Blake Johnson
CAS 283 Spring '15
Top Tips for Improving Nonverbal Communication
The basis of
communication deals with a process in which a speaker and a listener create
shared meaning and understanding. Communication can be achieved through many
forms. Nonverbal communication deals with signs that then communicate a message
between speaker and listener. Nonverbal behavior includes all of the behavior,
besides the actual words itself, that communicates a message to someone.
Nonverbal communication may be just as important as verbal communication which
causes many people to focus on how to improve it. In a blog on Information
Nigeria, the author creates a blog specifically dedicated to improving
nonverbal communication. “It’s Impossible Not to Communicate ‘All people smile
in the same language.’– Proverb”. The author uses this quote to start the
article and this illustrates how important nonverbal communication is. Every
facet of life contains communication whether or not you realize it. When
someone walks down the hall and you see them, do they decide to smile towards
you or quickly avert their eyes? Each decision gives off a message. If they
decided to smile at you, that suggests they are happy or maybe even overall a
kind person. If they chose to avert their eyes, that suggest they are shy or
not friendly towards you. The author of the blog does a good job of displaying
how important nonverbal communication is when they reflect on how it was used
in the early ages of human history. The author relates how before actual speech
came about, people “relied on grunts, grimaces, smiles and a deeply instinctive
understanding of what others were trying to communicate.”, stressing the
importance of it. The author suggests that by having an open posture, the
receiver displays interest in the message by the sender. This illustrates one
of the five basic components of nonverbal communication; physical appearance.
The other four consists of proxemics, kinesics, paralanguage, and touch. The
author goes into a lot detail when concerning how proxemics communicates signs
to someone. “If you go to a restaurant and look around the tables, you can tell
me couples who are tuned into each other as they are leaning in, mirroring body
language”. The author offers this as a converse to if talking to someone and
leaning backwards away from them. The closer you are to someone suggests comfort
ability with them, suggesting you are interested, while the farther you are
away from them suggests more discomfort, as well as disinterest in what they
have to say. This exemplifies the idea that nonverbal communication are the
messages that people interpret regardless of actual words voicing the messages.
Eye contact is stressed as one of the most important ways to improve nonverbal
communication. This aspect of kinesics is stressed because it’s a very simple
thing someone can give someone. Without giving someone, the nonverbal message
sent is disinterest. The author illustrates this by stating “if that person is
looking away, it would appear as though they are not interested in the words of
the speaker”. By giving the speaker complete eye contact throughout the
duration of them speaking, the receiver sends the nonverbal message they are
interested in what the speaker is discussing.
The blog finishes by focuses on
the importance of a smile. The author spends the last 3rd of the article
proclaiming smiles and facial expressions are the biggest factor someone can do
to improve nonverbal communication. This deals with kinesics. I myself try to
smile every time I see someone just because it projects an outward friendly
appearance versus not smiling, which projects an unhappy or non-friendly inner
persona. This blog does a good job of helping people realize nonverbal
communication is everywhere, as well as helping people understand how they can
project better nonverbal messages towards people.
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