COURSE 4

Silent Speech
Reading 1. Does posture tell you anything about a person? Use some of these adjectives to speculate about a persons personality. aggressive expansive self confident lively flirtatious submissive calm insecure tense dominant nervous outgoing

2. Now skim read the article. As you read think about these questions: Why is body language so important? How can it be used to your advantage? Practical Psychology1 Have you ever taken a dislike to someone for no reason at all? Or ever wondered why one particular plain, dull person is swamped by a vast circle of friends and a busy social calendar? According to some psychologists the answer is simple its all down to body language. Sheena Meredith explains some of the secrets of our silent speech. Body language, it seems, could be the key to all sorts of unsolved mysteries. Experts believe that our silent speech the way we move, small changes in appearance, postures and gestures convey far more meaning than the words in any conversation. Body language can make or break any encounter, especially if youre feeling uncomfortable. Learning the Language

If body language doesnt match words, it makes us feel uncomfortable even if we cant identify why. Dr Desmond Morris, the world-famous animal and people watcher, calls these incongruities nonverbal leakage, the failure of our social mask, and being able to spot them can help us to make much more sense to our interactions. Watching other peoples body language can also help your own self-image. The main problem when people are insecure or lack self esteem is that they imagine everyone else is secure, he says. If you spot the tricks someone is using to intimidate you, they seem less threatening.

Tricia Aspinall, Anette Capel, Advanced Masterclasss CAE Workbook, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 34-35

So body language tactics are not to hide these signals of tension, but to gain mastery and confidence over the environment, to spot when others are being threatening or belittling, and take countermeasures. If you dont feel good about yourself, its going to show. You can only fake it to an extent, says psychologist Dr David Lewis, who teaches people how to use body language to think themselves into a more confident manner. Walk Tall

Anyone whos ever tried to change the way they move, say from being round-shouldered, knows that it takes a great deal of concentration for a while. It can also become as much of a habit as a slouched posture. And walking tall increases and creates confidence. Another useful ploy to boost confidence before a tricky encounter is to look up at the sky or ceiling (if youre alone stretch your arms up as well), then put your chin horizontal and lower your gaze, but keep your eyes and eyebrows in the same position. This simple change of facial posture can make you look, and feel, many times more confident. Echoes of Friendship

Consider how you feel with true friends. There is a sense of relaxation, of freedom of the tension, power plays and uncertainty experienced during encounters with strangers. The key there is that you are of equal status. Among friends, there is a similarity of posture and a mimicry of movement, known as postural echo. It carries the message I am like you, making friends fell right together. Popular people seem to have a natural ability with postural echo, and it is often used by successful salespeople. The synchrony is missing in people with serious mental disturbances, and many normal people have poor postural echo. Perhaps their parents were undemonstrative or unloving, they seem never to have absorbed the unconscious signals of co-operative movement. As the echo goes, so does the sense of rapport, and they themselves may find it difficult to make friends. Minding your Language

People signal feelings and intent in body language. Jabbing a raised finger in conversation means power or anger. Turning the head, or crossing legs away from someone youre talking to however animatedly shows you dont want to be involved. Other barrier signals, like folded arms, may reveal a persons hostility or insecurity. Submission gestures like nodding and bowing are ritualised socially. We all start to edge away slightly, or sit forward in our chair, when were too polite to say Id like to leave, and most people will take the hint. Those who dont are likely to be labelled as monopolizing bores. Lies and Language

A whole new world opens up if youre aware of contradictory signals. If a friend who seems to be listening raptly is tapping her toes as well, change the subject, shes bored. No matter how charming the boss is being, those aggressive little foot kicks probably mean youll not to be given a pay raise. After a lovely evening, the man of your dreams says hell call soon, but he isnt looking at you and his arms are folded dont bother to wait by the phone. Safe Space

The way we dominate space is an extension of body language. The more expansive we are, the more powerful, from the hands-behind-head, feet on desk pose, to the positioning of towels on a beach or books on a table. Furniture is often used to dominate, like the common ploy of forcing a visitor into a lowly position in the guise of having the most comfortable, squishy armchair. Encroachments into strangers territory, like placing your bag firmly on their desk or putting your coffee cup down near to theirs, make them nervous and increase your dominance in an encounter. Close Encounters

The first four minutes of any encounter are critical, Dr Lewis says. When two people meeting make eye contact, both raise and lower their eyebrows in a flash greeting, which is known by experts as the eyebrow flash. This may signal hello, a query, approval, thanks, agreement, flirtation, emphasis or occasional disapproval. During a conversation direct gaze is needed for contact and to convey good intent, but it can also be threatening. Intense staring occurs at the heights of both intimacy and aggression. On the other hand, too short a gaze implies disinterest. (935 words) 3. Can you say what the following words and phrases from the article mean, in your own words? 1. non-verbal leakage 2. belittling 3. tactics 4. ploy 4. Multiple-choice options In the multiple-choice task, you need to apply skills of interpretation, both to what is in the text and to what exactly is stated in the multiple-choice options. When you are answering multiple-choice questions and you are unsure which is the right answer, one strategy is to try to rule out reasons which you know are incorrect. This process elimination helps you to evaluate all four options carefully. Look at the question: 3 5. mimicry 6. edge away 7. take the hint 8. encroachments

1. Low self-esteem can be improved by A using body-language to hide what you really feel. B using threatening to make others feel small C Recognising that everyone else feels secure. D recognising that body language need not to be a threat = is the correct answer as it reflects what is said in the text. Look at how the original wording has been changed in the option. If you spot the tricks someone is using to intimidate you recognising that body language they seem less threatening need not be a threat Now look at the following multiple-choice questions. 2. One of the ways to become more confident is to A relax more with friends B imitate the facial expressions of others C alter the way you walk D avoid direct contact with people 3. Some people have poor postural echo because they A do not co-operate with their parents. B do not mix with people of equal status C have not received the proper training D have not understood the signals in a relationship 4. How can you show that you want to end a conversation? A cross your legs B move back a little C make themselves more comfortable D hide their own nervousness 5. People dominate space in a meeting in order to A give themselves an advantage B put other people at their ease C make themselves more comfortable D hide their own nervousness 6. What should you try not to do in a social encounter? A fail to return an eyebrow flash B glance away while talking to someone 4

C look directly in someones eyes D appear too friendly and interested 2 IDIOMS Information3 Study the following examples to try and understand the underlined idioms in context. hear something on the grapevine Its difficult to prove players have been included to change clubs for money, yet you hear it on the grapevine4 and gives the game a bad name. at your fingertips Future managers will have at their fingertips as much data as they need to analyze any marketing decision without having to go through a lot of complicated research data. put someone in the picture But he admitted Welsh Secretary David Hunt had not been put in the picture soon enough over the closure of three pits in Wales. Information did not get to David as quickly as it should have done, he said. off the record Let me tell you something off the record 5, Nigel, that we know unofficially that you have been followed for three days. keep someone posted Keep me posted daily, Marin. Thats all I ask. When anything comes up, I will expect to hear from you. Yes, Sir Frederick from the horses mouth You can also get it from the horses mouth: The Neighborhood Cleaners Association publishes the Consumers guide to Clothing Care. have your ear to the ground Why did you want to see Eric? To ask him if he knew of any jobs that were likely to be going anywhere in the immediate future. Hes got the ear to the ground about things like that.
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Tricia Aspinall & Annette Capel, Advanced Masterclass CAE, Students Book, Oxford University Press, 2006 Malcom Goodale, Idioms Workbook, London, Harper-Collins Publishers, 1995, p. 8-10 A grapevine is a climbing plant on which grapes grow Off the record is particularly common in written English

Exercises 1. Complete the following definitions with the correct idioms. 1. If you get a piece of information ______________________________ , you get it directly from the person who knows best or knows most about it, and so you are sure it is true. 2. If someone asks you to _____________ them _________________ , they are asking you to continue giving them the latest information about a situation that concerns them. 3. If you _____________ something __________________ , you hear about it from the people you know. 2. Complete the idioms below with the correct prepositions. 1. Manufacturing is relatively scarce but I keep my year _________ the ground. Maybe somethingll turn up. 2. And thats after ten thirty, youll be able to hear Dionne for the first time. And its Warwick, Ive had that confirmed _________ the horses mouth if thats not an indelicate thing to call her mouth. 3. Computers, with their library of knowledge _________ students fingertips, will make it possible for children to enjoy learning by making them explorers, active participants in educational adventures. 4. Sitting in dark leather armchair in his spacious office, the Mexican president, 44, is an engaging man of almost impish humour who moves suddenly _________ the record to gossip about American or British politics. 5. He had started writing novels before going to Nairobi and, having heard _________ the grapevine that one of his efforts was to be published, he left his job and flew to Paris to join Anna. 3. Select A,B or C. 1. This is information _________________. You can carry a CD-ROM on your shoulder and plug it in anywhere you need it. A heard on the grapevine A be at your fingertips A Off the record B off the record B on the grapevine B To put you in the picture C at your fingertips C keep you posted C At your fingertips 2. The bulletin will _________________ recent arrivals of vintage stock. 3. Why are you telling me now? _________________ about Erica. 4. Perhaps this should be _________________ but I dont think it really matters. 6

A off the record A on the grapevine JOKES ANS QUOTES

B on the grapevine B from the horses mouth

C at your fingertips C at their fingertips

5. The participants in the discussion wanted answers _________________.

1. A policeman who doesnt do much but keeps his ear on the ground 2. I put him in the picture, but he was so ugly 3. Anytime you find him with his ear on their ground

A. its just because hes looking for a contact lens. B. doesnt have much vision C. he broke his camera

BBC Learning English Words in the News US to send more troops to Afghanistan President Obama is ordering the deployment of seventeen thousand extra troops to Afghanistan. In a statement he said they were needed to stabilise a deteriorating situation. From Washington, our North America editor Justin Webb reports: This is the first big military decision from the new White House team. In a written statement, Mr Obama said Afghanistan had not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently required. Speaking on Air Force One, the president's spokesman Robert Gibbs suggested that the extra troops were sorely needed in order to address an immediate crisis combating a deteriorating situation ahead of a Taleban spring offensive. In the longer term though it's not yet clear what the president intends to do about Afghanistan. In advance of a visit to Canada he told a Canadian TV interviewer that he thought the war was still winnable, al-Qaeda could still be stamped out. On the other hand he said the spread of extremism could not be stopped solely through military means, diplomacy and development were also important. He may well add to the seventeen thousand troop reinforcements, his commanders would like more, but the president has yet to decide on a long-term plan. Justin Webb, BBC News, Washington Vocabulary and definitions the new White House team the people working for President Obama 7

strategic well planned in advance for a particular purpose Air Force One the US Presidents private aircraft (sometimes referred to as the flying White House) sorely needed absolutely necessary combating a deteriorating situation trying to prevent a bad situation from getting even worse spring offensive a military attack taking place in the spring winnable with the possibility of being victorious stamped out destroyed solely through military means using only the armed forces reinforcements soldiers sent to make the army stronger More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7895951.stm Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2009/02/090218_afghanistan.sht ml