Rachmi Putri Chandra 04690/08 Kinesics and Cross-Culture Understanding

An understanding of kinesics across cultures necessitates a close look at posture, movement, facial expression, eye management, gestures, and proxemics (distancing). The popularity of one posture over another and the emotion conveyed by a given posture seems to be largely determined by culture. Recent studies of rhythm and dance as they relate to body movement have revealed astonishing new insights into human interaction. Facial expressions are very revealing and would be an important aspect of language learners attempting to master the nonverbal system of another culture. The role of eye contact in a conversational exchange between two Americans is well defined and is intensely important in interpersonal communication. An understanding of the role gestures play (autistic, technical and folk) within a culture is critical to sensitive communication. In each culture, the use of space (proxemics) depends upon the nature of the social interaction, but all cultures distinguish the four basic categories of intimate, personal, social, and public distance. The Nonverbal Chanel of Expression Nonverbal messages could also be communicated through material exponential; meaning, objects or artifacts (such as clothing, hairstyles or architecture). Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the physical layout of a page. However, much of the study of nonverbal communication has focused on face-to-face interaction, where it can be classified into three principal areas: environmental conditions where communication takes place, physical characteristics of the communicators, and behaviors of communicators during interaction.

Posture and Movement You communicate with others through your posture and movement. You may know the rules of proper etiquette for verbal communication with others, but you should also know how to use your posture and movements to send the right nonverbal messages. Once you understand the particulars of posture and movement etiquette, you can tell others that you are confident, approachable, respectful or attentive just by the way you stand and move your head, limbs and the rest of your body. Dummies.com recommends being careful not to move your hands too much when speaking. Hand movement is natural for some people, but it can be viewed as aggressive or intrusive by others. Body movement can also signal aggression if you step toward the other person, so be careful to maintain your space. Maintain eye contact without moving your eyes away or blinking excessively. Looking away can signal boredom or inattentiveness, and excessive blinking can make you appear nervous. Don't fidget, as this can also make the other person think you are bored or not listening. You can show your attention through appropriate head movements like nodding slightly in agreement or shaking your head slightly to subtly show disagreement or disapproval.

Gesture This landmark study examines the role of gestures in relation to speech and thought. Leading scholars, including psychologists, linguists and anthropologists, offer state-ofthe-art analyses to demonstrate that gestures are not merely an embellishment of speech but are integral parts of language itself. Language and Gesture offers a wide range of theoretical approaches, with emphasis not simply on behavioural descriptions but also on the underlying processes.

Proxemics Proxemics is what brings us together, today. The term ``proxemics'' was coined by researcher Edward Hall during the 1950's and 1960's and has to do with the study of our use of space and how various differences in that use can make us feel more relaxed or anxious. Proxemics is all about how non-verbal communication among and between people is affected by distance. These kinds of spatial relationships involve territory,

proximity, and a wide range of personal comfort zones. There are four general categories of space, as defined by proxemics:

Public space Social space Personal space Intimate space

Kinesics Universals Kinesics, or body language, is one of the most powerful ways that humans can communicate nonverbally. It is used to portray moods and emotions and to emphasize or contradict what is being said. Body language is very important when in an interview. "To effectively communicate its not always what you say, but what your body says, that makes the difference," according to Patricia Ball. There are various different types of body movement one can do to come across as being too strong or too weak. For example, when one first walks into the room and shakes hands with the interviewer you want to have good eye contact as well as a good firm hand shake. Not too strong, because you can come across as being a power player. The last two things to remember is when you first walk into the office do not cross anything unless the person that is doing the interviewing crosses his or hers first. Next when you are sitting down be relaxed as possible by opening your suit jacket. This shows the person that you are not tensed. The other aspect to remember is to lean forward in your chair, but not to close where you are in the individuals face. If you sit back in your chair you might be sending off signals, such as, aloofness or rejection. Finally, nonverbal communication can also be an effective sale when executives learn to read a clients body language.

Rachmi Putri Chandra 04690/08

Intercultural Differences and Communicative Approaches to Foreign Language Teaching in the Third World
Language is not simply a formal system of sounds, words, and syntactical structures; language also reaches into the domain of human interaction, which for its own part follows certain rules. Every native speaker assimilates individual social experiences characteristic of his own culture. These experiences inhere in statements that obtain their communicative significance through interpretation: Die Bedeutung eines sprachlichen Zeichens kennen heisst wis en, wie es verwendet werden kann, d.h. wie man mit ihm handeln kann, welche Regeln fr seinen Gebrauch gelten (Heringer, 1977). Each society accumulates rules according to which concrete statements are interpreted abstractly and which are valid among communicating partners through common usage. The Sanctity of the text The outstanding intercultural differences can be seen in the differing altitudes of reader to written text. In developing societies the readers attitude is strongly influence by the fact that until a few decades ago only sacred topics were written down. In Islamic countries the Koran is in the back of the readers mind when dealing with a text. Since both content and form of text are in principle solemn, holy, and incontestable, it follows that language learning becomes very difficult when it comes to analyzing a text and testing its validity. In order to do successfully a students will have to go through a series of new social experiences. World who wants to learn a modern European language has to learn that most texts in order to understand a text in the foreign language he has to learn at the same time how that written material is communicatively handled in the given culture.

Identification of author and text Concomitant with the progress of the industrial revolution was a disenchantment of language. New kinds of text came into existence, in which the author and reader remain anonymous. Advertisements, sign, and nameplates, bureaucratic forms, time table, city maps, and statistics cannot be classifies in term of the writer status. These text contain an informal structure which is rationalized to the last detail. Collective opinions and interpersonal conflict In the domain of discursive language, intercultural differences play an important role and result in manifold problem. Argumentation in particular enjoys a completely different social place in preindustrialized societies. One of reasons for this difference lies again in the close relation between the person and his statement. Opinion indicates the status and the origin of the person and are as representative as weapons or custom area. The students cultural background prompt him to perceive a difference of opinion as an attack on both himself and the group of which he is a part. From the linguistics point of view the problem can be resolve relatively easily, all we need to do is make a list of all means of communication necessary for a conversation: how to contradict someone politely, how to join in a conversation, how to draw attention to common point of view, how to come to conclusion.