BodylanguageinInterculturalBusinessCommunication商務(wù)活動中的肢體語言

1、本科生畢業(yè)論文設(shè)計題目 商務(wù)活動中的肢體語言 作者姓名 指導(dǎo)教師 所在學院 外國語學院 專業(yè)（系） 商務(wù)英語 班級（屆） 2011 完成日期 2011 年 5 月 8 body language in intercultural business communication摘 要肢體語言是非語言交際的重要組成部分并和文化緊密聯(lián)系在一起。我們必須承認世界各國的肢體語言與語言一樣，也有相似之處。然而，由于地域，種族，文化習俗的差異，不同文化的肢體語言有許多差異,熟練的掌握肢體語言在跨文化交際中十分必要，尤其在商務(wù)場合中。商務(wù)溝通是一種正式的溝通方式，一般包括會議，面試，集體討論，工作報告，演講等。

2、商務(wù)場合更為正式并且要求掌握更多的肢體語言知識。由于肢體語言在商務(wù)交際中發(fā)揮重要作用,為了在跨文化交際中能夠成功地進行交流，我們應(yīng)該了解不同文化的肢體語言。本文將首先討論肢體語言的涵義，并重點對肢體語言在商務(wù)交際中的作用進行研究探討，并對中西文化中的肢體語言（包括面部表情，手勢，眼神交流，身體接觸，姿勢）進行對比研究，進而尋找方法避免商務(wù)活動中的誤解。關(guān)鍵詞：跨文化交際 文化差異 肢體語言  肢體語言功能  肢體語言差異abstractbody language is an important part of nonverbal communicatio

3、n and it is connected with culture. we should realize that body language, like verbal communication, has many similarities all over the world. however, body language from different cultures has many differences because of different regions, races and cultural customs. having a good knowledge of body

4、 language is necessary in intercultural communication. whats more in business communication, which is more complicated, body language plays a more important role. generally, business communication is a formal means of communication, like: meetings, interviews, group discussion, presentation, speeche

5、s etc. its much formal and requires more knowledge about body language. as body language plays an important part in business communication. in order to make successful exchange in cross-cultural communication, we should know the body language from different cultures. we will first discuss what is bo

6、dy language and then we will focus on the study of the functions of body language in intercultural communication and a comparative study of body language between chinese and western countries in terms of facial expression, gestures, eye contact, physical contact and posture and then find ways to avo

7、id misunderstandings in business communication.key words: intercultural communication, cultural differences, body language, function of body language, differences of body languagetable of contents introduction1chapter i a brief introduction of body language and its fuction31.1 the conception of body

8、 language31.2 the reason lead to body language differencescultural differences41.3 the function of body language51.3.1 repeating61.3.2 substituting61.3.3 complementing71.3.4 contradicting81.3.5 regulating9chapter ii a constructive study of body language between chinese and western country112.1 contr

9、astive study of facial expression112.2 contrastive study of gestures122.2.1 the same gesture with different meanings in different cultures122.2.2 different gestures with same meaning132.2.3 gesture and meaning in one culture without equivalent in other cultures132.3 contrastive study of eye contact1

10、42.4 contrastive study of physical contact152.5 contrastive study of posture15chapter iii ways to avoid misunderstandings in business communications183.1 increase awareness of body language183.2 combine the culture and context in understanding the body language193.3 respect other nation's cultur

11、e values and social customs19conclusion21reference22acknowledgement24 introductionall the human beings on the earth, despite differences in their background and culture, engage in common events every minute to communicate. when people discuss the human communication, they will think of the verb

12、al communication immediately. verbal communication is a very important process in communicating but not the single means. anyone can never neglect the other part in communication -nonverbal communication. in fact, the whole process of the human communication consists of two parts, that is to say, no

13、nverbal communication and verbal communication. sometimes nonverbal communication is more important than verbal communication. the former mainly produces the vocal effects, while the latter will lead to vision, sense and touch effects. in many communicational situations, these effects of the nonverb

14、al communication are more obvious than that of the verbal communication .body language is an important part of nonverbal communication. people could express their feelings and attitudes through facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, and physical contact and so on. “silent language expresses more

15、 information than verbal language. because it contains much information. according to some researchers abroad, in peoples daily life, nonverbal communication takes part over 65% in all of information exchange. many experts have shown the importance of body language in the cross-cultural communicatio

16、n. a psychologist birdwhistell proposed a formula that: total impact of message =7% verbal + 38% vocal +55% body language 1. the misunderstanding and cultural crash often occur in the cross-cultural communication due to unfamiliar with the body language of another culture. business communication dif

17、fers from communication in general. it is unique in its purpose. one communicates internally with his team members, his boss, his peers and others. he communicates externally with customers, competitors and service providers outside the organization. in both cases, his communicate with one very spec

18、ific purpose: to create his business. so in the process of business communication, it is not a complete communication while ignoring the cultural differences of nonverbal communication. the article first discuss what is body language and find the reason lead to differences of body language ,after th

19、at it focuses on functions of body language and a comparative study of body language in order to lessen conflicts in cross-culture business communication and make it much better and easier.chapter i a brief introduction of body language and its function1.1 the concept of body languagebody language r

20、eflects a certain cultural background and in a certain tradition, body language is determined by its customs and traditions. psychologist david abercrombie also pointed out: we speak with verbal organs but we talk with our body 1.the study of body language has a long tradition.more than 2,000 years

21、ago, the ancient roman politicians cicero had pointed out that all psychological activities were associated with movements. gesture was just a kind of human language which everybody, even barbarians, could understand. as we know, body language as a non-verbal language also had been recognized early

22、by people of western countries. in 1872, c.darwin published the article of modal expression of human and animal. he had firstly created a research method of linking the non-verbal language of human to the expression of animals that still was widely used in the field of human academic, social languag

23、e academic, social psychology profession and so on.in the early 1950s, westerners have been studying body language comprehensively and systematically. however there were three most influential works about body language, including kretschmers physique and character and the variation of human physique

24、 and efrons gesture and environment.in 1952, birdwhistells book of introduction to kinestics had conducted a systematic research on body language and created the word of kinesics. he thought that we should study body language by the way of researching language. and he firstly created the word of kin

25、eme as the minimum body language on researching body language. through this way, he could compare the structure of behavior with the structure of language so that the research of body language was to be code research system. albacon, an american psychologist, provided more precise figures that the i

26、nformation of someone was composed of three aspects: 55% of body language, 38% of the tone and 7% of the words(畢繼萬,1999).  in 1980, the study of body language has been as a new discipline. the subjects of zoology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, cross-cultural communication study also prom

27、ote the study of this subject. and many linguists have been researching body language more deeply 9.the writer think that body language is a term for communication using body movements or gestures instead of, or in addition to, sounds, verbal language or other communication. it forms part of the cat

28、egory of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not verbal language. this includes the most subtle of movements that many people are not aware of, including winking and slight movement of the eyebrows. in addition body language can also incorporate the use of facial

29、expressions.1.2 the reason leads to body language differencescultural differences the reason lead to body language differences is cultural differences. it is known to all that culture differs from country to country. then what is culture? how does it influence the body language? the article elaborat

30、es the question as following. according to the experts, culture is learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set of symbols whose meaning provides a set of orientations for members of a society. these orientations, taken together, provide solutions to problems that all societies must solve if they a

31、re to remain viable. besides, culture determines how people view others and themselves, they behave, and how they perceive the world around them. another definition is that culture is a set of learned core values, beliefs, standards, knowledge, morals, laws, and behaviors shared by individuals and s

32、ocieties that determines how an individual acts, feels, and views oneself and others (mitchell, 2000)13.then how does culture influence the body language? firstly, culture is a group-level phenomenon. culture itself is a phenomenon that can only be observed once it is shared by the vast majority of

33、the individuals belonging to a certain group. for example, the ethnic han culture is shared by the han nationality. the westerners do not belong to the culture of han nationality 4.there is no culture observed by one signal person. people from the same culture have a set of fixed rules and regulatio

34、ns which is agreed unanimously. t he group will gradually develop a series of body language that is shared by all the members. for example, the westerners will hug each other when they greet someone while the chinese people will shake hands. these body languages are agreed by their fellows from the

35、same culture.secondly, culture is a unique set of attributes that subsumes every area of social life. this implies that different cultures have different values and customs. the people of a culture follow the rules and behave in accordance with their culture. as body language is culture-bound, peopl

36、e from the same culture share the same body languages. we know that cultural differences result in the body language differences. thus culture is very important in understanding human behavior and hence cant be ignored when conducting international business.1.3 the function of body languagebody lang

37、uage not only complements verbal information, but also repeats, regulates, contradicts, substitutes and contradicts verbal information. these contents of every word that people said were comparatively firm; however, they only belong to some literal meaning. actually, what people said are some kind o

38、f behavior with aims and consciousness. this information, which should contain the motivation, feeling and attitude, usually expressed through body language. especially when body language and voiced language are used together, body language undertakes almost all the pragmatic meaning and emotional m

39、eaning expressed of voiced language. there are basically five functions in communication: repeating, complementing, substituting, regulating and contradicting.1.3.1 repeatingpeople should realize that they do not talk continuously, but do give out signals continuously through body language when they

40、 are in someone else's company. for the most part they communicate on the content at the same time. repeating means some of the nonverbal information can be repeated with oral language. specifically we express the content through words and through body language. furthermore, repeating means that

41、 people do the related behaviors while speaking, which are to illustrate and emphasize the meaning the speaker likes to express. movements of head and hands are always playing a role of strengthening when talking to others.for example: when reading some excellent works and wonderful sentences, we wi

42、ll slap the table and shout “bravo”. striking the table is an accompanying behavior, expressing excitements and pleasure. at the right moment when a speaker says" we have to give up it", his head tend ahead and his palm or his fist press heavily on the desk to show his firm attitude. one m

43、ore example, you tell somebody that the office building lies to the west of the teaching building and meanwhile your finger is pointing to the west to repeat it. sometimes when you say the number "one", you put out one of your fingers to help you express your idea. when you ask the student

44、s to keep quiet in class, you may saysilence! stop talking!" and you put your index in the palm of another hand to make a gesture of “stop”. the gesture with words to reach an effect that silence is the best way. chen yuan said: “the most important communicational tool used by human beings is o

45、f course language; however, it does not mean that language is the only tool. it also depends on many other nonverbal behaviors. actually, social communication usually mixed two kinds of tools-verbal and nonverbal. when one is speaking, gesture, eyes movement, posture and facial expression are always

46、 accompanying voiced language. repeating is the fuction of body language. all the movements including all the nonverbal behaviors are behaved as one aim-deepen the impression of meaning 15.1.3.2 substitutingbefore languages were produced, people had to use a variety of gestures to explain what they

47、want to say in order to communicate better or live better. obviously it became the main tool of communication, and now we see that some individuals use relative body language when they cannot or it is inconvenient to express their feeling to achieve the same results instead of oral language and writ

48、ten language. that is what we said of communicative function. sign languages that are used by the deaf and dumb, judging gesture that were used in sports competitions by the judges, gestures that were used by policemen who direct the cars and people on streets all belong to substitutable body langua

49、ge. whats more, in daily life people shake hands to send their respect to others, waving hands to say goodbye, clapping hands to welcome others. communicative functions of body language are mainly used in the following situations: first, more simple and concise body languages are used to stress the

50、main information. for example, in a competition, people around are very noisy, it's difficult or impossible for the athletes to hear each other, so they give each other a gesture of "v" to increase their confidence. and now we often see that in a football match when the player kicked a

51、 goal, he took off his clothes and ran around the playground to show his excitement. we still remember that in 2004 athens olympic games, when liu xiang got the gold medal, he put up the national flag and run around the playground. second, in some special backgrounds, the using of body language can

52、be more implicit and proper. in public places, someone may be impolite or rude; at this moment his friends want to point out his defects in words but were afraid of hurting his pride, so they use eye contacts to prevent him. third, when words are unnecessary and it is better to be silent than saying

53、 anything, only eye contact or smile will be more useful. fourth, because of the special environment, people can only use nonverbal communication. for example, policemen have a certain body language that can only be understood by them. when they are going to rescue a hostage they will use eye contac

54、ts or gestures to convey information in order not to be discovered by the criminals.1.3.3 complementingaccording to the psychologist birdwhistell, the communicative message conveyed by verbal behaviors in conversation only contains 30%, and the other messages are all conveyed by nonverbal means (bas

55、ically body language). that is to say, sometimes the voiced languages were powerless and the nonverbal behaviors will complement these speech acts by eye contacts, facial expressions, gestures, postures, etc. these silent body languages start by remedy the powerlessness and inadequacies. british pri

56、me minister churchill, who paid much attention to speech art, said in one of his lectures that our living level was higher than any other historical periods, we ate too much. then he stopped and stared at the audience and pointed at his own big stomach and said: “this is the most powerful proof.”2 c

57、hurchill used nonverbal acts twice to modify voiced language. first he stopped intentionally to cause the public's attention, and then the body language that he pointed at his own big stomach achieved a lively result. nowadays, written examinations and interviews are always included in an employ

58、ment. through the interview, the examiner judge the employee's full-scaled qualities by distinguish different nonverbal language behaviors. whats more, at the same time when a teacher praised someone, he would pat the student on the shoulder with a smiling face. all the behaviors are a complemen

59、t to the oral words. many examples exist in our daily lives. suppose you are on a phone call, a friend comes to visit you. you will nod your head or give a gesture or give him a glance to ask him to sit down and wait for you. we see sometimes information conveyed by nonverbal acts has no relation wit