On Cultural Differences Of Body Languages Between English, Russian And Chinese

Body languages, as important parts of nonverbal communication, include gestures, facial expressions, posture, eye contact, touch, body movements, etc.. There are similarities between body languages, but most of the body languages vary culturally. With the development of intercultural communication, the contacts between the Chinese, the English and the Russian peoples are on the increase, and the differences between body languages have been among the major barriers to efficient communication.The present paper first makes a contrastive study on cultural differences of body languages between English, Russian and Chinese, then classifies the differences of the body languages between the three languages into spiritual, institutional and material differences. In addition, the paper puts forward three principles guiding the study of the cultural extensions and their differences. Finally, the paper holds that the cultural extensions of body languages should be introduced into the teaching activities to cultivate the students' all-round communicative competence.The originality of this paper lies in the classification of the cultural differences of the body languages of Chinese, English and Russian into three levels: spiritual, institutional and material. The paper holds that the spiritual factors are the main internal causes of the cultural differences of the body languages, the institutional factors are the external drive to the formation of the cultural differences of the body languages and the material factors are the embodiment and the important conditions of forming their differences.The paper suggests that the study of the principles of the cultural differences of body languages is conducive to the understanding of the value system, moral standard, customs, historical background and mode of thinking of a nation and comes to the conclusion that the study of body language culture should constitute an important part of the second language teaching and learning.