Body language in Intercultural Business Communication商务活动中的肢体语言.doc

本科生毕业论文设计题目 商务活动中的肢体语言 作者姓名 指导教师 所在学院 外国语学院 专业（系） 商务英语 班级（届） 2011 完成日期 2011 年 5 月 8 Body language in Intercultural Business Communication摘 要肢体语言是非语言交际的重要组成部分并和文化紧密联系在一起。我们必须承认世界各国的肢体语言与语言一样，也有相似之处。然而，由于地域，种族，文化习俗的差异，不同文化的肢体语言有许多差异,熟练的掌握肢体语言在跨文化交际中十分必要，尤其在商务场合中。商务沟通是一种正式的沟通方式，一般包括会议，面试，集体讨论，工作报告，演讲等。商务场合更为正式并且要求掌握更多的肢体语言知识。由于肢体语言在商务交际中发挥重要作用,为了在跨文化交际中能够成功地进行交流，我们应该了解不同文化的肢体语言。本文将首先讨论肢体语言的涵义，并重点对肢体语言在商务交际中的作用进行研究探讨，并对中西文化中的肢体语言（包括面部表情，手势，眼神交流，身体接触，姿势）进行对比研究，进而寻找方法避免商务活动中的误解。关键词：跨文化交际 文化差异 肢体语言  肢体语言功能  肢体语言差异AbstractBody language is an important part of nonverbal communication and it is connected with culture. We should realize that body language, like verbal communication, has many similarities all over the world. However, body language from different cultures has many differences because of different regions, races and cultural customs. Having a good knowledge of body language is necessary in intercultural communication. Whats more in business communication, which is more complicated, body language plays a more important role. Generally, business communication is a formal means of communication, like: meetings, interviews, group discussion, presentation, speeches etc. Its much formal and requires more knowledge about body language. As body language plays an important part in business communication. In order to make successful exchange in cross-cultural communication, we should know the body language from different cultures. We will first discuss what is body language and then we will focus on the study of the functions of body language in intercultural communication and a comparative study of body language between Chinese and western countries in terms of facial expression, Gestures, eye contact, physical contact and posture and then find ways to avoid misunderstandings in business communication.Key Words: intercultural communication, cultural differences, body language, function of body language, differences of body languageTable of Contents Introduction1Chapter I A brief introduction of body language and its fuction31.1 The conception of body language31.2 The reason lead to body language differencescultural differences41.3 The function of body language51.3.1 Repeating61.3.2 Substituting61.3.3 Complementing71.3.4 Contradicting81.3.5 Regulating9Chapter II A constructive study of body language between Chinese and western country112.1 Contrastive study of facial expression112.2 Contrastive study of gestures122.2.1 The same gesture with different meanings in different cultures122.2.2 Different gestures with same meaning132.2.3 Gesture and meaning in one culture without equivalent in other cultures132.3 Contrastive study of eye contact142.4 Contrastive study of physical contact152.5 Contrastive study of posture15Chapter III Ways to avoid misunderstandings in business communications183.1 Increase awareness of body language183.2 Combine the culture and context in understanding the body language193.3 Respect other nation's culture values and social customs19Conclusion21Reference22Acknowledgement24 IntroductionAll the human beings on the earth, despite differences in their background and culture, engage in common events every minute to communicate. When people discuss the human communication, they will think of the verbal communication immediately. Verbal communication is a very important process in communicating but not the single means. Anyone can never neglect the other part in communication -nonverbal communication. In fact, the whole process of the human communication consists of two parts, that is to say, nonverbal communication and verbal communication. Sometimes nonverbal communication is more important than verbal communication. The former mainly produces the vocal effects, while the latter will lead to vision, sense and touch effects. In many communicational situations, these effects of the nonverbal communication are more obvious than that of the verbal communication .Body language is an important part of nonverbal communication. People could express their feelings and attitudes through facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, and physical contact and so on. “Silent language expresses more information than verbal language. Because it contains much information. According to some researchers abroad, in peoples daily life, nonverbal communication takes part over 65% in all of information exchange. Many experts have shown the importance of body language in the cross-cultural communication. A psychologist Birdwhistell proposed a formula that: total impact of message =7% verbal + 38% vocal +55% body language 1. The misunderstanding and cultural crash often occur in the cross-cultural communication due to unfamiliar with the body language of another culture. Business Communication differs from communication in general. It is unique in its purpose. One communicates internally with his team members, his boss, his peers and others. He communicates externally with customers, competitors and service providers outside the organization. In both cases, his communicate with one very specific purpose: to create his business. So in the process of business communication, it is not a complete communication while ignoring the cultural differences of nonverbal communication. The article first discuss what is body language and find the reason lead to differences of body language ,after that it focuses on functions of body language and a comparative study of body language in order to lessen conflicts in cross-culture business communication and make it much better and easier.Chapter I A brief introduction of body language and its function1.1 The concept of body languageBody language reflects a certain cultural background and in a certain tradition, body language is determined by its customs and traditions. Psychologist David Abercrombie also pointed out: we speak with verbal organs but we talk with our body 1.The study of body language has a long tradition.More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Roman politicians Cicero had pointed out that all psychological activities were associated with movements. Gesture was just a kind of human language which everybody, even barbarians, could understand. As we know, body language as a non-verbal language also had been recognized early by people of western countries. In 1872, C.Darwin published the article of Modal Expression of Human and Animal. He had firstly created a research method of linking the non-verbal language of human to the expression of animals that still was widely used in the field of human academic, social language academic, social psychology profession and so on.In the early 1950s, westerners have been studying body language comprehensively and systematically. However there were three most influential works about body language, including Kretschmers Physique and Character and The Variation of Human Physique and Efrons Gesture and Environment.In 1952, Birdwhistells book of Introduction to Kinestics had conducted a systematic research on body language and created the word of Kinesics. He thought that we should study body language by the way of researching language. And he firstly created the word of Kineme as the minimum body language on researching body language. Through this way, he could compare the structure of behavior with the structure of language so that the research of body language was to be Code Research System. Albacon, an American psychologist, provided more precise figures that the information of someone was composed of three aspects: 55% of body language, 38% of the tone and 7% of the words(毕继万,1999).  In 1980, the study of body language has been as a new discipline. The subjects of zoology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, cross-cultural communication study also promote the study of this subject. And many linguists have been researching body language more deeply 9.The writer think that body language is a term for communication using body movements or gestures instead of, or in addition to, sounds, verbal language or other communication. It forms part of the category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not verbal language. This includes the most subtle of movements that many people are not aware of, including winking and slight movement of the eyebrows. In addition body language can also incorporate the use of facial expressions.1.2 The reason leads to body language differencescultural differences The reason lead to body language differences is cultural differences. It is known to all that culture differs from country to country. Then what is culture? How does it influence the body language? The article elaborates the question as following. According to the experts, culture is learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set of symbols whose meaning provides a set of orientations for members of a society. These orientations, taken together, provide solutions to problems that all societies must solve if they are to remain viable. Besides, Culture determines how people view others and themselves, they behave, and how they perceive the world around them. Another definition is that culture is a set of learned core values, beliefs, standards, knowledge, morals, laws, and behaviors shared by individuals and societies that determines how an individual acts, feels, and views oneself and others (Mitchell, 2000)13.Then how does culture influence the body language? Firstly, culture is a group-level phenomenon. Culture itself is a phenomenon that can only be observed once it is shared by the vast majority of the individuals belonging to a certain group. For example, the ethnic Han culture is shared by the Han nationality. The westerners do not belong to the culture of Han nationality 4.There is no culture observed by one signal person. People from the same culture have a set of fixed rules and regulations which is agreed unanimously. T he group will gradually develop a series of body language that is shared by all the members. For example, the westerners will hug each other when they greet someone while the Chinese people will shake hands. These body languages are agreed by their fellows from the same culture.Secondly, culture is a unique set of attributes that subsumes every area of social life. This implies that different cultures have different values and customs. The people of a culture follow the rules and behave in accordance with their culture. As body language is culture-bound, people from the same culture share the same body languages. We know that cultural differences result in the body language differences. Thus culture is very important in understanding human behavior and hence cant be ignored when conducting international business.1.3 The function of body languageBody language not only complements verbal information, but also repeats, regulates, contradicts, substitutes and contradicts verbal information. These contents of every word that people said were comparatively firm; however, they only belong to some literal meaning. Actually, what people said are some kind of behavior with aims and consciousness. This information, which should contain the motivation, feeling and attitude, usually expressed through body language. Especially when body language and voiced language are used together, body language undertakes almost all the pragmatic meaning and emotional meaning expressed of voiced language. There are basically five functions in communication: repeating, complementing, substituting, regulating and contradicting.1.3.1 RepeatingPeople should realize that they do not talk continuously, but do give out signals continuously through body language when they are in someone else's company. For the most part they communicate on the content at the same time. Repeating means some of the nonverbal information can be repeated with oral language. Specifically we express the content through words and through body language. Furthermore, repeating means that people do the related behaviors while speaking, which are to illustrate and emphasize the meaning the speaker likes to express. Movements of head and hands are always playing a role of strengthening when talking to others.For example: When reading some excellent works and wonderful sentences, we will slap the table and shout “bravo”. Striking the table is an accompanying behavior, expressing excitements and pleasure. At the right moment when a speaker says" We have to give up it", his head tend ahead and his palm or his fist press heavily on the desk to show his firm attitude. One more example, you tell somebody that the office building lies to the west of the teaching building and meanwhile your finger is pointing to the west to repeat it. Sometimes when you say the number "one", you put out one of your fingers to help you express your idea. When you ask the students to keep quiet in class, you may saySilence! Stop talking!" and you put your index in the palm of another hand to make a gesture of “stop”. The gesture with words to reach an effect that silence is the best way. Chen Yuan said: “The most important communicational tool used by human beings is of course language; however, it does not mean that language is the only tool. It also depends on many other nonverbal behaviors. Actually, social communication usually mixed two kinds of tools-verbal and nonverbal. When one is speaking, gesture, eyes movement, posture and facial expression are always accompanying voiced language. Repeating is the fuction of body language. All the movements including all the nonverbal behaviors are behaved as one aim-deepen the impression of meaning 15.1.3.2 SubstitutingBefore languages were produced, people had to use a variety of gestures to explain what they want to say in order to communicate better or live better. Obviously it became the main tool of communication, and now we see that some individuals use relative body language when they cannot or it is inconvenient to express their feeling to achieve the same results instead of oral language and written language. That is what we said of communicative function. Sign languages that are used by the deaf and dumb, judging gesture that were used in sports competitions by the judges, gestures that were used by policemen who direct the cars and people on streets all belong to substitutable body language. Whats more, in daily life people shake hands to send their respect to others, waving hands to say goodbye, clapping hands to welcome others. Communicative functions of body language are mainly used in the following situa