Nonverbal Messages and Intercultural Communication Elaheh Sotoudehnama Farzaneh Solgi Associate Professor, Alzahra University M.A, Alzahra University [email protected][email protected]Abstract Intercultural communication takes place when individuals influenced by different cultural communities negotiate shared meanings in interaction. As every country has its own cultural value system; consequently, nonverbal communication is different from country to country. Therefore, having knowledge about the similarities and differences of nonverbal communication in different cultures increases the possibility of being understood and reduces the risk of being misunderstood and misinterpreted by people from different cultural backgrounds. The current paper aims to investigate and compare the interpretations of nonverbal messages between the findings of Pease and Pease (2004), two prominent figures in the field of nonverbal communication in Western societies and the Iranian students of English and non-English major as an example of an Eastern society. In this study, 32 body gestures were selected from among 170 pictures used by Pease and Pease (2004) and the Iranian students’ interpretations of those body gestures were investigated. The results showed that the interpretations were significantly different across Western and Iranian students; however, there was no significant difference between English and non-English major students’ interpretations. Keywords: Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal Messages, Body Language, Western and Iranian Nonverbal Interpretations Received: March 2012; Accepted: December 2012
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NonverbalMessagesandInterculturalCommunicationijals.usb.ac.ir/article_1649_cfe530e45e2f27c3f5171d0e2d80d681.pdf2008). Knapp and Hall (2006) discuss several ways that nonverbal messages
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Intercultural communication takes place when individuals influenced bydifferent cultural communitiesnegotiate sharedmeanings in interaction.Asevery country has its own cultural value system; consequently, nonverbalcommunication is different from country to country. Therefore, havingknowledgeaboutthesimilaritiesanddifferencesofnonverbalcommunicationindifferentculturesincreasesthepossibilityofbeingunderstoodandreducestheriskofbeingmisunderstoodandmisinterpretedbypeoplefromdifferentculturalbackgrounds.Thecurrentpaperaimstoinvestigateandcomparetheinterpretations of nonverbal messages between the findings of Pease andPease(2004),twoprominentfiguresinthefieldofnonverbalcommunicationinWestern societies and the Iranian students of English and non-EnglishmajorasanexampleofanEasternsociety.Inthisstudy,32bodygestureswereselected from among 170 pictures used byPease andPease (2004) and theIranianstudents’interpretationsofthosebodygestureswereinvestigated.Theresults showed that the interpretations were significantly different acrossWestern and Iranian students; however, therewas no significant differencebetweenEnglishandnon-Englishmajorstudents’interpretations.
The foundationof intercultural communication isbasedon thedefinitionofculture. Culture is the “shared system of socially transmitted behavior thatdescribes,defines, and guidespeople’swaysof life, communicated fromonegenerationtothenext”(Matsumoto,2006,p.220).Fromtheviewpointofsomeauthors, intercultural communication is a phenomenon which refers tocommunicationamongpeople fromdifferentnationalities (Gudykunst,2003;Pease& Pease, 2004); on the other hand, some other authors expand theconcept of intercultural communication to inter-ethnic, inter-religions andeven inter-regional communication as well as communication amongindividualsofdifferentgenders(Martin&Nakayama,2007;Samovar& Porter,2004).
Language isnot the solemeansbywhichhumans exchange information.Messageand itsmeaningare transferred through twochannelsofverbalandnonverbal communication. As Pease (1988) believes, most researchersgenerally agree that the verbal channel is used primarily for conveyinginformation,whilethenonverbalchannelisusedfornegotiatinginterpersonalattitudes, and in certain cases, it is used as a substitute for verbalmessages.Nonverbalcommunication includes“allcommunicationother than language”(Andersen,1999,p.2).Inconversation,weexpressour ideasandfeelingsnotonly bywords but also through facial expressions, voice tones, and gestures.These non-verbal gestures, are also a part of our culture, the sameway ourverbal language is (Zhou & Zhang, 2008). Knapp and Hall (2006) discussseveralways thatnonverbalmessages function inconjunctionwith theverbalones.A nonverbalbehavior substitutes, complements,accents, regulates,andcontradictsthespokenmessage.Body language is“anoutwardreflectionofaperson’semotional condition” (Pease& Pease,2004,p.24).Eachgestureor
The main goal of this paper is to compare the interpretations of somenonverbalmessagesbetween theIranianstudentsofEnglishandnon-Englishmajor studentswith the findings of Pease and Pease (2004), two prominentresearchersinnonverbalcommunication.Theresultsofthisresearchshowthesimilaritiesanddifferences in interpretingnonverbalmessagesacrossEasternandWestern cultures and help individuals in better understanding differentcultural backgrounds and decrease the risk of misunderstanding betweenindividualsfromdifferentcountrieswhoseculturesmayhavelittleincommon.
2. LiteratureReview
Asfarasthetechnicalstudyofbodylanguageisconcerned,themostinfluentialpre-twentieth-century work was Charles Darwin’s The Expression of theEmotionsinManandAnimalspublishedin1872(Pease& Pease,2004).Thisspawnedthestudyoffacialexpressionsandbody language.ManyofDarwin’sideas and observations have since been validated by modern researchersaroundtheworld.Mehrabian(1981),forexample,foundthatthetotalimpactof a message is about 7 percent verbal (words only) and 38 percent vocal(including tone of voice, inflection and other sounds) and 55 percentnonverbal.Birdwhistell (1970) had alsomade some similar estimates of lessthan 35 percent of the verbal component of a face-to-face conversation andover65percentof thenon-verbalone.He furtherestimated that theaveragepersonactuallyspeakswords fora totalofabout tenorelevenminutesa dayandthattheaveragesentencetakesonlyabout2.5seconds.
Many researches are conducted and debates are posed on whether non-verbalsignalsare inborn, learned,geneticallytransferredoracquired insome
otherways.Evidencewascollectedfromobservationofblindanddeafpeoplewhocouldnothave learnednon-verbalsignals through theauditoryorvisualchannels, from observing the gestural behavior of many different culturesaround the world and from studying the behavior of our nearestanthropological relatives, the apes and monkeys. The conclusions of theseresearches indicated that people have access to gestures differently. Forexample, all children are bornwith the immediate ability to suck, indicatingthat this is either inborn or genetic (Pease& Pease, 2004). Eibl-Eibesfeldt(1971)foundthatthesmilingexpressionsofchildrenborndeafandblindoccurindependently of learning or copying, whichmeans that thesemust also beinborn gestures. Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen (1972) supported some ofDarwin’s original beliefs about inborn gestureswhen they studied the facialexpressionsofpeoplefromfivewidelydifferentcultures.Theyfoundthateachcultureusedthesamebasicfacialgesturestoshowemotion,whichledthemtotheconclusionthatthesegesturesmustbeinborn.EkmanandFreisen’s(1975)findingsdemonstratedtheexistenceofsixuniversalexpressions:anger,disgust,fear,happiness,sadness,andsurprise.James(2009)highlightedthat“mostofthebody languagesweuseare learnedbehaviorsbut therearea lotofbodylanguageswhicharemoreinstinctiveandpartofourevolutionaryprocess”(p.20).
2.1. BodyLanguageandCulture
Darwin(1872,citedinPease& Pease,2004)claimedthatallpeople,regardlessofraceorculture,possesstheabilitytoexpresscertainemotionsinexactlythesame ways through their faces. He concluded that the muscle actions areuniversal, and that their precursors can be seen in nonhuman primates andothermammals.
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Darwin’s claims were revived by Tomkins (1963), who suggested thatemotionwasthebasisofhumanmotivation,andthattheseatofemotionwasintheface.EarlyresearchtestingDarwin’sideaswasinconclusive(Ekmanetal.,1972), and formany years the dominant perspective in psychology was theopposite- that facial expressions were culture-specific, much the same waylanguageis.
Other studies have documented cultural differences in other nonverbalbehaviorsaswell,suchasinthesemanticmeaningsattributedtobodypostures(Kudoh & Matsumoto, 1985; Matsumoto & Kudoh, 1987), and vocalcharacteristics and hand and arm movements (Vrij & Winkel, 1992).Collectively,theevidenceprovidesmorethanamplesupportforthecontentionthat culture plays a key role in molding our nonverbal behaviors, whichcompriseanimportantpartofthecommunicationprocess.
SamovarandPorter (2004)believed“somenonverbalmessagesarevariedaccording to the culture and they are learned during the years of earlychildhood”(p.147).Forexample,touchingone’sear isprotectionagainsttheevileyeinTurkeydenotesjeeringateffeminacyinsouthernItalyanda signofrepentanceorsincerityinIndia.
2.2. FunctionsandInterpretationofBodyLanguage
What we say verbally and what we show through our body language areinterconnected and affect each other. Through our body language, wecommunicatea lotaboutwhat isactuallygoingonthroughourheads.Hogan(2008,p.9) stated that“body language can influence the communications inform of repeating, regulating, complementing, substituting,accenting/moderating,andconflicting.”
Hogan (2008)highlighted that tounderstand themeaningofa particularbodylanguage“weshouldconsiderthecontextandcultureinwhichthatbodylanguagehasoccurred.Elements likesocialnorms, lifeexperience, individualpersonality, self-esteem, generational differences, and cultural differencesinfluence body language inways both obvious and subtle” (p. 60).He lateraddedthathowweperceivethecontextandenvironmentresultsinwhatbodylanguageweuse.Thebehaviorwedisplayinourhomeisdifferentfromtheonewe display in the office or a job interview.Depending on the context andenvironment, the same body language can have differentmeanings. Kinsey(2008)saidthatto improveourabilitiestoreadotherpeople’sbody languagewe should filter our impressions through five C’s: “Context, clusters,congruence,consistency,andculture”(p.12).
Becausehavingknowledgeof the similaritiesanddifferencesofnonverbalcommunication in different societies and cultures increases the possibilityofbeingunderstoodandreducestheriskofbeingmisinterpretedbypeoplefromdifferentcultures,thepresentstudysetsouttocomparetheinterpretationsofsomenonverbalmessagesbyIranianandWesternpeople.
2.3. ResearchQuestions
Thisstudy intendsto investigate the interpretationsofnonverbalmessagesbyIranianstudentsandcomparethemwiththeWesterninterpretationsfoundbyPeaseandPease (2004). In fact, the studypurported toanswer the followingquestions:1. Is there a statistically significant difference in the interpretations of
2. Is there a statistically significant difference in the interpretations ofnonverbalmessagesbetweenIranianEnglishmajorandnon-Englishmajorstudents?
3. Methodology3.1. Participants
As the first stage, 100 female MA students between the age of 21-28 indifferentmajors includingTEFL,Persian literature,Arabic literature,history,business management, and physics from a state university in Tehran wereselected. They were required to write their interpretations for the givenpictures.Then,35Englishand35non-EnglishmajorstudentsstudyingPersianliterature,Arabic literature, history, businessmanagement, and physics, notincluded among those 100 but from the same university, participated in thenext stage. As the second stage, they were supposed to select theirinterpretation from a multiple-choice test including three distracters whichwereselectedfromthepreviousstageplusthewesterninterpretation.
3.2. Materials
Pease and Pease (2004) have provided 170 pictures in their book TheDefinitiveBookofBodyLanguagewiththeexplanationofwhatisemphasizedin each picture. For example, there is picture of a man with a relevantdescriptionof“Double-Arm-Grip”oranotherpicturewiththeexplanationof“shruggingtheshoulders”andthentheinterpretationsoftheWesternersaboutthese pictures are provided. In this study, 32 pictures from 170 pictures(AppendixA),whichseemedtobeclearerinthematchesbetweenthepictureand the relevant explanations were selected based on the judgment of two
EnglishlanguageUniversityprofessorsandtheIranianstudentswereaskedtowritetheirinterpretationaboutthosepictures.Additionally,thirty-twoEnglishmultiplechoicequestionswereused for therecognitionof the interpretationsofthesamenumberofpictures(AppendixB)inthenextstage.
3.3. Procedure
Thirty-two pictures of nonverbal messages, together with their writtenexplanations in English selected from among 170 pictures in the book TheDefinitiveBookofBodyLanguage(Pease& Pease,2004),weregiven to100Iraniangraduatestudentsfromdifferentmajorsina stateuniversityinTehran.Theywereaskedtowritetheirinterpretationsofthosepicturesintheirnativelanguage (Persian). In the next stage, 32 multiple choice questions wereprepared. From the four choices, one included the Western interpretationgivenbyPeaseandPease(2004)andtheotherthreewereselectedfromamongthe interpretations provided by the Persian speakers with the highestfrequencies in the previous stage. Thirty-five Iranian English and 35 non-Englishmajorlearners,differentfromtheprevious100students,wereprovidedwith the 32 pictures and their responses in the form of multiple choicequestions.Itwas taken forgranted thata Westernstudentwouldprovide thecorrectinterpretationstoall32picturesbasedonPeaseandPease(2004),andthen the Iranians’ interpretations were compared to them. Additionally, asIranian participants were 70, they were compared to the same number ofWesternparticipants.Onepointwasgiventoeachcorrectinterpretation.
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4. Results
To answer the first research question, an independent samples t-test wasconducted. The descriptive statistics of Western and Iranian students’interpretationsareprovidedinTable1.
Table1.DescriptiveStatisticsofWesternandIranianInterpretationsN Mean Std.Deviation
To answer, the second research question, the descriptive statisticsof theIranian English major and non-English major students’ interpretations areprovidedinTable3.Table3.DescriptiveStatisticsofIranianEnglishandNon-EnglishMajorInterpretations
N Mean Std.Deviation
Englishmajor 35 16.19 12.017
Non-Englishmajor 35 12.78 10.385
ValidN (Listwise) 35
AsseeninTable3,themeanofEnglishmajorstudents’interpretationswas16.19,and thatofthenon-Englishmajorstudentswas12.78,whichshows thedifferenceof interpretationsof thepicturesbetweenEnglishandnon-Englishmajor groups. To compare the degree of this mean score differences, anindependentsamplest-testwasconducted.Table4.IndependentSamplest-testofIranianEnglishandNon-EnglishMajorStudents
The findings of the study showed that there is a significant difference ininterpretations between Iranian students andWestern ones. Because everycountry has its own cultural value system, consequently nonverbalcommunicationisdifferentfromcountrytocountry.ThefindingsofthisstudyareinlinewithZhouandZhang(2008)whofoundsimilaritiesanddifferencesof nonverbal interpretations across different cultures. Furthermore, thefindingsconfirmedtheresultsofMatsumoto(2001)whoconcludedthata smallset of facial expressions are universally recognized. The results of the firstresearchquestionwasalsoinlinewiththoseofEkmanandHeider(1988),whodocumented cultural differences in emblematic gestures between Japanese,Americans, andNewGuineans.Morris,Collett,Marsh, andO’Shaughnessy(1980)havealsowelldocumentedmany culturaldifferences ingestures.ThedifferenceofinterpretationswasobservedinthestudiesconductedbySamovarandPorter (2004), aswell.Regarding the significantdifferencebetween twocultures,itshouldnotbeneglectedthatitwashypothesizedthatallthepictureswerecorrectly interpretedandrecognizedby theWesterners.Inotherwords,since in this study availabilityof thenative speakerswasnotpossible, itwastaken for granted that all theWestern native speakers would have repliedcorrectlytotheinterpretationsofthepictures.Ofcourse,thishypothesisisnotillogical, because the pictureswere explained based on theWestern culture.Another finding of the current study was that there were not significantly
different interpretationsbetweenEnglish andnon-Englishmajor students. Itindicates thateven thoughEnglishmajor studentshad studiedEnglish foratleast4 years,theywereeithernotaffectedbytheEnglish languagecultureorwere not aware of the non-verbal messages in English. Since the multiplechoicequestionswere inEnglishandalso theexplanationunder thepictureswere in English, if the participants knew the interpretations in English,probably theywouldhaveselected theWestern interpretationswhichwasnotthecase.Inotherwords, itcouldbeargued thatnonverbalcommunication isnotfocusedonbyEnglishlanguageteachersasanessentialpartofa language.
Therearedifferentkindsofnonverbalmessages.Everypartofthehumanbodymay convey a specific nonverbalmessages and each part has its owngestures.Thisstudywasabout just32selectedbodygesturesfromallpartsofthe body and it was restricted to students in a single university in Tehran.Future researchmay investigate other andmore body gestures or particularbody gestures among different countries, different age groups, or differentsocialclasses.
6. Conclusion
Nonverbal communication as a major part of any language in general andEnglish language learning in particular in Iran, as a foreign language, is notgiven thedueattention.Nonverbalmessagescanbehelpful forall thosewhouseEnglish as a foreign language in interactingwith foreigners to avoid anycultural clashes. They are applicable for negotiators, sales people, salesmanagers and executives in the today’s world of economic relations.Knowledgeaboutnonverbalmessageshelpsnegotiatorstoassessthebusinesssituation and decide correctly when to offer a new deal or modify theirrequests. What is worth mentioning is that English language teachers and
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learners should notice that the study of body language should becomplementary to the study of language. The understanding of non-verballanguagecanbehelpfulinthefurtherunderstandingoftheverbalone.Thesetwoareinterdependent.
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