How Body Language Affects The Communication Process

Definition of Body Language

It's about matching what you see with what you hear in the environment surrounding the situation & drawing a probable conclusion. Nonverbal communication takes place by means of facial expressions, head movements, eye contact, hand gestures, body positions and acts, tones of voice, and so on. In general, body language expresses an individual's emotions, feelings, and attitudes.

Many people send and receive non-verbal signals all the time generally without being aware of it. These signals may indicate what they are truly feeling.

Understanding body language

Body language is considered to be an outward reflection of person's emotional condition. Each gesture (movement) can be a valuable key to an emotion a person may be feeling at the time. Depending on the situation, try to interpret what the person may be thinking or feeling.

e.g.

The act of folding arms !!

This can indicate that a person is putting up an unconscious barrier between themselves and others to feel more secure.

e.g.

When the overall situation is amicable, it can mean that a person is thinking deeply about what is being discussed.

e.g.

In a serious or confrontational situation, it can mean that a person is expressing opposition.

 The key to reading body language is being able to understand a person's emotional condition while listening to what they are saying & noting the circumstances under which they are saying it. When we say someone is perceptive or intuitive about people, we're referring to his ability to read another person's body language or to compare the cues with verbal signals. Being perceptive means being able to spot the contradiction between someone's words and their body language.

Origins of body language

It's believed that the ability to read a person's attitudes & thoughts by their behavior was the original communication system used by humans before spoken language evolved. Body language is a product of both genetic and environmental influences. Blind children will smile and laugh even though they have never seen a smile.

Social and national distinctions

Body language is an important ingredient in social differentiation. Different languages involve different facial and bodily movements. Most of inborn or genetic communication signals or gestures are the same all over the world, however, acquired gestures changes according to cultural differences.

e.g

The act of smiling indicates your happiness

e.g

The act of frowning indicates your anger

Shaking the head in the "no" gesture is believed to be learned in childhood.

When a baby has had enough milk or food he turns his head from side to side to reject any attempt to feed him. So from his first day till his death he's using the same gesture to indicate his "no".

Women are far more perceptive than men, that's what's commonly referred to as "women's intuition". Women have a great ability to pick up non-verbal signals as well as having an accurate eye for small details.

The three wise monkeys

These monkeys symbolize those who hear no evil, see no evil & speak no evil. Their simple hand-to-face gestures form the basis of the human deceit gestures. In simple terms, when we see, speak & hear lies or deceit, we're likely to attempt to cover our eyes, mouth or ears with our hands.

Practicing
The ability to work out what's happening with a person is simple but not easy. You can be a great reader with some practicing. Turn down the sound of T.V. & try to understand what's happening by watching the pictures only. From time to time turn on the sound to check whether you are following up with what's going on or not. This simple exercise will activate your ability to read non-verbal gesture while understanding; just as deaf people do.

Thats how we can conclude at the end that Body Language is particularly important in group communications because for large groups it dominates the spoken word.