A Cultural Study Of Sino-American Nonverbal Communication And Implications For CET

Significantly, there are usually two forms of human communication: verbal and nonverbal. For a long time, in our daily life we commonly emphasize the verbal aspect of communication, overlooking its nonverbal means. And we are apt to take nonverbal function for granted and often neglect it because it is very basic and usually occurs unconsciously and unintentionally. Up till now, much attention has been given to the research on verbal domain. However, in the whole process of human interaction, communication takes place verbally and nonverbally. They interact with and complement each other. Many linguists believe that in a face-to-face interaction about 35% of a message's meaning conveyed by words, while the rest of the information gets across in physical manner. This suggests that nonverbal communication plays a vital role in human socializing.The research on nonverbal behavior in our country began since late 1980s. Since then, an increasing number of anthropologists, linguists, psychologists, sociolinguists and language teachers are studying intercultural nonverbal exchange. However, the systematic study on the interest of the paper from the perspective of intercultural transmission in our country has not gone far although some scholars have done some work. In addition, like verbal delivery of message, nonverbal counterpart is culturally bound. It varies from culture to culture. The same nonverbal behavior in one culture may be interpreted differently in another. Hence, misunderstandings and conflicts may result when people from foreign backgrounds try to reach each other. Therefore, this dissertation intends to explore the cultural differences in nonverbal communication between Chinese and American traditions in the hope of increasing students' awareness of cross-cultural reality and enhancing their communicative competence accordingly.