Discuss the view that "We learn most about the meaning of nonverbal messages by studying them in relationship to verbal messages."

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Discuss the view that “We learn most about the meaning of nonverbal messages by studying them in relationship to verbal messages.” (Tubbs & Moss 2002)

Richard Mark Wyatt

09/11/2004

Interpersonal Communication Skills

BA (Hons) Communication and Media LEVEL C

Communication can be described as a “social activity in which people create and exchange meanings in response to the reality they experience.” Gill and Adams (1981). Therefore, communication is a valuable and interesting activity that every single person on this planet takes part in.

Non Verbal Communication (NVC) is a set of skills and functions that aid in forming language. As their name suggests, these are non-verbal skills and we are totally un-aware that we do them. The amount of NVC that a given person puts into a conversation varies dependant on the situation. There are many elements to NVC such as gesture, eye contact, posture, paralinguistics, facial expressions, proxemics and dress. To properly answer the question, it is important to be aware of all of these features and what they mean.

Simple features such as gesture, eye contact, facial expressions and posture all play a part in emphasis to speech. The way in which someone moves their hands to express their emotions, hold eye contact with someone dependant on their mood and the way in which a person holds their body during a conversation is critical. Moods, feelings and emotions are conveyed because of these simple actions. For example if someone is shy, they are less likely to hold prolonged eye contact with someone but would rather look away from the person they are speaking to.

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Proxemics and paralanguage are also key to communication. Proxemics is the way in which a person presents his or her body to someone. If someone is pleased to see another person, they could open their arms to the person to greet them – a sort of “what you see is what you get” feature. Paralanguage is the features behind speech such as pitch, tone, speed and whether there is an accent present in the speech. This feature contributes to the forming of the self and identity within a person.

Without NVC, speech would not be animated, everyone would speak in ...

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