A) NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION EXISTS – BODY LANGUAGE AND GESTURES

1. Body Language (talking about whole body and facial expressions)—What can it convey?

a) ANSWERS
-Yes (Whole body moves forward, eyes focused on the person, maybe wider eyes)
-No (body moves back slightly, eyes averted, slight turning away, look of dislike or disgust (sneering is squinted eyes, mouth slightly open, lips curled)
-Don’t know (look on face of perplexity is usually squinted eyes, knitted brow for lack of understanding; shrug shoulders; one eye squinted and light tilt of head is skeptical as in hmmm)

b) EMOTIONS: -pain, sadness, aggression, antagonism, domination, submission, flirtation, secrecy, anger, happiness, surprise, and perplexity

Examples of body language conveying emotions:

-Attention (cocked head)
-Surprise (eyes bright)
-Suspicion (eyes narrow)
-Flirting (flick hair back if woman; run hand through hair if man; winking (rare), lick lips slowly is seen in commercials)
-Anger and distance (folding arms; hands on hips)
-Inattention (eyes averted)
-Emphasis (punch own palms)
-Comprehension (nods own head)
-Recognition (eyebrow flash)
-Terminating conversation (step back and avert gaze)
-Attention (sitting turned in)
-Inattention (sitting turned out)

c) FRIENDSHIP AND SOCIETY POSITION

-special handshake
-pat a friend’s back as a sign of approval or comfort
-social distance

2. How does this relate to jobs/interviews?

a) WHAT’S BAD
-posture
-hand over mouth
-excessive movement such as hands/body
-elbows on table

b) WHAT’S GOOD
-posture
-face the person when you talk

3. Gestures

GUESS MY GESTURE (hands on examples, students demonstrate some of their own)
EXAMPLES:
-thumbs up/down
-OK
-yes
-no
-don’t know
-waving a car on
-sticking tongue out
-it’s on the top shelf
-shh
-come here (one finger, whole hand)
-pointing
-pointing with emphasis when angry
-huge

B) SHOULD PEOPLE WHO ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED LEARN TO USE GESTURES?

C) DO PEOPLE USE BODY LANGUAGE WITHOUT KNOWING IT?

D) BE AWARE OF YOUR BODY LANGUAGE

E) CULTURAL DIFFERENCES-BE AWARE THEY EXIST