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  • Essay / The importance of non-verbal communication - 1114

    Communication is an aspect of everyday life. People communicate both verbally and especially non-verbally. Verbal communication involves words while nonverbal communication includes everything except words. Furthermore, there are different non-verbal concepts. These include haptics, referring to touch; proxemics, involving space and kinesics, which refers to gestures. Nonverbal communication is considered more meaningful and powerful because it communicates what the mouth does not. Nonverbal communication is expressed through body language and language. Paralanguage involves the voice and body language is integrated with nonverbal concepts. Overall, nonverbal communication is an important universal language. Paralanguage concerns non-verbal voice signals. This aspect of nonverbal communication includes intonation, vocal sounds, and tone. People pay particular attention to the voice in addition to listening to the words spoken in order to clarify the message conveyed. Consider the case of a listener detecting whether the speaker has expressed his message in the form of a question or a statement through the tone of his voice (Besson, Graf, Hartung, Kropfhausser & Voisard 2005). Another example concerns the use of tone. The tone of voice can be friendly, aggressive, enthusiastic, nervous and monotonous. The situation contributes to the tone of voice used. In the case of a political debate, the tone would be enthusiastic whereas in a television report, the tone would be more factual. Additionally, people produce vocal sounds to show interest or to express their feelings. These sounds include laughter and screams of joy, fear and pain. In the great diversity of languages, these sounds are most similar to...... middle of paper ......determining whether someone is telling the truth or not. For example, police suggest paying close attention to suspects in addition to other verbal signals to determine whether the person is honest. However, there are cultures where avoiding eye contact is a sign of respect. Therefore, reading nonverbal cues does not always mean that a person will interpret them correctly. However, nonverbal signals and cues allow people to communicate many things without saying a word. In conclusion, nonverbal communication involves body language and paralanguage. There are many different concepts of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal signals and cues sometimes differ between cultures, but are sometimes universal. Nonverbal communication is considered important because it is natural and communicates what words do not. In other words, it is a way of communicating silently.