre creation that left little to the imagination. If you were Albert Einstein, you could show up to address an international science conference wearing wrinkled trousers, a sweater, and tennis shoes. While the members of your audience would certainly comment on your attire, your reputation would not be harmed. You would be one of the few, the very few, who live outside the rules, who are expected to be unusual. A number of studies have confirmed that personal appearance plays an important role in speechmaking. Listeners always see you before they hear you. Just as you adapt you language to the audience and the occasion, so should you dress and groom5 appropriately. BODILY ACTION Novice6 speakers are often unsure about what to do with their body while giving a speech. Some pace nonstop back and forth across the podium, fearing that if they stop, they will forget everything. Others are perpetual-motion machines,7 constantly shifting their weight from one foot to the other, bobbing their shoulders, fidgeting with their notes, or jingling coins in their pockets. Still others turninto statues, standing rigid and expressionless from beginning to end. GESTURES8 Few aspects of delivery seem to cause students more anguish than deciding what to do with their hands. "Should I clasp them behind my back? Let them hang at my sides? Put them in my pockets? Rest them on the lectern? And what about gesturing?When should I do that - and how?" Even people who normally use their hands expressively in everyday conversation seem to regard them as awkward appendages9 when speaking before an audience. Over the years, more nonsense has been written about gesturing than about any other aspect of speech delivery. Adroit gestures can add to the impact of a speech;but there is nothing to the popular notion that public speakers must have a vastrepertoire10 of graceful gestures. Some accomplished speakers gesture frequently; others hardly at all. The primary rule is this: Whatever gestures you make should not draw attention to themselves and distract from your message. They should appear natural and spontaneous, help to clarify or reinforce your ideas, and be suited to the audience and occasion. EYE CONTACT11 The eyeball itself expresses no emotion. Yet by manipulating the eyeball and the areas of the face around it — especially the upper eyelids and the eyebrows — weare able to convey an intricate array of nonverbal messages. So revealing are these messages that we think of the eyes as "the windows of the soul." We look to them to help gauge the truthfulness, intelligence, attitudes, and feelings of a speaker. When it comes to public speaking, there appears
to be fairly wide agreement across cultures on the importance of some
degree of eye contact. In most circumstances, one of the quickest ways
to establish a communicative bond with your listeners is to look at
them personally and pleasantly. Voiding their gaze is one of the surest
ways to lose them. There is a great deal of research to show that speakers
in the United States who refuse to establish eye contact are perceived
as tentative or ill at ease and may be seen as insincere or dishonest.
It is no wonder, then, that teachers urge students to look at the audience
80 to 90 percent of the time they are talking. |