Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

 Non- verbal communication (NVC)
‘We speak with our vocal organs, but we converse with our whole body’ 
(Abercrombie, 1970). This quote gives a very apposite description of what 
we generally call body language. Albert Mehrabian, the Emeritus Professor 
of Linguistics at UCLA, has studied the communication of American high 
school students. From his studies, he concluded the following points 
(Mehrabian, 1981):
Words account for seven per cent of a message as far as feelings and 
attitudes are concerned.
NVC or body language account for 38 per cent of a message as far as feel-
ings and attitudes are concerned.
Facial expressions account for 55 per cent of a message.
In other words, the actual words we use are less important than the way in 
which we say things and our body language.
People convey meaning in
NVC through their posture, gestures, eye 
contact, the physical distance they keep when communicating and how 
they dress. NVC is very often extremely subtle and subconscious. It is deeply 
embedded in one’s own cultural background and when communica ting with 
people of another culture, the wider the differences between the two cultures, 
the more difficult it is to read the meaning of the non- verbal messages.
NVC, often loosely called ‘body language’, should not be considered 
as something separate from speech, but rather as existing simultaneously 
with verbal communication. It gives out messages all the time. The verbal 
component of a face- to- face conversation is less than 35 per cent and over 
65 per cent of communication is done
non- verbally (Mehrabian, 1981). 
We communicate so much of our message
non- verbally in conversation 
that, in many cases, the actual words we use are not so important. How we 
communicate (our tone, pitch, loudness, speed, dialect, etc.) is often more 
important than our NVC signals.
However, it should be emphasized that ‘body language’ is a rather loose 
term and is really inaccurate as an alternative to NVC, as the latter is 
more varied, covers a range of behaviour and often indicates the way we 
behave in response to the communication process.
NVC can be divided up as follows.
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90 Cross-Cultural Communication
It is often said that actions speak louder than words and often say all 
the wrong things. It is important to remember that with NVC, you need to 
maintain a high level of awareness as you cannot ask for it to be repeated. 
It is also less controllable than the spoken word and may therefore be more 
reliable as it is very often an instinctive reaction. Non- verbal signals will 
inevitably be interpreted by the receiver or an observer in the context of the 
situation and their own culture.
Gestures include any action that sends a visual signal to others. They are 
often described as ‘talking with the hands’ – in particular, the use of hand 
gestures aids understanding. In most cultures, the head nod signals agree-
ment and reassurance to the speaker, and is used by good, attentive listeners. 
Gestures have three main functions – silent requests, expressing opinions 
and expressing moods or states of mind. The way in which the French stroke 
the face with one hand as if shaving is a signal saying ‘I am bored’. Italians 
stroke the underside of their chin with the outstretched fingers to say 
‘I don’t believe you’. There are several different ways of inviting someone 
to have a drink, from rocking one palm with outstretched fingers at mouth 
level, often used in the UK, to extending finger and thumb and bunching 
the middle fingers in Spain. For many cultures, gestures are an indispensable