GROUP 4

SOFT SKILL DEVELOPMENT

TOPIC: DIFFERENT KINESICS, GESTURES & POSTURES

Group members: Ajmal roshan(4) Fathimathul Hasna(14) Krishnakumar.T.K(24) Nasreen majeed(34) Saimath(44) Shaziya(54)

KINESICS the study of body movements, gestures, facial expressions, etc., as a means of communication Defined as the study of posture, movement, gestures, & facial expression.

Effective Use of Body language Mind the body talk Be careful with the handshake Establish good Eye contact Communicate at the level of the person before you We must be ourselves Graceful Movements and Confident posture improve the atmosphere at the workplace

Different kinds of kinesics 1.Affect Displays 2. Emblems 3. Illustrators 4. Regulators 5. Adaptors

Oculesics Study of eye-contact as a form of non-verbal communication. Eye contact is the most important cue.Avoiding eye contact considered as insecure, untrustworthy. Direct eye contact may be misinterpreted as hostility, aggressiveness Lowering eyes in China and Indonesia-sign of respect. They prefer indirect eye contact, prolonged eye contact is seen as sign of bad manners. Olfactics The study of sense of smell. Someones smell can have a positive or negative effect on the oral message Chronemics

The study of the use of time in nonverbal communication. The way we perceive time, structure our time and react to time is a powerful communication tool, and helps set the stage for the communication process. Chromatics Communication of messages through colors. It is a scientific movement which explores the physical properties of colour and the effect of color on humans. The connotations colors have may be positive or negative depending on the culture. In Us common to wear black when mourning, in India people prefer white. In Hong Kong red is used for happiness or luck and traditional bridal dress; in Poland brides wear white. In Asia people like colored shampoos, in US shampoos tend to be light colored. Silence Another important aspect in communication. When we are silent, we are also communicating! What we communicate depends on what kind of silence it is. Mostly subject of conversation plays major role in this. The more emotionally loaded subject is, the more silence we need. Silence in group conversations are difficult to be handled for lot of people.

GESTURES
A gesture is a specific bodily movement that reinforces a verbal message or conveys a particular thought or emotion. Although gestures may be made with the head, shoulders, or even the legs and feet, most are made with the hands and arms. Our hands can be marvelous tools of communication when you speak. But many inexperienced speakers are unsure what to do with their hands. Some try to get them out of the way by putting them in their pockets or behind their backs. Others unconsciously relieve nervous tension by performing awkward, distracting movements. A few speakers over-gesture out of nervousness, waving their arms and hands wildly. A speakers gestures can suggest very precise meaning to an audience. The Indians of North America devised a sign language that enabled people with entirely different spoken languages to converse. Sign language has also made it possible for deaf people to communicate without speaking. The use of gestures in communication varies from one culture to the next. In some cultures, such as those of Southern Europe and the Middle East, people use their hands freely and expressively when they speak. In other cultures, people use gestures less frequently and in a more subdued way. The specific gesture we make and the meanings we attach to them are products of our cultural training. Just as cultures differ, so do the perceived meanings of gestures. For example, nodding ones head up and down signifies agreement or assent in Western cultures but in some parts of India this gesture means the exact opposite. A common gesture used in the United States that of making a circle with the thumb and forefinger to indicate approval is considered an insult and an obscenity in many areas of the world.

To be effective, a speakers gestures must be purposeful even if theyre performed unconsciously. They must be visible to the audience. They must mean the same thing to the audience that they mean to the speaker. And they must reflect whats being said, as well as the total personality behind the message.

Why Gestures? All good speakers use gestures. Why? Gestures are probably the most evocative form of nonverbal communication a speaker can employ. No other kind of physical action can enhance your speeches in as many ways as gestures. They: Clarify and support your words. Gestures strengthen the audiences understanding of your verbal message. Dramatize your ideas. Together with what you say, gestures help paint vivid pictures in your listeners minds. Lend emphasis and vitality to the spoken word. Gestures convey your feelings and attitudes more clearly than what you say. Help dissipate nervous tension. Purposeful gestures are a good outlet for the nervous energy inherent in a speaking situation. Function as visual aids. Gestures enhance audience attentiveness and retention. Stimulate audience participation. Gestures help you indicate the response you seek from your listeners. Are highly visible. Gestures provide visual support when you address a large number of people and the entire audience may not see your eyes.

Types of Gestures Despite the vast number of movements that qualify as gestures, all gestures can be grouped into one of the following major categories: Descriptive gestures clarify or enhance a verbal message. They help the audience understand comparisons and contrasts, and visualize the size, shape, movement, location, function, and number of objects. Emphatic gestures underscore whats being said. They indicate earnestness and conviction. For example, a clenched fist suggests strong feeling, such as anger or determination. Suggestive gestures are symbols of ideas and emotions. They help a speaker create a desired mood or express a particular thought. An open palm suggests giving or receiving, usually of an idea, while a shrug of the shoulders indicates ignorance, perplexity, or irony. Prompting gestures are used to help evoke a desired response from the audience. If you want listeners to raise their hands, applaud, or perform some specific action, youll enhance the response by doing it yourself as an example

How to Gesture Effectively Gestures reflect each speakers individual personality. Whats right for one speaker probably wont work for you. However, the following six rules apply to almost everyone who seeks to become a dynamic, effective speaker. 1. Respond Naturally to What You Think, Feel, and Say. When you present a speech, you naturally express yourself though gestures. No matter what our personality or cultural background may be, every one of us has a natural impulse to punctuate and strengthen our words with gestures. The trick is not to suppress that impulse by retreating behind a mask of impassiveness; this can only create a buildup of tension. At the same time, dont get gestures out of a book or from another speaker. Be genuinely and spontaneously yourself. If you impose artificial gestures onto your natural style, your audience will sense it and label you a phony. Some people are naturally animated, while others are naturally reserved. If you naturally use your hands freely when you converse informally, use them freely when you give a speech. If youre by nature a reserved, low-key person, dont change your personality just to suit public speaking situations. 2. Create the Conditions for Gesturing Not the Gesture. Your gestures should be a natural outgrowth of your own unique thoughts and feelings. They should arise naturally and habitually from your attitude toward the message you present When you speak, you should be totally involved in communicating not in thinking about your hands. Your gestures need to be motivated by the content of your presentation. By immersing yourself in your subject matter, you will create the conditions that will enable you to respond naturally with appropriate gestures. 3. Suit the Action to the Word and the Occasion. Your visual and verbal messages must act as partners in communicating the same thought or feeling. When a speaker fails to match gestures with words, the outcome can be wooden, artificial, and sometimes comical. Every gesture you make should be purposeful and reflective of your words. In this way your listeners will note the effect rather than the gesture. Make sure the vigor and frequency of your gestures are appropriate for your words. Use strong, emphatic gestures only when your feeling for the message calls for them. On occasion, you may need to adapt your gestures to fit the size and nature of your audience. Generally speaking, the larger the audience, the broader and slower your gestures should be. Also keep in mind that young audiences are usually attracted to a speaker who uses vigorous gestures, but older, more conservative groups may feel irritated or threatened by a speaker whose physical actions are too powerful. Your gestures during a speech are also affected by the logistics of the speaking situation. When you speak from a physically confining position, you may be restricted from using broad, sweeping gestures. A common example of a confining speaking position is a head table, where people are seated close to the speaker.

4. Make Your Gestures Convincing. Your gestures should be lively and distinct if theyre to convey the intended impression. A gesture performed in a half-hearted manner suggests that the speaker lacks conviction and earnestness. Every hand gesture should be a total body movement that starts from the shoulder never from the elbow. Move your entire arm outward from your body freely and easily. Keep your wrists and fingers supple, rather than stiff or tense. Effective gestures are vigorous enough to be convincing, yet slow enough and broad enough to be clearly visible. Your gestures should be distinct but not jerky, and they should never follow a set pattern. 5. Make Your Gestures Smooth and Well-Timed. Any single gesture has three parts: the approach, the stroke, and the return. During the approach, your body begins to move in anticipation of the gesture. The stroke is the gesture itself, and the return brings your body back to a balanced speaking posture. The flow of a gesture balance, approach, stroke, return, balance must be smoothly executed in such a way that only the stroke is evident to the audience. Just as timing is an essential ingredient of comedy, a gestures timing

is just as important as its quality. The stroke must come on the correct word neither before nor after it. However, the approach can be initiated well before the stroke; in fact, you can obtain an especially powerful effect by approaching a gesture several seconds in advance, then holding the approach until the exact instant of the stroke. The return simply involves dropping your hands smoothly to your sides it doesnt have to be rushed. Dont try to memorize gestures and incorporate them into a speech. Memorized gestures usually fail, because the speaker cues himself or herself by the word the gesture is designed to punctuate. This results in the gesture following the word, which looks artificial and foolish. 6. Make Natural, Spontaneous Gesturing a Habit. The first step in becoming adept at g esturing is to determine what youre doing now. Use the evaluation form on page 17 and the help of a fellow Toast master to find out if you have any bad habits. If you do, strive to eliminate them from your bodys spoken image. To improve your gestures, practice but dont wait until the day of your speech! Work on enhanc-ing your gesturing abilities in front of friends, family members, and co-workers. Relax your inhibitions, gesture when you feel like it, and let yourself respond naturally to what you think, feel, and say. Through awareness and practice, you can make appropriate gesturing a part of your habitual behavior.

Posture
Posture can tell a lot about how a person might be feeling.

How we hold our bodies can also serve as an important part of body language. The term posture refers to how we hold our bodies as well as overall physical form of an individual. Posture can convey a wealth of information about how a person is feeling as well as hints about personality characteristics, such as whether a person is confident, open, or submissive.

Sitting up straight, for example, may indicate that a person is focused and paying attention to what's going on. Sitting with the body hunched forward, on the other hand, can imply that the person is bored or indifferent.

When you are trying to read body language, try to notice some of the signals that a person's posture can send.

Open posture involves keeping the trunk of the body open and exposed. This type of posture indicates friendliness, openness, and willingness.

Closed posture involves keeping the obscured or hidden often by hunching forward and keeping the arms and legs crossed. This type of posture can be an indicator of hostility, unfriendliness, and anxiety.

Static posture: body segments aligned and maintained in certain positions(standing, lying, sitting) Dynamic posture: body segments are moving(walking, jumping, throwing & lifting).

Personal Space
Have you ever heard someone refer to their need for "personal space"? Have you ever started to feel uncomfortable when someone stands just a little too close to you? The term proxemics refers to the distance between people as they interact. Just as body movements and facial expressions can communicate a great deal of nonverbal information, so can this physical space between individuals.

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall described four levels of social distance that occur in different situations:

Intimate distance - 6 to 18 inches This level of physical distance often indicates a closer relationship or greater comfort between individuals. It often occurs during intimate contact such as hugging, whispering, or touching.

Personal distance - 1.5 to 4 feet Physical distance at this level usually occurs between people who are family members or close friends. The closer the people can comfortably stand while interacting can be an indicator of the intimacy of the relationship.

Social distance - 4 to 12 feet This level of physical distance is often used with individuals who are acquaintances. With someone you know fairly well, such as a co-worker you see several times a week, you might feel more comfortable interacting at a closer distance. In cases where you do not know the other person well, such as a postal delivery driver you only see once a month, a distance of 10 to 12 feet may feel more comfortable.

Public distance - 12 to 25 feet Physical distance at this level is often used in public speaking situations. Talking in front of a class full of students or giving a presentation at work are good examples of such situations.

It is also important to note that the level of personal distance that individuals need to feel comfortable can vary from culture to culture. One oft-cited example is the different between people from Latin cultures and those from North America. People from Latin countries tend to feel more comfortable standing closer to one another as they interact, while those from North America need more personal distance.

The Eyes
The eyes are frequently referred to as the "windows to the soul" since they are capable of revealing a great deal about what a person if feeling or thinking. As you engage in conversation with another person, taking note of eye movements is a natural and important part of the communication process. Some common things you may note is whether people are making direct eye contact or averting their gaze, how much they are blinking, or if their pupils are dilated.

When evaluating body language, pay attention to the follow eye signals:

Eye gaze When a person looks directly into your eyes when having a conversion, it indicates that they are interested and paying attention. However, prolonged eye contact can feel threatening. On the other hand, breaking eye contact and frequently looking away may indicate that the person is distracted, uncomfortable, or trying to conceal his or her real feelings.

Blinking Blinking is natural, but you should also pay attention to whether a person is blinking too much or too little. People often blink more rapidly when they are feeling distressed or uncomfortable. Infrequent blinking may indicate that a person is intentionally trying to control his or her eye movements. For example, a poker player might blink less frequently because he is purposely trying to appear unexcited about the hand he was dealt.

Pupil size One of the most subtle cues that eyes provide is through the size of the pupils. While light levels in the environment control pupil dilation, sometimes emotions can also cause small changes in pupil size. For example, you may have heard the phase "bedroom eyes" used to describe the look someone gives when they are attracted to another person.

Facial Expressions

Think for a moment about how much a person is able to convey with just a facial expression. A smile can indicate approval or happiness, while a frown can signal disapproval or unhappiness. In some cases, our facial expressions may reveal our true feelings about a particular situation. While you may say that you are feeling fine, the look on your face may tell people otherwise.

Emotions Expressed Through Facial Expressions

Just a few examples of emotions that can be expressed via facial expressions include:

Happiness Sadness Anger Surprise Disgust Fear Confusion Excitement Desire Contempt

Universal Facial Expressions

Facial expressions are also among the most universal forms of body language. The expressions used to convey fear, anger, sadness, and happiness are similar throughout the world. Researcher Paul Ekman has found support for the universality of a variety of facial expressions tied to particular emotions including joy, anger, fear, surprise, and sadness.

The Mouth
The mouth and lips can convey a great deal of nonverbal information.

Mouth expressions and movements can also be essential in reading body language. For example, chewing on the bottom lip may indicate that the individual is experiencing worry, fear, or insecurity.

Covering the mouth may be an effort to be polite if the person is yawning or coughing, but it may also be an attempt to cover up a frown of disapproval. Smiling is perhaps one of the greatest body language signals, but smiles can also be interpreted in many ways. A smile may be genuine, or it may be used to express false happiness, sarcasm, or even cynicism.

When evaluating body language, pay attention to the following mouth and lip signals:

Pursed lips Pursed lips might be an indicator of distaste, disapproval, or distrust.

Lip biting People sometimes bite their lips when they are worried, anxious, or stressed.

Covering the mouth When people want to hide an emotional reaction, they might cover their mouths in order to avoid displaying a smile or smirk.

Turned up or down Slight changes in the mouth can also be subtle indicators of what a person is feeling. When the mouth is slightly turned up, it might mean that the person is feeling happy or optimistic. On the other hand, a slightly downturned mouth can be an indicator of sadness, disapproval, or even an outright grimace.

Gestures
Gestures are often easily understood, but the their meaning can differ based on the culture.

Gestures can be some of the most direct and obvious body language signals. Waving, pointing, and using the fingers to indicate numerical amounts are all very common and easy to understand gestures. Some gestures may be cultural, however, so giving a thumbs-up or a peace sign might have a completely different meaning than it might in the United States.

The following examples are just a few common gestures and their possible meanings:

A clenched fist can indicate anger or solidarity.

A thumbs up and thumbs down are often used as gestures of approval and disapproval.

The "Okay" gesture, made by touching together the thumb and index finger in a circle while extending the other three fingers can be used to mean okay. In some parts of Europe, however, the same signal is used to imply you are nothing. In some South American countries, the symbol is actually a vulgar gesture.

The V sign, created by lifting the index and middle finger and separating them to create a V-shape, means peace or victory in some countries. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the symbol takes on an offensive meaning when the back of the hand is facing outward.

The Arms and Legs

The movements and positions of the arms and legs can also convey a great deal of body language information.

The arms and legs can also be useful in conveying nonverbal information. Crossing the arms can indicate defensiveness. Crossing legs away from another person may indicate dislike or discomfort with that individual. Other subtle signals such as expanding the arms widely may be an attempt to seem larger or more commanding, while keeping the arms close to the body may be an effort to minimize oneself or withdraw from attention.

When you are evaluating body language, pay attention to some of the following signals that the arms and legs may convey:

Crossed arms might indicate that a person is feel defensive, self-protective, or closed-off.

Standing with hands placed on the hips can be an indication that a person is ready and in control, or it can also possibly be a sign of aggressiveness.

Clasping the hands behind the back might indicate that a person is feeling bored, anxious, or even angry.

Rapidly tapping fingers or fidgeting can be a sign that a person is bored, impatient, or frustrated.

Crossed legs can indicate that a person is feeling closed off or in need of privacy.