The Importance of Body Language in Personal Communication

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The Importance of Body Language in Personal Communication

Personal communication is aided by many factors other than simply

speech. The main contribution to speech in personal communication is

body language, most of which is unconscious.

Body language is one of three aspects of Non Verbal Communication. The

other two are Paralanguage and Appearance.

Body language, as a whole is made up of every movement that our body

makes that conveys communication to others. According to Michael

Argyle Body language is made up of eight codes, these are:

« Touch

« Proximity

« Orientation

« Head Nods

« Facial Expression

« Gesture

« Posture

« Eye Contact

The first, touch is one of the most intimate. It can is used most

effectively for comfort, violence and arousal. Another aspect which

can strongly display violence is gesture. There are many gestures

world-wide that are used to insult and convey violent feelings. All of

the above factors of body language are used in the simplest of

communications.

Body language is very important for communication, as it aids the

information being transmitted and helps the receiver understand the

meaning more clearly. It is possible for communication to take place

without it for example the telephone, but when sending and receiving

information the listening and speaking factors of the communication

need to be enhanced so that it is being heard correctly.

Additionally, Body Language is important because it can display more

feelings than the sentence itself. For example; If a person is saying

how angry they were the other day, when they say "I was so angry" They

co...

... middle of paper ...

...risk of

misinterpreting the message because the receiver is relying on one

source. An example of the above would be: Chinese Whispers, where each

receiver interprets what they hear slightly differently until at the

end it is a completely different message due to the volume of the

sender's voice.

Overall, Body language does play an enormous part towards personal

communication. Less so in Intrapersonal communication because it is

more focused on thinking and cognition's rather than conveying a

message. Body language aids the accuracy of the transmitted message.

Personal Communication could survive without it but would suffer a

great deal. It is often taken for granted how much body language

effects communication. Consequently, Body language is very important

and is a valued component to the system of communication.

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