People usually rely on languages to communicate, to express their thought or to transmit the information. But there exists another means to convey the information during human’s communication, that’s non-verbal communication, which is an ancient and convenient form. It is necessary to employ non-verbal communication to express vividly during information transmission and thought and feeling exchanging. People usually use different parts of the body to convey the message and exchange their ideas. This is so called non-verbal communication, which includes gestures, posture, facial expression, distance between speakers, clothes of communicators and so on. Body language differs from culture to culture, therefore body language in different countries means differently. So it is necessary to understand the relationship between non-verbal communication and culture clearly in the cross-cultural communication. In this paper, the writer analyzes certain types of body language, such as distance communications occurs, physical contact, eye contact, smile and laughter and so on; and then explore application of body language, such as greetings, signs of affection, physical contact and so forth; finally the writer makes a comparative study between Chinese and American body language.
Key Words
cross-culture; non-verbal communication; body language; culture differences
Abstract............................................................I
Key Words...........................................................I
摘要................................................................II
关键词..............................................................II
Introduction........................................................1
I. The Necessity of Studing Body Language...........................2
II. The Importance of Body Language.................................2
III. The Types and Application of the Body Language.................3
Types of Body Language..............................................3
Distance Communication..............................................3
Physical Contactv...................................................4
Eye Contact.........................................................5
Smile and Laughter..................................................8
Gestures............................................................9
Application of the Body Language....................................9
Greetings...........................................................9
Signs of Affection..................................................11
Physical Contact....................................................12
Ⅳ.A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Body Language........13
Conclusion..........................................................15
Acknowledgements....................................................16
Bibliography........................................................17
