Non-verbal communication techniques are sometimes employed by communicators consciously and, at times, unconsciously. Non-verbal communication is an example of routine and non-routine communication. In this instance, each person involved in the communication process is a facilitator of non-verbal communication. Also, several forms of diagrams, pictures, graphs, and slides facilitate the effective transmission of non-verbal communication in day-to-day interactions.
Areas of Non-verbal Communication
Non-verbal communication is classified as:
- Body language (Kinetics): This involves the movement of the body and may be divided into the following areas:
- Facial expression: facial expression conveys meaning. Facial expressions such as smiles frowns, and narrowed eyes may be intended to transmit friendliness, anger, or disbelief respectively.
- Gestures: This involves pointing fingers, and shaking of the head to transmit and emphasize focus or disagreement.
- Movements: Quick pacing up and down, finger drumming, and leisurely strolling may all transmit impatience, boredom, or relaxation and are all non-verbal communication techniques that may be used to send messages.
- Proxemics: This involves physical contact such as shaking hands, prodding with the forefinger, and clapping to transmit greetings, insistence, or friendship.
- This also involves how people use space and distance around them in communicating. A student who enters a lecture theatre and decides to sit in the back now instead of the front may be indicating his reluctance to be involved.
- Positioning: keeping a respectful distance, looking over one’s shoulder, and sitting close to someone are all forms of using non-verbal cues to communicate. They transmit the awareness of differing status, a close working relationship [ or relaxed mutual trust respectively.
- Posture: Standing straight and erect, lounging, sitting hunched up, leaning forward, and spreading oneself in a chair are all means of communicating non-verbally. These convey alertness and care, self-confidence, nervousness, or case respectively.
- Paralinguistic: Feedback sounds of surprise or agreement or annoyance or impatience, for example, ‘uh-uh ooop!.
Features of Non-Verbal Communication
The following summarizes the important characteristics of non-verbal communication.
- Non-verbal communication can be international. The sender may be unaware that he or she is sending a non-verbal message and consequently may be aware of the impact that it may have.
- Non-verbal messages may be more honest than verbal ones. Therefore, a non-verbal message can be more reliable than an oral or written one.
- Non-verbal communication is always present. Neither oral nor written communication exists without non-verbal communication. Examples of non-verbal messages being sent even when the communication may not be face-to-face include: tapping the phone receiver, loudly rearranging papers, or keeping quiet.
- Non-verbal communication reinforces oral communication by providing non-verbal cues to emphasize what is being said orally.
- Non-verbal communication provides additional visual stimulus.
Advantages of Non-Verbal Communication
- Non-verbal communication can help the communicator to overcome the language barrier.
- Non-verbal communication makes a possible for information to be conveyed to many audiences.
- Non-verbal communication may be more reliable, at times, than verbal or oral communication because it is mostly transmitted unconsciously.
- \Non-verbal communication is always present because this form of communication is always associated with oral or written communication.
Disadvantages of Non-Verbal Communication
- Non-verbal communication can, at times, be difficult to interpret without reinforcing it with written or spoken words.
Written Communication
It includes letters, memoranda, fax transmission, electronic mail, and organizational periodicals. Since letters and memoranda are discussed elsewhere in this pack, fax, e-mail, and periodicals are discussed here.
- Fax transmission is an electronic means of sending an exact copy of a document by scanning it. In this case, bonding is established between the sending and receiving machines.
The sending machines first scan the document, convert it into data, and thereafter, both machines start printing it out simultaneously at their respective locations. In recent times, this mode of transmission, which was initially done via telephone lines, has now been incorporated into computer systems.
- Electronic email (e-mail) is the transmission of written messages via messages.
- Organization journal//periodical: An organizational journal is an internal magazine or newspaper printed by the organization to inform employees about various workplace issues.
Advantages of Written Communication
The following are the advantages of written communication among others.
- Communication provides written records and evidence of receipt
- It is capable of transmitting complex ideas.
- It provides analysis, evaluation, and summary.
- It disseminates information to dispersed receivers.
- It serves as the basis of a contract or agreement.
Disadvantages of Written Communication
The disadvantages of written communication include
- Communication can be expensive and take time to produce.
- It tends to be formal and distant.
- There is a tendency for misinterpretation to take place
- There is no instant feedback.
- It does not allow for the exchange of opinions, or viewer’s attitudes except over a period of time.
Facilitators of Written Communication
Almost every organization, business, or non-business person facilitates the successful operation of all forms of written communication.
Communication Flaws
Errors are enduring mistakes that people make, sometimes without being aware that something is amiss in the speech act. Whereas a mistake may be corrected by the same person that has committed it, errors are seldom corrected because listeners do not usually want to embarrass the speaker and are invariably unaware of his or her fault.
Some of the commonest errors involve a mixture of tenses, mix-up of Subject and Object, a mixture of singular and plural forms, multiple applications of rules, misuse of word-formation rules, and over-generation.
1. Mixture of Tenses
For all speakers of English, whether first (L1) or second (L2) language speakers, tense is an aspect of grammar to which much attention must be paid. In written English, in particular, the mixture of tenses should be avoided.
For example, the main verb said, makes the secondary verb, comes, unacceptable. The correct version of the sentence is therefore rendered as in:
*He said he usually comes.
He said he usually came.
(*at the beginning of the sentence indicates unacceptability).
2. Mix-up of Subject and Object
The mix-up of subject and object is a common error, especially committed by L2 users of English. Consider the examples below.
*As a Nigerian, the country should honor him.
*He prayed for her which is good.
In the examples above, it is not the country that is a Nigerian (unfortunately, that is what the sentence suggests!). To avoid a mix-up of the carrier phrase, it is good, with the object, she may be correctly stated below.
As a Nigerian, he should be honored by the country.
It is good that he prayed for her.
3. Mixture of singular and plural forms
Many people tend to use singular and plural forms of words indiscriminately. When a noun reflects an entire group is taken as an entity. Therefore, It is wrong because it disobeys this principle:
*The team, made up of officials and players, arrives on schedule.
The correct version should be as below:
The team, made up of officials and players, arrives on schedule.
In the example below, the expression, one of them, connotes an individual and so renders the sentence unacceptable.
*One of them is late.
The correct form is as presented below.
One of them is late.
Whereas example below is acceptable due to the non-violation of concord rules,
All of them are here!
But example below is not:
*Nobody is here.
4. Multiple applications of rules
Sometimes, there are multiple ways of marking a particular grammatical form. Both examples below are correct, although the plural form of the noun has been arrived at differently in each case:
Ships are beautiful to behold.
Sheep are easy to rear.
However, some users of English erroneously apply two rules that essentially perform the same function.
In the example below, both the plural formation rule that gives the plural the same form as the singular and the rule that allows ‘s’ to be added to the singular form to generate the plural have been applied, rendering the sentence unacceptable:
*Sheep are easy to rear.
Cases of multiple applications of rules leading to ungrammatical expressions are particularly rampant in the use of adjectives (comparative or superlative) as seen in examples below:
*he is greater than his father.
*God lives in the highest heavens.
5. Misuse of word-formation rules
Some users of English sometimes use word-formation rules wrongly. This practice tends to generate grammatically incorrect sentences.
In the example below, the verb found, is derived from “to find (i.e to discover)”, whereas founded in the example comes from “to found (i.e to establish)”. Both sentences are unquestionably acceptable;
He found a scholarship scheme to take care of his desires.
He founded a scholarship scheme to take care of his desires.
Examples below are the present tense counter of.
He finds a scholarship scheme to take care of his desires.
*He founds a scholarship scheme to take care of his desires.
In short, the apparent formal closeness of (note: “found” and “founds”) is a farce. Users should be wary of look-alike words!
6. Over-generation
Errors of concord also occur when people over-generalize concord rules. For instance, there is a concord rule that makes it obligatory for the verb in the example below to be in the past tense because of the adverb yesterday.
The spaceship blasted off yesterday.
Nevertheless, the example below is unacceptable because the word-formation rule that correctly generated the example has been over-generalized:
*The astronaut broadcasted from space.
7. Misuse of phonetics and phonology
These arise out of words that pronounced alike, but which are different in spelling and meaning. Examine the following sentences:
- The Judge refused to grant bale to the accused.
- The principal was not around when I came.
Suddenly, the driver lost control and ran into s stationary vehicle.
In each of the sentences, there is a word that has been written instead of another.
In (i) the writer should have written ‘bail’, instead of ‘bale’ which he wrote. In the second sentence, ‘principal’ ought to have been written instead of ‘principle’.
In the third sentence, the writer ought to have used the word ‘stationary’ which means ‘motionless, not ‘moving’.
8. Misuse of Punctuation
Punctuation is a way of making ourselves understood in written form. The way you punctuate your sentences can lead to clarity and it can also lead to confusion or misunderstanding.
Punctuation errors usually impede meaning. For instance, depending upon the choice of punctuation marks the sentence ‘the man said the chairman cannot solve the problem’ can assume different meanings when different punctuation marks are used, as in the following:
- The man said the chairman cannot solve the problem. ( a question as to whether the man said the chairman cannot solve the problem?
- The man, said the chairman, cannot solve the problem (the chairman said the man cannot solve the problem)
- The man said the chairman cannot solve the problem (a statement credited to the man that the chairman cannot solve the problem).
If (2) was the meaning meant by the writer, it would be wrong to punctuate the sentence the way we had in (1) and (2).
At this juncture, a mention must be made of another common error in respect of the word ‘its’. Students are fond of putting an “it’s” apostrophe in ‘its’ therefore using it as a possessive adjective.
The dog wags its tail (it’s here means ‘it is’ and has been wrongly used. The act of writing ‘its’, possessive adjective like this i.e. ‘it’s’ is a very common habit but it is wrong.
The correct form of this word used as a possessive adjective is ‘its’. The sentence should therefore read: The dog wags its tail.
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