The Survey about Body Language
Introduction
Body language is important skill of communication today. In fact, many people even handicapped people, who have no arms, use body language when they are talking to each other. As many people use body language, it helps listener easier to understand what is speaker saying.
In according the textbook, nonverbal communication exists in a context, and that context determines to a large extent the meaning of any nonverbal behaviors (Seal 1997). For example, in a particular culture, if you are making a circle to your fingers, you are saying O.K, or if you are raising your thumb, you are saying No.1. In this way, all body languages have a meaning. If body languages have no meaning, they are not nonverbal communication. Nonverbal behaviors are usually packaged (Seal 1997). If a speaker looks up or down when he is talking to each other, he will be thinking, for example. In studies conducted on gazing behavior and summarized by Knapp and Hall (1992), it has been found that listeners gaze at speakers more than speakers gaze at listeners. Body language is different between listener and speaker. For example, to keep eye contacting is body language for listener because this means that I carefully listen to you.
Our group, who are Saori Tabuchi and I, observed many people about body language when people were talking to each other. We went to the Student Center because there are many people in the Student Center.
We wanted to know how do people use body language, and what kind of body language they use; also why do they use body language? We wondered if their feeling was better when they use body language, moreover. We carefully looked at people about their behavior. For example, what is the common body language and specific body language? Also we made observation about difference between males and females.
Methods and Procedures
We decided to go to the Student Center from 1Pm to 2Pm because there are so many people in the Student Center at lunchtime. We could find many people who were talking with their friends, co-workers, and partners in McDonalds area. We watched far from people because we wanted to see natural body language. We observed 5 males and 7 females who were eating lunch. Some people looked happy; other people looked sad or serious. Immediately, we started to write on the piece of paper what kind of body language they used, and how many times they used it.
Results
12 People, who were observed by us, composed 5 males / 7 females and 11 whites / 1 Asian. They also looked young age except 2 persons, who looked co-worker. As a result, we could find interesting results and none interesting results to us. There are difference roles between speaker and listener. Listeners usually clasped their hands, put an elbow on the table or keep eye contact when they listen to speaker. This action means that I am listening carefully to you. On the other hands, speakers usually looked up at the ceiling when they were thinking. They also used their arms when they were explaining something. Some people (50%) had eye contact, and the other people (50%) did not have eye contact. However, listeners usually had eye contact. Many women (85%) listeners crossed their legs or their arms. The others, both speakers and listeners used nodding or shaking head, grabbing or clasping hand, and etcetera.
From this gesture, we could discover difference between speaker and listener from them. Moreover, I though that young people looked more energetic than old people because young people’s action is bigger than old people’s action. American people always smile and have eye contact when they were talking to each other even they looked so serious.
Discussion and Conclusion
After survey, we were surprised that listeners look more at speaker because listeners want to show he listens carefully to you. We expected that many people had eye contact when they are talking to each other, but only 50% people had eye contact in our survey. Another one, body language has many kinds of meaning. For example, if speaker looks up at the ceiling during speaking, he is thinking, or if listener grabs his hands when he listens, he wants to show he is listening, and he is interesting in a speaker’s topic. Also, we have the same result with our expectation about eye contact. They all kept contacting their eyes when they were talking to each other because I though that eye contact is important to them about communication. Next, we repented that we did not handle about survey of various ages. If I have another opportunity about survey of body language, I wish to add various ages to my survey. Also, we tried to observe their feeling when they used body language, but we couldn’t know that because we couldn’t directly ask them.
References
Seal, B. (1997). Body Language. In Academic encounters (pp.135, 136). NY : Cambridge.
Knapp and Hall (1992). Nonverbal communication in human interaction. Fort Worth : Harcourt Brace College Publishers
Body language is important skill of communication today. In fact, many people even handicapped people, who have no arms, use body language when they are talking to each other. As many people use body language, it helps listener easier to understand what is speaker saying.
In according the textbook, nonverbal communication exists in a context, and that context determines to a large extent the meaning of any nonverbal behaviors (Seal 1997). For example, in a particular culture, if you are making a circle to your fingers, you are saying O.K, or if you are raising your thumb, you are saying No.1. In this way, all body languages have a meaning. If body languages have no meaning, they are not nonverbal communication. Nonverbal behaviors are usually packaged (Seal 1997). If a speaker looks up or down when he is talking to each other, he will be thinking, for example. In studies conducted on gazing behavior and summarized by Knapp and Hall (1992), it has been found that listeners gaze at speakers more than speakers gaze at listeners. Body language is different between listener and speaker. For example, to keep eye contacting is body language for listener because this means that I carefully listen to you.
Our group, who are Saori Tabuchi and I, observed many people about body language when people were talking to each other. We went to the Student Center because there are many people in the Student Center.
We wanted to know how do people use body language, and what kind of body language they use; also why do they use body language? We wondered if their feeling was better when they use body language, moreover. We carefully looked at people about their behavior. For example, what is the common body language and specific body language? Also we made observation about difference between males and females.
Methods and Procedures
We decided to go to the Student Center from 1Pm to 2Pm because there are so many people in the Student Center at lunchtime. We could find many people who were talking with their friends, co-workers, and partners in McDonalds area. We watched far from people because we wanted to see natural body language. We observed 5 males and 7 females who were eating lunch. Some people looked happy; other people looked sad or serious. Immediately, we started to write on the piece of paper what kind of body language they used, and how many times they used it.
Results
12 People, who were observed by us, composed 5 males / 7 females and 11 whites / 1 Asian. They also looked young age except 2 persons, who looked co-worker. As a result, we could find interesting results and none interesting results to us. There are difference roles between speaker and listener. Listeners usually clasped their hands, put an elbow on the table or keep eye contact when they listen to speaker. This action means that I am listening carefully to you. On the other hands, speakers usually looked up at the ceiling when they were thinking. They also used their arms when they were explaining something. Some people (50%) had eye contact, and the other people (50%) did not have eye contact. However, listeners usually had eye contact. Many women (85%) listeners crossed their legs or their arms. The others, both speakers and listeners used nodding or shaking head, grabbing or clasping hand, and etcetera.
From this gesture, we could discover difference between speaker and listener from them. Moreover, I though that young people looked more energetic than old people because young people’s action is bigger than old people’s action. American people always smile and have eye contact when they were talking to each other even they looked so serious.
Discussion and Conclusion
After survey, we were surprised that listeners look more at speaker because listeners want to show he listens carefully to you. We expected that many people had eye contact when they are talking to each other, but only 50% people had eye contact in our survey. Another one, body language has many kinds of meaning. For example, if speaker looks up at the ceiling during speaking, he is thinking, or if listener grabs his hands when he listens, he wants to show he is listening, and he is interesting in a speaker’s topic. Also, we have the same result with our expectation about eye contact. They all kept contacting their eyes when they were talking to each other because I though that eye contact is important to them about communication. Next, we repented that we did not handle about survey of various ages. If I have another opportunity about survey of body language, I wish to add various ages to my survey. Also, we tried to observe their feeling when they used body language, but we couldn’t know that because we couldn’t directly ask them.
References
Seal, B. (1997). Body Language. In Academic encounters (pp.135, 136). NY : Cambridge.
Knapp and Hall (1992). Nonverbal communication in human interaction. Fort Worth : Harcourt Brace College Publishers
posted by GRIPHIN at 9:03 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home