6.1 Definition of Nonverbal Communication数字时代的商务英语写作.pdf

Nonverbal Communication Hello, everyone. Welcome back to our course. I’m Peng Hui. Today we are going to study a new chapter:nonverbal communication.We will deal with its definition and significance, functions and categories, that is, different forms ofnonverbal communication which includeparalanguage, body language, time and space. And in body language we will study facialexpressions,posture,gestures,eyecontact andtouch. 6.1:DefinitionofNonverbal Communication Suppose a person comes to a foreign country without knowing anything about its language. How can he communicate with the local people? Yes, mostly he has to resort to body language, like gestures, facial expressions, right? Actually, this is nonverbal communication. So, inthissection,let’sfirst definenonverbalcommunication. As you may have realized, nonverbal communication is the kind of communication as opposed to verbal communication. There are many definitions concerningnonverbal communication. Aclassic one isgiven by Larry Samovar, Richard Porter, and Lisa Stefani: nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and his or her use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source or receiver. Sounds a little complicated, right? To put it simply, nonverbal communication is the communication between people without using words, either spoken or written. Instead, it uses nonverbal stimuli like voice,behaviors, or setting including time and space,to convey meaning, either intentionally orunintentionally,with orwithout our awareness. To further define nonverbal communication, we need to make a distinction between vocal and verbal, nonvocal and nonverbal aspects of communication. Look at this table.Verbal and nonverbal communication include both vocal and nonvocal elements. The vocal elements of verbal communication are spoken words, the words we say