Non-verbal

Communication
Non- verbal Communication
It includes all unwritten and unspoken
messages intended or not.
These silent signals have a strong effect on
receivers.
But understanding them is not simple.
Non- verbal Communication
Downward glance
here indicate
modesty or Fatigue?
Non- verbal Communication
Does a constant stare
reflect coldness?
Dullness?
Aggression?
Non- verbal Communication
Do crossed arms
mean defensiveness?
Withdrawal? Or do
crossed arms just
mean that a person is
shivering?
Functions of Nonverbal
Communication
Reinforcement:
Nonverbal communication is used to emphasize some part of
the verbal message. Nonverbal behaviours may complement or
add to words. You might smile when telling a story (to suggest
that you find it humourous). Public speakers often emphasize Point as you say “The office is the
verbal statements with forceful gestures and increases in second door on the left.”
volume and inflection.

Modification:
Nonverbal behaviours may contradict verbal messages, as
when a group member says, “Nothing’s wrong” in a hostile
tone of voice. You might also cross your fingers or wink to
indicate that you are lying.
Functions of Nonverbal
Communication
Substitution:
You may also use nonverbal communication to substitute or
take the place of verbal messages. For instance, you can
signal “okay” with a hand gesture. You can nod your head
to indicate yes or shake your head to indicate no.

Regulation:
Movements may be used to regulate or control the flow of
verbal messages. We use our eyes and body posture to
indicate that we want to enter conversations, and speakers'
step back from a podium to indicate that they have finished
a speech. We invite people to speak by looking directly at
them, often after asking a question.
Classification of Nonverbal
Communication
i. Environnemental Codes
ii. Person Oriented Codes
iii. Temporal Codes
 Environmental Codes
Environmental factors are elements of
setting that affect how we feel and act.
For instance, we respond to
architecture, colours, room design,
temperature, sounds, smell, and
lighting. Colour also influences People’s acceptance of a
perceptions and behaviours. We feel product, for example, is largely
solemn in mosques with their somber determined by its packaging,
colours. especially colour.
Environmental Codes
Rooms with comfortable chairs invite relaxation, whereas
rooms with stiff chairs prompt formality. Restaurants use
environmental features to control how long people linger
over meals.
For example, low lights, comfortable chairs or booths,
and soft music often are part of the environment in
upscale restaurants. On the other hand, fast food eateries
have hard plastic booths and bright lights, which
encourage diners to eat and move on.
Person Oriented Codes
i. Physical Appearance:
People make inferences about who you are –
in part – by the way you dress.

Whether these inferences are accurate or not,

they will influence what people think of you
and how they react to you.
Your body also reveals your race through skin
colour and tone and may also give clues as to
your more specific nationality.
Your weight in proportion to your height will
also communicate messages to others as will
the length, colour, and style of your hair.
Person Oriented Codes
ii. Gestures and Body Movements
There are five major types of body movements.
a) Emblems are body gestures that directly translate into words or
phrases, for example, the okay sign, the thumbs up for “good job,” and
the “V” for victory. Emblems are culture specific, so be careful when
using your culture’s emblems in other cultures.

b) Illustrators enhance the verbal messages they accompany. For

example, when referring to something to the left, you might gesture
toward the left. You might also use illustrators to communicate the
shape or size of objects you are talking about.
 Person Oriented Codes
c) Affect displays are movements of the face (smiling or frowning, for
example) but also of the hands and general body (body tenseness or
relaxing posture, for example) that communicate emotional meaning.

d) Regulators are behaviours that monitor, control, coordinate, or maintain

the speaking of another individual. When you nod your head, for example,
you tell the speaker to keep on speaking; when you lean forward and open
your mouth, you tell the speaker that you would like to say something.

e) Adaptors are gestures that satisfy some personal need, for example,
moving your hair out of your eyes. Self-adaptors are self touching
movements (for example, rubbing your nose). Alter-adaptors are
movements directed at the person with whom you are speaking (for
example, removing a stray thread from someone’s jacket). Object-adaptors
are those gestures focused on objects, for example, doodling on or
shredding a paper.
 Person Oriented Codes
iii. Facial Communication:
Throughout the communication, your face
communicates various messages, especially your
emotions. Some nonverbal researchers claim that
facial movements may express at least the following
eight emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger,
sadness, disgust, contempt, and interest. There are
four facial management techniques:
a. Intensifying helps you exaggerate a feeling, for
example, exaggerating surprise when friends throw
you a party to make your friends feel better.
b. De-intensifying helps you underplay a feeling, for
example, to cover up your own joy in the presence
of a friend who didn’t receive such good news.
Person Oriented Codes
c. Neutralizing helps you hide feelings, for example, to
cover up your sadness to not to depress others.
d. Masking helps you to replace or substitute the
expression of one emotion for another, for example, to
express happiness in order to cover up your
disappointment in not receiving the gift you had
expected.
 Person Oriented Codes
v. Personal Space and Touching Behaviour:
Proxemics is space and how we use it. Every culture has norms for using space and for how close people should
be to one another.
 Person Oriented Codes
vi. Vocal Characteristics:

Paralanguage refers to the vocal (but nonverbal) dimension of speech. It refers to how you
say something, not what you say. It includes sounds, such as murmurs, and vocal qualities,
such as pitch, rhythm, volume and inflection. Vocal cues signal others to interpret what we
say as a joke, threat, statement of fact, or question. When you speak quickly, for example,
you communicate something different than when you speak slowly. Even though the words
might be the same, if the speed (or volume, rhythm, or pitch) differs, the meaning people
receive will also differ.
 Temporal Codes
Temporal communication (chronemics) concerns the use of time – how you organize it, how you react
to it, and the messages it communicates. There are two aspects of temporal communication: Cultural
time, and Psychological time.

Time can be viewed as: technical or scientific time (milliseconds, light years), formal time (seconds,
minutes, weeks, seasons), informal time (forever, as soon as possible, never, immediately).
 Temporal Codes
People may have displaced time orientation (being exactly on time), or diffused time orientation
(seeing time as approximate rather than exact).

Monochronic people or cultures schedule one thing at a time, whereas polychronic people or cultures
schedule a number of things at the same time.

Your culture and your more specific society maintains a time schedule (social clock) for the right time
to do a variety of important things (for example, the right time to start school, go out with friends, get
married, get a job).
Silence
Like words and gestures, silence also communicates important meanings and serves important
functions. Silence allows the speaker time to think, time to formulate, and organize his or her
verbal communication. Silence can also communicate awkwardness. People may use silence to
hurt others, prevent communication of certain messages, communicate emotional responses, or
when they have nothing to say.