叢書總序(王守仁) 中文導(dǎo)讀(嚴(yán)明) About the Series Preface Overview of Tips and Activities
CHAPTER 1: Exploring Culture. CHAPTER 2: Culture and Language CHAPTER 3: Culture and Nonverbal Communication CHAPTER 4: Culture and identity CHAPTER 5: Culture Shock and Cross-Cultural Adjustment CHAPTER 6: Traditional Ways of Teaching Culture CHAPTER 7: Culture and Education CHAPTER 8: Culture and Social Responsibility APPENDIX A: Handouts APPENDIX B: Recommended Movies for Intercultural Communication
Glossary Bibliography Name Index Subject Index
Nonverbal communication functions for us at a primal level and is therefore Extremely important in the communication of feelings and emotions. As far as we know from anthropologists and other researchers, before spoken language, humans' primary means of communication consisted of grunts, gestures, and other nonverbal cues. The primacy of nonverbal communication can be seen from the earliest stages; infants communicate via movements before mastering language, for example. Nonverbal communication and the interpretation of nonverbal communication differ from culture to culture, and understanding its different forms and functions is an important part of learning to communicate across cultures. Ann, one of the authors, teaches an advanced ESL writing class. One day Marcos, a student from Greece, asked Ann if he could be excused from the next class in order to meet his mother at the airport. She was flying in for a visit. Ann nodded the head up and down indicating that it was okay with her. Ann was surprised to see Marcos in class the next day. She discovered that nodding the head up and down means no in some parts of Greece. Because of this nonverbal miscommunication, Marcos thought Ann had not given him permission to be absent and so his mother had to take a taxi from the airport. What the research says "If language is the key to the core of a culture, nonverbal communication Is indeed the beard of each culture? Nonverbal communication is omnipresent Throughout a culture-it is everywhere," according to Stella Fang-Toomey (1999, p. 120). Other researchers agree. The anthropologist Ray Birdwhistell (1974) found that more than 65 percent of a conversation is communicated through nonverbal cues. Porter and Samovar (1988) make the point that nonverbal communication and culture are closely linked. They contend that most nonverbal communication is culturally based; thus, a particular gesture or action symbolizes, only the meaning a particular culture has attached to it. Members of a culture recognize those realities that have meaning or importance for them. For example, Vietnamese is a tonal language in which upward and downward intonation patterns carry distinct meanings. People from other cultures may find the speech of Vietnamese people to have a "sing-song" quality. If the language of the listener doesn't include tones, the nonverbal sounds from a Vietnamese speaker may be challenging to distinguish at first. The members of a culture interpret nonverbal experiences through their own personal frame of reference, as well as through their own cultural frame of Reference. Failure to recognize observable nonverbal signs and symbols or interpret them correctly can lead to a breakdown in communication (Samovar and Porter 1988, p. 28). In order to fully enter into a new culture and communicate accurately, we need to identify the rules, be aware of the underlying cultural values, and understand the connection between the functions and interpretations of nonverbal behavior (Ting-Toomey, 1999). An effort to understand and use correct nonverbal communication in a new culture can have significant benefits. O'Sullivan (1994, p. 63) described his experiences attempting to learn the language and culture overran. Although he was unable to speak the language fluently, he did use many nonverbal communication strategies to help him function in his new culture. For example, by putting his hand on his heart and inclining his head to the side, he was able to approximate the correct nonverbal communication used for greeting another man. Although his verbal greeting may have had errors, his nonverbal greeting was clearly understood. ……