Verbal And Nonverbal Communication Essay

Verbal and nonverbal communication is everywhere. Wilmot (DeVito, 2003) defines nonverbal communication as, “communication without words” (p.126). Nonverbal communication may, or may not be easy to pickup on, depending on who your are communicating with. For this paper, I decided to go out to the mall, and observe the people there. I would go in stores I like, look around, and closely observe people and their actions. The first situation I observed, was a mother and daughter shopping in a department store. The daughter wanted as expensive pair of shoes, but he mother told he they could not afford them. The daughter then began to argue with her mother, accenting her verbal messages by crossing he arms angrily, rolling her eyes, while stopping

When the cashier rang up an item, it showed a more expensive price than the woman expected to pay. The woman then raised her voice, accenting her statement, then proceeded to tell the cashier the price tag under the item was a much cheaper price, and went on to say “the computer must have rang it up wrong”. In every verbal conversation there are cues called turn-taking cues. Divoto states in our text that these cases “ may be verbal, but most often they are nonverbal” (p.128,129). Examples of these nonverbal cues would be nodding you head, showing you are passing odd your speaking turn tho the next person. In this situation, the woman would finish talking, and then proceed to tilt her head to the side as if she were laying it down on a pillow. The cashier thought this indicated she was passing off her turn speaking, as did I. When the cashier would being to speak, the elderly woman would cut him off. The woman took control of the entire conversation, repeating everything she had already said, as if she hadn’t made her point already. She barely gave the cashier the chance to speak. The cashier changed the price to what she said it was, he finished ringing her up, and she left the