case study of verbal communication

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Master of Advanced Studies in INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Case Studies in Intercultural Communication

Welcome to the MIC Case Studies page.

Here you will find more than fifty different case studies, developed by our former participants from the Master of Advanced Studies in Intercultural Communication. The richness of this material is that it contains real-life experiences in intercultural communication problems in various settings, such as war, family, negotiations, inter-religious conflicts, business, workplace, and others. 

Cases also include renowned organizations and global institutions, such as the United Nations, Multinationals companies, Non-Governmental Organisations, Worldwide Events, European, African, Asian and North and South America Governments and others.

Intercultural situations are characterized by encounters, mutual respect and the valorization of diversity by individuals or groups of individuals identifying with different cultures. By making the most of the cultural differences, we can improve intercultural communication in civil society, in public institutions and the business world.

How can these Case Studies help you?

These case studies were made during the classes at the Master of Advanced Studies in Intercultural Communication. Therefore, they used the most updated skills, tools, theories and best practices available.   They were created by participants working in the field of public administration; international organizations; non-governmental organizations; development and cooperation organizations; the business world (production, trade, tourism, etc.); the media; educational institutions; and religious institutions. Through these case studies, you will be able to learn through real-life stories, how practitioners apply intercultural communication skills in multicultural situations.

Why are we opening our "Treasure Chest" for you?

We believe that Intercultural Communication has a growing role in the lives of organizations, companies and governments relationship with the public, between and within organizations. There are many advanced tools available to access, analyze and practice intercultural communication at a professional level.  Moreover, professionals are demanded to have an advanced cross-cultural background or experience to deal efficiently with their environment. International organizations are requiring workers who are competent, flexible, and able to adjust and apply their skills with the tact and sensitivity that will enhance business success internationally. Intercultural communication means the sharing of information across diverse cultures and social groups, comprising individuals with distinct religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. It attempts to understand the differences in how people from a diversity of cultures act, communicate and perceive the world around them. For this reason, we are sharing our knowledge chest with you, to improve and enlarge intercultural communication practice, awareness, and education.

We promise you that our case studies, which are now also yours, will delight, entertain, teach, and amaze you. It will reinforce or change the way you see intercultural communication practice, and how it can be part of your life today. Take your time to read them; you don't need to read all at once, they are rather small and very easy to read. The cases will always be here waiting for you. Therefore, we wish you an insightful and pleasant reading.

These cases represent the raw material developed by the students as part of their certification project. MIC master students are coming from all over the world and often had to write the case in a non-native language. No material can be reproduced without permission. ©   Master of Advanced Studies in Intercultural Communication , Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland.

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1. WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?

1.4 Case Study: The Cost of Poor Communication

No one knows exactly how much poor communication costs business, industry and government each year, but estimates suggest billions.  In fact, a recent estimate claims that the cost in the U.S. alone are close to $4 billion annually! [1] Poorly-worded or inefficient emails, careless reading or listening to instructions, documents that go unread due to poor design, hastily presenting inaccurate information, sloppy proofreading — all of these examples result in inevitable costs. The problem is that these costs aren’t usually included on the corporate balance sheet at the end of each year; if they are not properly or clearly defined, the problems remain unsolved.

You may have seen the Project Management Tree Cartoon before ( Figure 1.4.1 ); it has been used and adapted widely to illustrate the perils of poor communication during a project.

The waste caused by imprecisely worded regulations or instructions, confusing emails, long-winded memos, ambiguously written contracts, and other examples of poor communication is not as easily identified as the losses caused by a bridge collapse or a flood. But the losses are just as real—in reduced productivity, inefficiency, and lost business. In more personal terms, the losses are measured in wasted time, work, money, and ultimately, professional recognition. In extreme cases, losses can be measured in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.

The following “case studies” show how poor communications can have real world costs and consequences. For example, consider the “ Comma Quirk ” in the Rogers Contract that cost $2 million. [3]   A small error in spelling a company name cost £8.8 million. [4]   Examine Edward Tufte’s discussion of the failed PowerPoint presentation that attempted to prevent the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. [5] The failure of project managers and engineers to communicate effectively resulted in the deadly Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. [6]   The case studies below offer a few more examples that might be less extreme, but much more common.

In small groups, examine each “case” and determine the following:

• Define the rhetorical situation : Who is communicating to whom about what, how, and why? What was the goal of the communication in each case?
• Identify the communication error (poor task or audience analysis? Use of inappropriate language or style? Poor organization or formatting of information? Other?)
• Explain what costs/losses were incurred by this problem.
• Identify possible solution s or strategies that would have prevented the problem, and what benefits would be derived from implementing solutions or preventing the problem.

Present your findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

Exercises adapted from T.M Georges’ Analytical Writing for Science and Technology. [7]

CASE 1: The promising chemist who buried his results

Bruce, a research chemist for a major petro-chemical company, wrote a dense report about some new compounds he had synthesized in the laboratory from oil-refining by-products. The bulk of the report consisted of tables listing their chemical and physical properties, diagrams of their molecular structure, chemical formulas and data from toxicity tests. Buried at the end of the report was a casual speculation that one of the compounds might be a particularly safe and effective insecticide.

Seven years later, the same oil company launched a major research program to find more effective but environmentally safe insecticides. After six months of research, someone uncovered Bruce’s report and his toxicity tests. A few hours of further testing confirmed that one of Bruce’s compounds was the safe, economical insecticide they had been looking for.

Bruce had since left the company, because he felt that the importance of his research was not being appreciated.

CASE 2: The rejected current regulator proposal

The Acme Electric Company worked day and night to develop a new current regulator designed to cut the electric power consumption in aluminum plants by 35%. They knew that, although the competition was fierce, their regulator could be produced more affordably, was more reliable, and worked more efficiently than the competitors’ products.

The owner, eager to capture the market, personally but somewhat hastily put together a 120-page proposal to the three major aluminum manufacturers, recommending that the new Acme regulators be installed at all company plants.

She devoted the first 87 pages of the proposal to the mathematical theory and engineering design behind his new regulator, and the next 32 to descriptions of the new assembly line she planned to set up to produce regulators quickly. Buried in an appendix were the test results that compared her regulator’s performance with present models, and a poorly drawn graph showed the potential cost savings over 3 years.

The proposals did not receive any response. Acme Electric didn’t get the contracts, despite having the best product. Six months later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

CASE 3: The instruction manual the scared customers away

As one of the first to enter the field of office automation, Sagatec Software, Inc. had built a reputation for designing high-quality and user-friendly database and accounting programs for business and industry. When they decided to enter the word-processing market, their engineers designed an effective, versatile, and powerful program that Sagatec felt sure would outperform any competitor.

To be sure that their new word-processing program was accurately documented, Sagatec asked the senior program designer to supervise writing the instruction manual. The result was a thorough, accurate and precise description of every detail of the program’s operation.

When Sagatec began marketing its new word processor, cries for help flooded in from office workers who were so confused by the massive manual that they couldn’t even find out how to get started. Then several business journals reviewed the program and judged it “too complicated” and “difficult to learn.” After an impressive start, sales of the new word processing program plummeted.

Sagatec eventually put out a new, clearly written training guide that led new users step by step through introductory exercises and told them how to find commands quickly. But the rewrite cost Sagatec $350,000, a year’s lead in the market, and its reputation for producing easy-to-use business software.

CASE 4: One garbled memo – 26 baffled phone calls

Joanne supervised 36 professionals in 6 city libraries. To cut the costs of unnecessary overtime, she issued this one-sentence memo to her staff:

After the 36 copies were sent out, Joanne’s office received 26 phone calls asking what the memo meant. What the 10 people who didn’t call about the memo thought is uncertain. It took a week to clarify the new policy.

CASE 5: Big science — Little rhetoric

The following excerpt is from Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, [8] itself both a plea for and an excellent example of clear scientific communication:

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) would have been the preeminent instrument on the planet for probing the fine structure of matter and the nature of the early Universe. Its price tag was $10 to $15 billion. It was cancelled by Congress in 1993 after about $2 billion had been spent — a worst of both worlds outcome. But this debate was not, I think, mainly about declining interest in the support of science. Few in Congress understood what modern high-energy accelerators are for. They are not for weapons. They have no practical applications. They are for something that is, worrisomely from the point of view of many, called “the theory of everything.” Explanations that involve entities called quarks, charm, flavor, color, etc., sound as if physicists are being cute. The whole thing has an aura, in the view of at least some Congresspeople I’ve talked to, of “nerds gone wild” — which I suppose is an uncharitable way of describing curiosity-based science. No one asked to pay for this had the foggiest idea of what a Higgs boson is. I’ve read some of the material intended to justify the SSC. At the very end, some of it wasn’t too bad, but there was nothing that really addressed what the project was about on a level accessible to bright but skeptical non-physicists. If physicists are asking for 10 or 15 billion dollars to build a machine that has no practical value, at the very least they should make an extremely serious effort, with dazzling graphics, metaphors, and capable use of the English language, to justify their proposal. More than financial mismanagement, budgetary constraints, and political incompetence, I think this is the key to the failure of the SSC.

CASE 6: The co-op student who mixed up genres

Chris was simultaneously enrolled in a university writing course and working as a co-op student at the Widget Manufacturing plant. As part of his co-op work experience, Chris shadowed his supervisor/mentor on a safety inspection of the plant, and was asked to write up the results of the inspection in a compliance memo . In the same week, Chris’s writing instructor assigned the class to write a narrative essay based on some personal experience. Chris, trying to be efficient, thought that the plant visit experience could provide the basis for his essay assignment as well.

He wrote the essay first, because he was used to writing essays and was pretty good at it. He had never even seen a compliance memo, much less written one, so was not as confident about that task. He began the essay like this:

On June 1, 2018, I conducted a safety audit of the Widget Manufacturing plant in New City. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that all processes and activities in the plant adhere to safety and handling rules and policies outlined in the Workplace Safety Handbook and relevant government regulations. I was escorted on a 3-hour tour of the facility by…

Chris finished the essay and submitted it to his writing instructor. He then revised the essay slightly, keeping the introduction the same, and submitted it to his co-op supervisor. He “aced” the essay, getting an A grade, but his supervisor told him that the report was unacceptable and would have to be rewritten – especially the beginning, which should have clearly indicated whether or not the plant was in compliance with safety regulations. Chris was aghast! He had never heard of putting the “conclusion” at the beginning . He missed the company softball game that Saturday so he could rewrite the report to the satisfaction of his supervisor.

• J. Bernoff, "Bad writing costs business billions," Daily Beast , Oct. 16, 2016 [Online]. Available:  https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-writing-costs-businesses-billions?ref=scroll ↵
• J. Reiter, "The 'Project Cartoon' root cause," Medium, 2 July 2019. Available: https://medium.com/@thx2001r/the-project-cartoon-root-cause-5e82e404ec8a ↵
• G. Robertson, “Comma quirk irks Rogers,” Globe and Mail , Aug. 6, 2006 [Online]. Available: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/comma-quirk-irks-rogers/article1101686/ ↵
• “The £8.8m typo: How one mistake killed a family business,” (28 Jan. 2015). The Guardian [online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/law/shortcuts/2015/jan/28/typo-how-one-mistake-killed-a-family-business-taylor-and-sons ↵
• E. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint , 2001 [Online]. Available: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/pi/2016_2017/phil/tufte-powerpoint.pdf ↵
• C. McFadden, "Understanding the tragic Hyatt Regency walkway collapse," Interesting Engineering , July 4, 2017 [Online]: https://interestingengineering.com/understanding-hyatt-regency-walkway-collapse ↵
• T.M. Goerges (1996), Analytical Writing for Science and Technology [Online], Available: https://www.scribd.com/document/96822930/Analytical-Writing ↵
• C. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, New York, NY: Random House, 1995. ↵

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Article contents

Verbal communication styles and culture.

• Meina Liu Meina Liu Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication, George Washington University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.162
• Published online: 22 November 2016

A communication style is the way people communicate with others, verbally and nonverbally. It combines both language and nonverbal cues and is the meta-message that dictates how listeners receive and interpret verbal messages. Of the theoretical perspectives proposed to understand cultural variations in communication styles, the most widely cited one is the differentiation between high-context and low-context communication by Edward Hall, in 1976. Low-context communication is used predominantly in individualistic cultures and reflects an analytical thinking style, where most of the attention is given to specific, focal objects independent of the surrounding environment; high-context communication is used predominantly in collectivistic cultures and reflects a holistic thinking style, where the larger context is taken into consideration when evaluating an action or event. In low-context communication, most of the meaning is conveyed in the explicit verbal code, whereas in high-context communication, most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, with very little information given in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. The difference can be further explicated through differences between communication styles that are direct and indirect (whether messages reveal or camouflage the speaker’s true intentions), self-enhancing and self-effacing (whether messages promote or deemphasize positive aspects of the self), and elaborate and understated (whether rich expressions or extensive use of silence, pauses, and understatements characterize the communication). These stylistic differences can be attributed to the different language structures and compositional styles in different cultures, as many studies supporting the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis have shown. These stylistic differences can become, in turn, a major source of misunderstanding, distrust, and conflict in intercultural communication. A case in point is how the interethnic clash between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs can be exacerbated by the two diametrically opposite communication patterns they each have, dugri (straight talk) and musayra (to accommodate or “to go along with”). Understanding differences in communication styles and where these differences come from allows us to revise the interpretive frameworks we tend to use to evaluate culturally different others and is a crucial step toward gaining a greater understanding of ourselves and others.

• communication styles
• cultural values
• thinking styles
• high-context
• low-context
• communication accommodation

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5 Chapter 5 – Verbal Communication

Verbal communication.

“Sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” ~childhood rhyme, am I the only one hurt?

Chapter Overview

A better understanding of how verbal symbols create meaning helps us move from the first unit of this course (“Who am I?”) to explore further the second unit’s focus on “Who are you?” When exploring cultures, many students wrote about how they fear they might offend others as they ask questions, seek new experiences or even try new phrases in a new language. However, no magic word or combination of terms (of one’s own or those of another culture) exists to reduce uncertainty and create commonly shared meaning. If even possible, this process itself is too complex. This chapter and the next show how verbal and nonverbal symbols provide that necessary interpersonal connection crucial to reaching intercultural communication competence. Conversely, they show how misunderstandings among those who genuinely attempt to communicate may pose a potentially insurmountable barrier or wall preventing conversation between cultures.

Those of an American or Western European culture express an open and direct communication style (e.g., speaking one’s mind). Thus, not considering another culture’s or co-cultures “outdated slang” or “offensive language” creates a barrier that causes some individuals to retreat and stay with what is known, familiar, and characteristic within their culture. However, withdrawing into their culture from an unsavory affront or fear of how to communicate appropriately also prevents them from learning new information and learning about other cultures. We encourage reading this chapter through the lens of asking, “how can this content help me become a better communicator?” When communicating, we risk “saying the wrong thing” and offending those who communicate differently. Yet, sharing talk time and thinking about how our language use can open doors or deny access is an essential consideration. We hope you will consider not just the theory of verbal communication and how sending and receiving verbal messages work but also how they often fail to work. Slowing down and considering what we say and when can help others feel safe, comforted, and a part of the communication situation.

The content of this chapter borrows from the Copywrite free, University of Minnesota’s Communication for the Real World. It contributes to what we will learn about the relationship between language and meaning, how we understand the content and rules of verbal communication within language functions, using words well, and the relationship between language and culture (2016). Additionally, the Cultural Atlas will provide examples of cultural differences and similarities in verbal (and nonverbal) communication. The authors of the Cultural Atlas include community experts and consultants from the communities and cultures described. One may or may not have the same perception of the “do’s and don’ts” of intercultural communication related to the Cultural Atlas, yet understanding its advice allows for constructive conversation and consideration.

Considering Words Spoken and the Silence of Others

Another area we hope to consider in this chapter is how one’s communication style, influenced by cultural norms and  the learning of the language, positions one “at the conversing table?” For example, how might an American whose language and communication norms intentionally or unintentionally affect the conversations of those of different cultures? Americans are generally not so aware or sensitive to the “other,” and their worldview and communication style. People from low-context cultures value verbal communication.  Additionally, Americans are generally more individualistic and more inclined to share their opinions straightforwardly up front, have much confidence in concrete physical or eyewitness evidence, and desire to quickly get to the point of the conversation. Indeed, the American style may be considered uncivil or rude by cultures that value long, thoughtful silence and consideration before contributing, are circular in using collective experience and context, prefer the cultural value of consensus and saving face, and thus are very sensitive to the straightforward American or Western style of an individualistic, often abrasive and self-serving communicative style. Later, in the last unit of this book, we’ll return to the topic of language when we discuss racism much more directly.

At the same time, in her TED Talk showcased in Chapter 4, America Verrea asserts that dominant and co-culture verbal interactions may be a basis to open, well-founded and genuine conversation. Think:

• “How can you make room for others to share their stories and lived experiences?”
• “Who speaks?”
• “Who does the conversation purposefully or unintentionally silence?”

Chapter Five Learning Outcomes

• Define Verbal Communication
• Explain how the triangle of meaning describes the symbolic nature of language
• Distinguish between denotation and connotation
• Discuss the function of the rules of language
• Discuss how language can serve as a barrier and a bridge
• Distinguish between interpretation and translation
• Explore tips for becoming more effective in language use
• Define key terms related to allyship

Creating Meaning

Communication in the Real World (2016) outlines and explains language, focusing upon how meaning is created:

The relationship between language and meaning is not a straightforward one. One reason for this complicated relationship is the limitlessness of modern language systems like English (Crystal, 2005). Language is productive in the sense that there are an infinite number of utterances we can make by connecting existing words in new ways. In addition, there is no limit to a language’s vocabulary, as new words are coined daily. Of course, words aren’t the only things we need to communicate, and although verbal and nonverbal communication are closely related in terms of how we make meaning, nonverbal communication is not productive and limitless. Although we can only make a few hundred physical signs, we have about a million words in the English language. So with all this possibility, how does communication generate meaning? You’ll recall that “generating meaning” was a central part of the definition of communication we learned earlier. We arrive at meaning through the interaction between our nervous and sensory systems and some stimulus outside of them. It is here, between what the communication models we discussed earlier labeled as encoding and decoding, that meaning is generated as sensory information is interpreted. The indirect and sometimes complicated relationship between language and meaning can lead to confusion, frustration, or even humor. We may even experience a little of all three, when we stop to think about how there are some twenty-five definitions available to tell us the meaning of word  meaning (Crystal, 2005)! Since language and symbols are the primary vehicle for our communication, it is important that we not take the components of our verbal communication for granted.

Verbal Communication Defined

Central to the definition of language is that a community shares words or symbols to communicate meaning within various contexts. On a deeper level, language is symbolic.  Samovar, et. al defines language as “a shared set of symbols or signs that a cooperative group has mutually agreed to use to help create meaning.”

Symbols stand in for or are representative of something else. Verbal communication  uses words that arise within a cultural (or intercultural) context. Again, words are  symbolic of the thing or idea it represents.  As Communication in the Real World puts it:

Symbols can be communicated verbally (speaking the word “Hello”), in writing (putting the letters H-E-L-L-O together to make an understood communicative whole), or nonverbally (waving your hand back and forth). In any case, we use symbols, verbally and nonverbally, to stand in for something else, like a physical object or an idea; symbols do not actually correspond to the thing being referenced in any direct way, i.e., the word “stone” is symbolic and not the thing in actuality (2016).

As noted above, verbal communication is our language use. In intercultural communication, there may exist either an entirely different language use, a person using a second language, or even both individuals communicating in a common second language.

Speaking in a different language gives one another way of thinking – a new outlook or worldview different from that which one has been acculturated . Jordan, a Rochester Community and Technical College Alum, pursued his master’s degree in Denmark. Because of the number of international students attending, the college used English as the common currency of language. However, as one of his college majors was Spanish, he soon found himself drawn to speaking Spanish with his classmates from Spanish-speaking countries. Doing so, i.e., becoming fluent in a second language, gave him access to another worldview leading to a commonality or shared understanding of norms, behaviors, and practices that allowed him to make special bonds that would otherwise be closed.

The symbols we use combine to form language systems or codes . Codes are culturally agreed on and ever-changing systems of symbols that help us organize, understand and generate meaning (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1993). There are about 6,000 language codes used in the world, and around 40 percent of those (2,400) are only spoken and do not have a written version (Crystal, 2005). Remember that for most of human history the spoken word and nonverbal communication were the primary means of communication. Even languages with a written component didn’t see widespread literacy, or the ability to read and write, until a little over one hundred years ago.

Symbolic Nature of Language

Communication in the Real World (2016) examines the symbolic nature of language:

The symbolic nature of our communication is a quality unique to humans. Since the words we use do not have to correspond directly to a ‘thing” in our “reality’ we can communicate in abstractions. This property of language is called displacement and specifically refers to our ability to talk about events that are removed in space or time from a speaker and situation (Crystal, 2005). …The earliest human verbal communication was not very symbolic or abstract, as it likely mimicked sounds of animals and nature. Such a simple form of communication persisted for thousands of years, but as later humans turned to settled agriculture and populations grew, things needed to be more distinguishable. More terms (symbols) were needed to accommodate the increasing number of things like tools and ideas like crop rotation that emerged as a result of new knowledge about and experience with farming and animal domestication. There weren’t written symbols during this time, but objects were often used to represent other objects; for example, a farmer might have kept a pebble in a box to represent each chicken he owned. As further advancements made keeping track of objects-representing-objects more difficult, more abstract symbols and later written words were able to stand in for an idea or object. Despite the fact that these transitions occurred many thousands of years ago, we can trace some words that we still use today back to their much more direct and much less abstract origins ( Communication in the Real World , 2016).

Naming: Case Study of  Language’s ability to Define

In many cultures, knowing and publicly pronouncing one’s name (the symbolic representation of one’s cultural and personal identity ) is essential. Through language and communication, naming, at root, shapes who one understands themselves to be, hence helping to create/construct both the individual self and one’s group or cultural identity. Language itself “…is intrinsically related to culture [and] performs the social function of communication of the group’s [culture’s] values, beliefs, and customs and fosters group identity” (Bakhtin, 1981). In other words, language is the medium through which groups or cultures preserve their firmly held beliefs and keep their traditions alive in the hearts and minds of their members. Language and names are vital.

Regarding names, perhaps a short nickname can help others when a name is hard to pronounce and can help one remember a person. Still, if the nickname is not preferred or given with love, its sound to its’ possessor can be as annoying as hearing nails scraping across a chalkboard.

Being called “Jimmy” by one’s grandmother when friends and work associates call him “James” could be endearing but most likely embarrassing if James is called Jimmy at work. Having one’s mother come to her son’s place of work asking loudly, “Is my Baby J in the office?” might be another example. The point is that names are personal and defining. They are also verbal symbols. Symbols stand for something else and allow us to communicate due to the meaning attached to the symbol. All symbolic use is dynamic, meaning fluid, and often powerful. Think about when a bully purposefully calls someone a name. Calling another “fattie” or “blubber butt” takes a toll on the bully’s victim. Whether renaming is out of spite, like the bully example, or perhaps misplaced affection, like being called Baby J, if it is not one’s desired name, one might feel that one is not being “acknowledged” or “affirmed,”–a feeling of disconfirmation arises. This feeling can impact the relationship itself.

Symbols are Arbitrary, Ambiguous, and Abstract

• Ambiguous  – symbols–or words–  have several possible meanings, which often change over time.
• Abstract  –  words are not material, physical, or have any innate connection to reality.  Language is symbolic and uses words to  represent objects and ideas .
• Arbitrary  – symbols have  no direct relationship to the objects or ideas they represent. (Indiana State Department of COMM, 2016)

Example of the Importance of Understanding how Language Works

Interpersonal Communication examines how communication creates confirming or disconfirming communication climates. We experience “Confirming Climates when we receive messages that demonstrate our value and worth from those with whom we have a relationship,” [and], “[c]onversely, we experience Disconfirming Climates when we receive messages that suggest we are devalued and unimportant” (Rice, 2019, pp. 124-125). Disconfirmation leads to feeling objectified or regarded as the “other,” apart from and foreign to one’s own culture and personal experience. Therefore, calling someone as they would like helps create a supportive climate where respectful and impactful intercultural communication can occur. If we generalize and move toward this same treatment to a culture, that too might help create more a supportive environment for intercultural communication. If we see a person or group of people as the Other–apart from us and unknown to us–it may lead to dehumanization. Dehumanization includes “The denial of full humanness to others, and the cruelty and suffering that accompany it” ( Haslam, 2006 ). An example of dehumanization (also highlighted below in the topics section) is the not-so-distant practice of sending Native American children to boarding schools. In the Indian Civilization Act Fund of March 3, 1819, and the Peace Policy of 1869, the United States (along with many Christian churches) allowed for the removal of Native American children from their homes and families so they could be appropriately educated and stripped of their own culture in boarding (or residential) schools (“ U.S. Indian boarding school history,” n.d. ). “Between 1869 and the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and participating churches. It is unknown exactly how many children in total lived in such schools, but by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled” (“ U.S. Indian boarding school history,” n.d. ).

Becky Little (2017) remarked that this federal effort toward assimilation mandated that “… boarding schools forbid Native American children from using their languages and names, as well as from practicing their religion and culture. They were given new Anglo-American names, clothes, and haircuts and told they must abandon their way of life because it was inferior to white people’s.” Though the schools “….left a devastating legacy, they failed to eradicate Native American cultures as they’d hoped.” Later, the  Navajo Code Talk ers  who helped the U.S. win World War II would reflect on this forced assimilation’s strange irony in their lives ( 2017 ).

What terms to use?

In his teaching resource, Why Treaties Matter: Terminology Primer (n.d.), Dr. Anton Treuer addresses the confusion surrounding which term to use — “Native American,” “Native,” “Indigenous,” or “American Indian.” There is no one correct answer or term to use, as seen below. Confusion arises due to the notion of language ambiguity. Ambiguity refers to the idea that symbols have several different meanings. The reverse is true too. We have many different symbols to refer to the same referent; e.g., soda, pop, soda pop, and coke can all refer to the same beverage one might be drinking, even if it is “7-up!” The beverage itself is the “referent” or thing being referred to; the symbol is the word used to refer to it. Recall that the nature of language is ambiguous, arbitrary, and abstract . It is not surprising that the language used to name such a large group of individuals from 574 different nations registered in the United States would be hard to determine. Dr. Treuer (n.d.) explains, “This is an area of confusion for many people. Christopher Columbus thought for a long time that he landed in Asia when he first arrived here—China, Japan, India. And from there the term Indian was applied to the peoples of the Americas. It is a misnomer, even if it wasn’t intended to offend. Some native people object to the word because it was applied in error. But some really do prefer the term, including some official organizations like the National Congress of American Indians and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. Native American is broadly considered a little more politically correct, even if it isn’t universally embraced. But it can cause confusion in certain circumstances. Is a St. Paul native a Native American from St. Paul or just someone ‘born and bred,’ so to speak? Indigenous is increasingly taking the place of Native American, and some scholars really like the way it draws connections to other groups, but again there is an issue of ambiguity. There are people indigenous to every continent except Antarctica and they are all different. It gets a little long to always say ‘indigenous people of North America.’ Aboriginal was preferred for a while in Canada, although it got confused with Australian aborigine. I tend to use all of these terms fairly interchangeably, aware of their shortcomings… If you know the story behind the words, all you really need is respect in your heart and an open mind” (p. 1).

Suggestions on how to use language respectfully are highlighted in the shared curricular materials from the “Quick Links” resource from the Smithsonian’s  National Museum of the American Indian  (n.d.):

• “American Indian, Indian, Native American, or Native are acceptable and often used interchangeably in the United States; however, Native Peoples often have individual preferences on how they would like to be addressed. To find out which term is best, ask the person or group which term they prefer.”
• “When talking about Native groups or people, use the terminology the members of the community use to describe themselves collectively.”
• “There are also several terms used to refer to Native Peoples in other regions of the Western Hemisphere. The Inuit, Yup’ik, and Aleut Peoples in the Arctic see themselves as culturally separate from Indians. In Canada, people refer to themselves as First Nations, First Peoples, or Aboriginal. In Mexico, Central America, and South America, the direct translation for Indian can have negative connotations. As a result, they prefer the Spanish word indígena (Indigenous), communidad (community), and pueblo (people).”

In defining privilege, the University Libraries at Rider University (2022) share,

“Privilege” refers to certain social advantages, benefits, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups. Within American and other Western societies, these privileged social identities—of people who have historically occupied positions of dominance over others—include whites, males, heterosexuals, Christians, and the wealthy, among others. García, Justin D. 2018. “Privilege (Social Inequality).”  Salem Press Encyclopedia .

Nccj.org (2022) shares:

Privilege: Unearned access to resources (social power) that are only readily available to some people because of their social group membership; an advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by one societal group above and beyond the common advantage of all other groups. Privilege is often invisible to those who have it.

We will expand upon Native American cultures later in this textbook.

*Photo credit: Native American (Chiricahua Apache) boys and girls at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, after they arrived from Fort Marion, Florida, in November 1886. Photo by J. N. Choate/Creative Commons

Consider the Boarding School Experience

Reflection Questions:

• If your language was forbidden, how would that change your worldview?
• How does the nonverbal action of cutting the students’ hair dehumanize the students?
• In this instance, communication rules are created. Children are allowed limited access to communication with their family members. How does the lack of communication, verbal and nonverbal, impact the children’s cultural identity formation?
• What is your reaction to this video? Do words matter?

The Triangle of Meaning

Communication in the Real World (2016) explains the triangle of meaning:

The triangle of meaing is a model of communication that indicates the relationship among a thought, symbol, and referent and highlights the indirect relationship between the symbol and referent (Richards & Ogden, 1923). As you can see in Figure 3.1 “Triangle of Meaning,” the thought is the concept or idea a person references. The symbol is the word that represents the thought, and the referent is the object or idea to which the symbol refers. This model is useful for us as communicators because when we are aware of the indirect relationship between symbols and referents, we are aware of how common misunderstandings occur, as the following example illustrates: Jasper and Abby have been thinking about getting a new dog. So each of them is having a similar thought. They are each using the same symbol, the word dog , to communicate about their thought. Their referents, however, are different. Jasper is thinking about a small dog like a dachshund, and Abby is thinking about an Australian shepherd. Since the word  dog doesn’t refer to one specific object in our reality, it is possible for them to have the same thought, and use the same symbol, but end up in an awkward moment when they get to the shelter and fall in love with their respective referents only to find out the other person didn’t have the same thing in mind.

Source: Adapted from Ivor A. Richards and Charles K. Ogden,  The Meaning of Meaning  (London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Tubner, 1923). Being aware of this indirect relationship between symbol and referent , we can try to compensate for it by getting clarification. Some of what we learned in the last chapter about perception checking, can be useful here. Abby might ask Jasper, “What kind of dog do you have in mind?” This question would allow Jasper to describe his referent, which would allow for more shared understanding. If Jasper responds, “Well, I like short-haired dogs. And we need a dog that will work well in an apartment,” then there’s still quite a range of referents. Abby could ask questions for clarification, like “Sounds like you’re saying that a smaller dog might be better. Is that right?” Getting to a place of shared understanding can be difficult, even when we define our symbols and describe our referents.

Just when you think you know a word, you find that there are other phrases or words to replace it. Once we learned how to make what we called, “eggplant sauce,” we realized that a much more “sophisticated” version of “sauce” is called, “Baba Ganoush.” Recently, Lori asked our son to pass the “humus” only to be told, no, it’s eggplant, so it is called, “Baba Ganoush.” However, whatever it is called, humus, eggplant sauce, eggplant-ish-humus dish,  or “Baba Ganoush,” the referent is still the same. This reminds us of the phrase from Shakespeare, “ a rose by any other name ….”

Definitions

Words can be defined in different manners. Communication in the Real Word (2016) explains:

Definitions help us narrow the meaning of particular symbols, which also narrows a symbol’s possible referents. They also provide more words (symbols) for which we must determine a referent. If a concept is abstract and the words used to define it are also abstract, then a definition may be useless. Have you ever been caught in a verbal maze as you look up an unfamiliar word, only to find that the definition contains more unfamiliar words? Although this can be frustrating, definitions do serve a purpose. Words have denotative and connotative meanings.  Denotation refers to definitions that are accepted by the language group as a whole, or the dictionary definition of a word. For example, the denotation of the word cowboy  is a man who takes care of cattle. Another denotation is a reckless and/or independent person. A more abstract word, like  change , would be more difficult to understand due to the multiple denotations. Since both  cowboy  and  change  have multiple meanings, they are considered polysemic words. Monosemic words have only one use in a language, which makes their denotation more straightforward. Specialized academic or scientific words, like  monosemic , are often monosemic, but there are fewer commonly used monosemic words, for example, handkerchief . As you might guess based on our discussion of the complexity of language so far, monosemic words are far outnumbered by polysemic words. Connotation  refers to definitions that are based on emotion- or experience-based associations people have with a word. To go back to our previous words,  change  can have positive or negative connotations depending on a person’s experiences. A person who just ended a long-term relationship may think of change as good or bad depending on what he or she thought about his or her former partner. Even monosemic words like  handkerchief  that only have one denotation can have multiple connotations. A handkerchief can conjure up thoughts of dainty Southern belles or disgusting snot-rags. A polysemic word like  cowboy has many connotations, and philosophers of language have explored how connotations extend beyond one or two experiential or emotional meanings of a word to constitute cultural myths (Barthes, 1972).  Cowboy , for example, connects to the frontier and the western history of the United States, which has mythologies associated with it that help shape the narrative of the nation. The Marlboro Man is an enduring advertising icon that draws on connotations of the cowboy to attract customers. While people who grew up with cattle or have family that ranch may have a very specific connotation of the word  cowboy  based on personal experience, other people’s connotations may be more influenced by popular cultural symbolism like that seen in westerns. [Lori and Mark: the example above is from the textbook Communication in the Real World (2016). How might this example be offensive or worrisome to individuals who are Indiginous?]

Think about it, Apply it: How have you used words used in the examples above? Think about “cowboy” and how that connotation above has changed as we think about “playing cowboys and Indians.” Does this term take on a type of “good ole’ boy” now compared to the 1970’s game Mark and Lori played? When searching for a video to embed, so many home videos of men shooting each other with paint guns/air guns were evident. Related Reading Here

Connotative and Denotative Meaning: Case Study

The following brief news report shares the importance of thinking about the words we use. Many common phrases, euphemisms, cliches, and individual words may come across as simple but carry serious racial impacts for people of color” (YouTube Description).

Language Is Learned

Communication in the Real Word (2016) examines how language is learned and explains the rules of language as quoted below:

As we just learned, the relationship between the symbols that make up our language and their referents is arbitrary, which means they have no meaning until we assign it to them. In order to effectively use a language system, we have to learn, over time, which symbols go with which referents, since we can’t just tell by looking at the symbol. Like me, you probably learned what the word  apple  meant by looking at the letters  A-P-P-L-E and a picture of an apple and having a teacher or caregiver help you sound out the letters until you said the whole word. Over time, we associated that combination of letters with the picture of the red delicious apple and no longer had to sound each letter out. This is a deliberate process that may seem slow in the moment, but as we will see next, our ability to acquire language is actually quite astounding. We didn’t just learn individual words and their meanings, though; we also learned rules of grammar that help us put those words into meaningful sentences (2016).

The Rules of Language

Any language system has to have rules to make it learnable and usable. Grammar refers to the rules that govern how words are used to make phrases and sentences. Someone would likely know what you mean by the question “Where’s the remote control?” But “The control remote where’s?” is likely to be unintelligible or at least confusing (Crystal, 2005). Knowing the rules of grammar is important in order to be able to write and speak to be understood, but knowing these rules isn’t enough to make you an effective communicator. As we will learn later, creativity and play also have a role in effective verbal communication. Even though teachers have long enforced the idea that there are right and wrong ways to write and say words, there really isn’t anything inherently right or wrong about the individual choices we make in our language use. Rather, it is our collective agreement that gives power to the rules that govern language. Some linguists have viewed the rules of language as fairly rigid and limiting in terms of the possible meanings that we can derive from words and sentences created from within that system (de Saussure, 1974). Others have viewed these rules as more open and flexible, allowing a person to make choices to determine meaning (Eco, 1976). Still others have claimed that there is no real meaning and that possibilities for meaning are limitless (Derrida, 1978). For our purposes in this chapter, we will take the middle perspective, which allows for the possibility of individual choice but still acknowledges that there is a system of rules and logic that guides our decision making. Looking back to our discussion of connotation, we can see how individuals play a role in how meaning and language are related, since we each bring our own emotional and experiential associations with a word that are often more meaningful than a dictionary definition. In addition, we have quite a bit of room for creativity, play, and resistance with the symbols we use. Have you ever had a secret code with a friend that only you knew? This can allow you to use a code word in a public place to get meaning across to the other person who is “in the know” without anyone else understanding the message. The fact that you can take a word, give it another meaning, have someone else agree on that meaning, and then use the word in your own fashion clearly shows that meaning is in people rather than words. As we will learn later, many slang words developed because people wanted a covert way to talk about certain topics like drugs or sex without outsiders catching on.

Think about it – Apply It

Take the link here to the Cultural Atlas . Find 3 rules for 3 different culture’s in the Do’s and Don’t section of the country’s profile. How do the rules vary? How are they similar? Look at the rules for “American Culture.” What is interesting is this website is from Australia. Like Australia, the United States is a large country geographically. Like Australia, individuals immigrated to the US to seek a better life. Similarly, others came with a forced choice through slavery or indentured servitude.  Do the “Do’s and Don’ts” for the United States represent the culturally diverse country in which we live? Is the list most representative of the dominant culture? What might you change, add, or delete from this list? In our weekly discussion, we’ll address the same questions and even send feedback to this site’s editors and content authors.

Language Defines

The defining ability of language relates to intercultural communication and barriers, such as stigma, that language can impose. Goffman along with Galinsky, A. D., Hugenberg, K., Groom, C., & Bodenhausen, G. (2003), explains the power of stigma:

creative commons photo from burst.shopify.com Stigma, according to Goffman, an attribute that discredits and reduces the person ‘from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one’ (Goffman, 1963, p. 3). Social stigma links a negatively valued attribute to a social identity or group membership. Stigma is said to exist when individuals ‘possess (or are believed to possess) some attribute, Stigma or characteristic, that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a particular social context’ (Crocker, Major & Steele, 1998, p.505). Given these criteria, there are myriad groups in our own culture that tend to be the reappropriation of stigmatizing labels considered stigmatized. Marginalized groups, such as African Americans or Native Americans, persons with physical or mental disabilities, LGBTQ indentifying individuals, and the obese can all be considered stigmatized groups. To be stigmatized often means to be economically disadvantaged, to be the target of negative stereotypes, and to be rejected interpersonally (Crocker, Voelkl, Testa & Major, 1998). Name calling (Smythe & Seidman, 1957) may be a favorite strategy for calling forth these harmful sequelae of stigma (pp. 224-225).

While stigmatizing language generally comes from persons in positions of “privilege” to define others in some way (remember social capital can equal privilege too), systematic policy, language structure, and attitudes can also create damaging language. Think of individuals with disabilities being called “crippled” or how often one hears, “Oh, that is handicapped parking.” Remember the person first – the “person with a disability” is not a “disabled person” simply. The order of the words can demonstrate an emphasis upon the person. Another example is the stigma surrounding how individuals with a mental health diagnosis are called: crazy, insane, mentally ill, nuts, loco, etc. Moving past the stigmatized “other” and into a healthy image means re-evaluating the language used to name, define, detain, diagnose, and otherwise label others. We live in an era where the listing of pronouns or other inclusive language choices are often quickly dismissed as politically correct and careless. Moreover, “Can’t you take a joke?” statements come from our own leaders after making racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or otherly offensive phases. Making a personal choice to avoid words that cause offense or poorly define others is one way to practice compassion and intercultural communication competence.

Galinsky, A. D., Hugenberg, K., Groom, C., & Bodenhausen, G. (2003) further examine how labels can be “reappropriated” to change the meaning of the word, if only for the person themselves:

creative commons photo from burst.shopify.com Given that to appropriate means “to take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself,” we consider reappropriate to mean to take possession for oneself that which was once possessed by another, and we use it to refer to the phenomenon whereby a stigmatized group revalues an externally imposed negative label by selfconsciously referring to itself in terms of that label. Instead of passively accepting the negative connotative meanings of the label, …[one can reject] those damaging meanings and through reappropriation imbued the label with positive connotations. By reappropriating this negative label, …[one can seek] to renegotiate the meaning of the word, changing it from something hurtful to something empowering…[Such] actions imply two assumptions that are critical to reappropriation. First, names are powerful, and second, the meanings of names are subject to change and can be negotiated and renegotiated (p. 222).

Reappropriation of language is often confusing and nebulous. As one mindfully decides (or not) to use terms in new ways, remember, many times others outside a peer group, co-culture or culture may not understand. For example, the true meaning of a female calling another female friend a “bitch” to reappropriate the term and give it a “hip” or “warrior-goddess” sound might be lost on the average passerby who might, then, believe it is acceptable for him or her to likewise use such language.

Case Study: What is Privilege?

Language Is Dynamic

The authors of Communication in the Real World (2016) help us understand how reappropriation occurs as a function of language being “dynamic.” They explain the nature of neologisms and slang as shared below:

As we already learned, language is essentially limitless. We may create a one-of-a-kind sentence combining words in new ways and never know it. Aside from the endless structural possibilities, words change meaning, and new words are created daily. In this section, we’ll learn more about the dynamic nature of language by focusing on neologisms and slang.

Neologisms Neologisms are newly coined or used words. Newly coined words are those that were just brought into linguistic existence. Newly used words make their way into languages in several ways, including borrowing and changing structure. Taking  is actually a more fitting descriptor than  borrowing , since we take words but don’t really give them back. In any case, borrowing is the primary means through which languages expand. English is a good case in point, as most of its vocabulary is borrowed and doesn’t reflect the language’s Germanic origins. English has been called the “vacuum cleaner of languages” (Crystal, 2005). Weekend  is a popular English word based on the number of languages that have borrowed it. We have borrowed many words, like  chic  from French,  karaoke  from Japanese, and  caravan  from Arabic. Structural changes also lead to new words. Compound words are neologisms that are created by joining two already known words.  Keyboard ,  newspaper , and  giftcard  are all compound words that were formed when new things were created or conceived. We also create new words by adding something, subtracting something, or blending them together. For example, we can add affixes, meaning a prefix or a suffix, to a word. Affixing usually alters the original meaning but doesn’t completely change it.  Ex-husband  and  kitchenette  are relatively recent examples of such changes (Crystal, 2005). New words are also formed when clipping a word like  examination , which creates a new word,  exam , that retains the same meaning. And last, we can form new words by blending old ones together. Words like  breakfast  and  lunch  blend letters and meaning to form a new word— brunch . Existing words also change in their use and meaning. The digital age has given rise to some interesting changes in word usage. Before Facebook, the word  friend  had many meanings, but it was mostly used as a noun referring to a companion. The sentence,  I’ll friend you , wouldn’t have made sense to many people just a few years ago because  friend  wasn’t used as a verb.  Google  went from being a proper noun referring to the company to a more general verb that refers to searching for something on the Internet (perhaps not even using the Google search engine). Meanings can expand or contract without changing from a noun to a verb.  Gay , an adjective for feeling happy, expanded to include  gay  as an adjective describing a person’s sexual orientation. Perhaps because of the confusion that this caused, the meaning of  gay  has contracted again, as the earlier meaning is now considered archaic, meaning it is no longer in common usage. The American Dialect Society names an overall “Word of the Year” each year and selects winners in several more specific categories. The winning words are usually new words or words that recently took on new meaning. [2]  In 2011, the overall winner was  occupy  as a result of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The word named the “most likely to succeed” was  cloud  as a result of Apple unveiling its new online space for file storage and retrieval. Although languages are dying out at an alarming rate, many languages are growing in terms of new words and expanded meanings, thanks largely to advances in technology, as can be seen in the example of  cloud .

Slang Slang is a great example of the dynamic nature of language.  Slang refers to new or adapted words that are specific to a group, context, and/or time period; regarded as less formal; and representative of people’s creative play with language. Research has shown that only about 10 percent of the slang terms that emerge over a fifteen-year period survive. Many more take their place though, as new slang words are created using inversion, reduction, or old-fashioned creativity (Allan & Burridge, 2006). Inversion is a form of word play that produces slang words like  sick ,  wicked , and  bad  that refer to the opposite of their typical meaning. Reduction creates slang words such as  pic ,  sec , and  later  from  picture ,  second , and  see you later . New slang words often represent what is edgy, current, or simply relevant to the daily lives of a group of people. Many creative examples of slang refer to illegal or socially taboo topics like sex, drinking, and drugs. It makes sense that developing an alternative way to identify drugs or talk about taboo topics could make life easier for the people who partake in such activities. Slang allows people who are in “in the know” to break the code and presents a linguistic barrier for unwanted outsiders. Taking a moment to think about the amount of slang that refers to being intoxicated on drugs or alcohol or engaging in sexual activity should generate a lengthy list. When I first started teaching this course in the early 2000s, Cal Poly Pomona had been compiling a list of the top twenty college slang words of the year for a few years. The top slang word for 1997 was  da bomb , which means “great, awesome, or extremely cool,” and the top word for 2001 and 2002 was  tight , which is used as a generic positive meaning “attractive, nice, or cool.” Unfortunately, the project didn’t continue, but I still enjoy seeing how the top slang words change and sometimes recycle and come back. I always end up learning some new words from my students. When I asked a class what the top college slang word should be for 2011, they suggested  deuces , which is used when leaving as an alternative to  good-bye  and stems from another verbal/nonverbal leaving symbol—holding up two fingers for “peace” as if to say, “peace out.” It’s difficult for my students to identify the slang they use at any given moment because it is worked into our everyday language patterns and becomes very natural. Just as we learned here, new words can create a lot of buzz and become a part of common usage very quickly. The same can happen with new slang terms. Most slang words also disappear quickly, and their alternative meaning fades into obscurity. For example, you don’t hear anyone using the word  macaroni  to refer to something cool or fashionable. But that’s exactly what the common slang meaning of the word was at the time the song “Yankee Doodle” was written. Yankee Doodle isn’t saying the feather he sticks in his cap is a small, curved pasta shell; he is saying it’s cool or stylish.

Language Is Relational

Communication in the Real Word (2016) shares:

We use verbal communication to initiate, maintain, and terminate our interpersonal relationships. The first few exchanges with a potential romantic partner or friend help us size the other person up and figure out if we want to pursue a relationship or not. We then use verbal communication to remind others how we feel about them and to check in with them—engaging in relationship maintenance through language use. When negative feelings arrive and persist, or for many other reasons, we often use verbal communication to end a relationship.

Language Can Bring Us Together

Communication in the Real Word (2016) examines the ability of language that unites. As you look to the Cultural Atlas , consider whether the culture’s norms promote these concepts:

Interpersonally, verbal communication is key to bringing people together and maintaining relationships. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, our use of words like  I ,  you ,  we ,  our , and  us  affect our relationships. “We language” includes the words  we ,  our , and  us  and can be used to promote a feeling of inclusiveness. “I language” can be useful when expressing thoughts, needs, and feelings because it leads us to “own” our expressions and avoid the tendency to mistakenly attribute the cause of our thoughts, needs, and feelings to others. Communicating emotions using “I language” may also facilitate emotion sharing by not making our conversational partner feel at fault or defensive. For example, instead of saying, “You’re making me crazy!” you could say, “I’m starting to feel really anxious because we can’t make a decision about this.” Conversely, “you language” can lead people to become defensive and feel attacked, which could be divisive and result in feelings of interpersonal separation.

Aside from the specific words that we use, the frequency of communication impacts relationships. Of course, the content of what is said is important, but research shows that romantic partners who communicate frequently with each other and with mutual friends and family members experience less stress and uncertainty in their relationship and are more likely to stay together (McCornack, 2007). When frequent communication combines with supportive messages, which are messages communicated in an open, honest, and nonconfrontational way, people are sure to come together. Moving from the interpersonal to the sociocultural level, we can see that speaking the same language can bring people together. When a person is surrounded by people who do not speak his or her native language, it can be very comforting to run into another person who speaks the same language. Even if the two people are strangers, the ease of linguistic compatibility is comforting and can quickly facilitate a social bond. We’ve already learned that language helps shape our social reality, so a common language leads to some similar perspectives. Of course, there are individual differences within a language community, but the power of shared language to unite people has led to universal language movements that advocate for one global language. Serious attempts to create a common language, sometimes referred to as a  lingua franca or auxiliary language, began in the 1600s as world exploration brought increased trade and Latin was no longer effective as the language of international business. Since then, hundreds of auxiliary languages have been recorded but none have achieved widespread international usage or been officially recognized as an international language (Crystal, 2005). While some such movements were primarily motivated by business and profit, others hoped to promote mutual understanding, more effective diplomacy, and peaceful coexistence.  Esperanto, which means “hopeful,” is the most well-known and widely used auxiliary language that was intended to serve as a common international language. Esperanto was invented by a Polish eye doctor at the end of the 1800s and today has between one and two million fluent speakers worldwide. Many works of literature and important manuscripts like the Bible and the Qur’an have been translated into Esperanto, and many original works of literature and academic articles have been written in the language. Some countries also broadcast radio programs in Esperanto. Several barriers will have to be overcome in order for an auxiliary language like Esperanto to gain international acceptance. First, there would have to be a massive effort put into a period of simultaneous learning—otherwise it is difficult to motivate people to learn a language that is not necessary for their daily lives and that no one else speaks. Second, as we have learned, people take pride in their linguistic identity and find pleasure in playing with the rules of language, creatively inventing new words and meanings that constantly change a language. Such changes may be impossible to accommodate in an auxiliary language. Lastly, the optimism of an internationally shared language eventually gives way to realism. If a shared language really brings peaceful coexistence, how do we explain all the civil wars and other conflicts that have been fought between people who speak the same language? As new languages are invented, many more languages are dying. Linguists and native speakers of endangered languages have also rallied around so-called dying languages to preserve them. In the United States, Cajun French in Louisiana, French Canadian in Maine, and Pennsylvania Dutch are examples of language communities that are in danger of losing the language that has united them, in some cases for hundreds of years (Dorian, 1986). Although American English is in no danger of dying soon, there have been multiple attempts to make English the official language of the United States. Sometimes the argument supporting this proposition seems to be based on the notion that a shared language will lead to more solidarity and in-group identification among the speakers. However, many of these movements are politically and ideologically motivated and actually seek to marginalize and/or expel immigrants—typically immigrants who are also people of color. The United States isn’t the only country that has debated the merits of officially recognizing only certain languages. Similar debates have been going on for many years regarding whether French, English, or both should be the official language in Quebec, Canada, and which language(s)—French, Dutch, or Flemish—should be used in what contexts in Belgium (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). In such cases, we can see that verbal communication can also divide people.

Language Can Separate Us

In addition to building bridges, language can separate as explained below by Communication in the Real Word (2016):

Whether it’s criticism, teasing, or language differences, verbal communication can also lead to feelings of separation. Language differences alone do not present insurmountable barriers. We can learn other languages with time and effort, there are other people who can translate and serve as bridges across languages, and we can also communicate quite a lot nonverbally in the absence of linguistic compatibility. People who speak the same language can intentionally use language to separate. The words  us  and  them  can be a powerful start to separation. Think of how language played a role in segregation in the United States as the notion of “separate but equal” was upheld by the Supreme Court and how apartheid affected South Africa as limits, based on finances and education, were placed on the black majority’s rights to vote. Symbols, both words and images, were a very important part of Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s and ’40s in Europe. Various combinations of colored stars, triangles, letters, and other symbols were sewn onto the clothing or uniforms of people persecuted by the Nazis in order to classify them. People were labeled and reduced to certain characteristics rather than seen as complete humans, which facilitated the Nazis’ oppression, violence, and killing (Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, 2012). At the interpersonal level, unsupportive messages can make others respond defensively, which can lead to feelings of separation and actual separation or dissolution of a relationship. It’s impossible to be supportive in our communication all the time, but consistently unsupportive messages can hurt others’ self-esteem, escalate conflict, and lead to defensiveness. People who regularly use unsupportive messages may create a toxic win/lose climate in a relationship. Six verbal tactics that can lead to feelings of defensiveness and separation are global labels, sarcasm, dragging up the past, negative comparisons, judgmental “you” messages, and threats (McKay, Davis & Fanning, 1995). Common Types of Unsupportive Messages

• Global labels.  “You’re a liar.” Labeling someone irresponsible, untrustworthy, selfish, or lazy calls his or her whole identity as a person into question. Such sweeping judgments and generalizations are sure to only escalate a negative situation.
• Sarcasm.  “No, you didn’t miss anything in class on Wednesday. We just sat here and looked at each other.” Even though sarcasm is often disguised as humor, it usually represents passive-aggressive behavior through which a person indirectly communicates negative feelings.
• Dragging up the past.  “I should have known not to trust you when you never paid me back that $100 I let you borrow.” Bringing up negative past experiences is a tactic used by people when they don’t want to discuss a current situation. Sometimes people have built up negative feelings that are suddenly let out by a seemingly small thing in the moment.
• Negative comparisons.  “Jade graduated from college without any credit card debt. I guess you’re just not as responsible as her.” Holding a person up to the supposed standards or characteristics of another person can lead to feelings of inferiority and resentment. Parents and teachers may unfairly compare children to their siblings.
• Judgmental “you” messages.  “You’re never going to be able to hold down a job.” Accusatory messages are usually generalized overstatements about another person that go beyond labeling but still do not describe specific behavior in a productive way.
• Threats.  “If you don’t stop texting back and forth with your ex, both of you are going to regret it.” Threatening someone with violence or some other negative consequence usually signals the end of productive communication. Aside from the potential legal consequences, threats usually overcompensate for a person’s insecurity.

The practice of civility might be one area that unites speakers and listeners when intercultural communication breaks down. Communication in the Real Word (2016) shares:

Our strong emotions regarding our own beliefs, attitudes, and values can sometimes lead to incivility in our verbal communication. Incivility occurs when a person deviates from established social norms and can take many forms, including insults, bragging, bullying, gossiping, swearing, deception, and defensiveness, among others (Miller, 2001). Some people lament that we live in a time when civility is diminishing, but since standards and expectations for what is considered civil communication have changed over time, this isn’t the only time such claims have been made (Miller, 2001). As individualism and affluence have increased in many societies, so have the number of idiosyncratic identities that people feel they have the right to express. These increases could contribute to the impression that society is becoming less civil, when in fact it is just becoming different. As we learned in our section on perception and personality, we tend to assume other people are like us, and we may be disappointed or offended when we realize they are not. Cultural changes have probably contributed to making people less willing to engage in self-restraint, which again would be seen as uncivil by people who prefer a more restrained and self-controlled expression (Miller, 2001). Some journalists, media commentators, and scholars have argued that the “flaming” that happens on comment sections of websites and blogs is a type of verbal incivility that presents a threat to our democracy (Brooks & Greer, 2007). Other scholars of communication and democracy have not as readily labeled such communication “uncivil” (Cammaerts, 2009). It has long been argued that civility is important for the functioning and growth of a democracy (Kingwell, 1995). But in the new digital age of democracy where technologies like Twitter and Facebook have started democratic revolutions, some argue that the Internet and other new media have opened spaces in which people can engage in cyberactivism and express marginal viewpoints that may otherwise not be heard (Dahlberg, 2007). In any case, researchers have identified several aspects of language use online that are typically viewed as negative: name-calling, character assassination, and the use of obscene language (Sobieraj & Berry, 2011). So what contributes to such uncivil behavior—online and offline? The following are some common individual and situational influences that may lead to breaches of civility (Miller, 2001):

• Individual differences.  Some people differ in their interpretations of civility in various settings, and some people have personality traits that may lead to actions deemed uncivil on a more regular basis.
• Ignorance.  In some cases, especially in novel situations involving uncertainty, people may not know what social norms and expectations are.
• Lack of skill.  Even when we know how to behave, we may not be able to do it. Such frustrations may lead a person to revert to undesirable behavior such as engaging in personal attacks during a conflict because they don’t know what else to do.
• Lapse of control.  Self-control is not an unlimited resource. Even when people know how to behave and have the skill to respond to a situation appropriately, they may not do so. Even people who are careful to monitor their behavior have occasional slipups.
• Negative intent.  Some people, in an attempt to break with conformity or challenge societal norms, or for self-benefit (publicly embarrassing someone in order to look cool or edgy), are openly uncivil. Such behavior can also result from mental or psychological stresses or illnesses.

Polarizing Language

Polarized language certainly has seeped into discussions of political candidates but also within discussions about the environment, economic policy, and reproduction/abortion are often polarized.  An article that summarizes polarized language shares, “It’s not news that U.S. politics are highly polarized or that polarization affects cable news channels. But researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, using computer translation tools in an unprecedented way, have found that even the meanings of some words are now polarized” ( Carnegie Mellon University , 2020).

The authors of Communication in the Real World (2016) explain:

Philosophers of language have long noted our tendency to verbally represent the world in very narrow ways when we feel threatened (Hayakawa & Hayakawa, 1990). This misrepresents reality and closes off dialogue. Although in our everyday talk we describe things in nuanced and measured ways, quarrels and controversies often narrow our vision, which is reflected in our vocabulary. In order to maintain a civil discourse in which people interact ethically and competently, it has been suggested that we keep an open mind and an open vocabulary. One feature of communicative incivility is polarizing language, which refers to language that presents people, ideas, or situations as polar opposites. Such language exaggerates differences and overgeneralizes. Things aren’t simply black or white, right or wrong, or good or bad. Being able to only see two values and clearly accepting one and rejecting another doesn’t indicate sophisticated or critical thinking. We don’t have to accept every viewpoint as right and valid, and we can still hold strongly to our own beliefs and defend them without ignoring other possibilities or rejecting or alienating others. A citizen who says, “All cops are corrupt,” is just as wrong as the cop who says, “All drug users are scum.” In avoiding polarizing language we keep a more open mind, which may lead us to learn something new. A citizen may have a personal story about a negative encounter with a police officer that could enlighten us on his or her perspective, but the statement also falsely overgeneralizes that experience. Avoiding polarizing language can help us avoid polarized thinking, and the new information we learn may allow us to better understand and advocate for our position. Avoiding sweeping generalizations allows us to speak more clearly and hopefully avoid defensive reactions from others that result from such blanket statements.

Accountability

Accountability, according to the authors of Communication in the Real World (2016), is essential for healthy communication:

The complexity of our verbal language system allows us to present s as facts and mask judgments within seemingly objective or oblique language. As an ethical speaker and a critical listener, it is important to be able to distinguish between facts, inferences, and judgments (Hayakawa & Hayakawa, 1990). Inferences are conclusions based on thoughts or speculation, but not direct observation. Facts are conclusions based on direct observation or group consensus. Judgments are expressions of approval or disapproval that are subjective and not verifiable. Linguists have noted that a frequent source of miscommunication is  inference-observation confusion , or the misperception of an inference (conclusion based on limited information) as an observation (an observed or agreed-on fact) (Haney, 1992). We can see the possibility for such confusion in the following example: If a student posts on a professor-rating site the statement “This professor grades unfairly and plays favorites,” then they are presenting an inference and a judgment that could easily be interpreted as a fact. Using some of the strategies discussed earlier for speaking clearly can help present information in a more ethical way—for example, by using concrete and descriptive language and owning emotions and thoughts through the use of “I language.” To help clarify the message and be more accountable, the student could say, “I worked for three days straight on my final paper and only got a C,” which we will assume is a statement of fact. This could then be followed up with “But my friend told me she only worked on hers the day before it was due and she got an A. I think that’s unfair and I feel like my efforts aren’t recognized by the professor.” Of the last two statements, the first states what may be a fact (note, however, that the information is secondhand rather than directly observed) and the second states an inferred conclusion and expresses an owned thought and feeling. Sometimes people don’t want to mark their statements as inferences because they want to believe them as facts. In this case, the student may have attributed her grade to the professor’s “unfairness” to cover up or avoid thoughts that her friend may be a better student in this subject area, a better writer, or a better student in general. Distinguishing between facts, inferences, and judgments, however, allows your listeners to better understand your message and judge the merits of it, which makes us more accountable and therefore more ethical speakers.

Language and Cultural Context

This section, shared from Communication in the Real World (2016) narrows the focus on language and the cultural context:

Culture isn’t solely determined by a person’s native language or nationality. It’s true that languages vary by country and region and that the language we speak influences our realities, but even people who speak the same language experience cultural differences because of their various intersecting cultural identities and personal experiences. We have a tendency to view our language as a whole more favorably than other languages. Although people may make persuasive arguments regarding which languages are more pleasing to the ear or difficult or easy to learn than others, no one language enables speakers to communicate more effectively than another (McCornack, 2007). From birth we are socialized into our various cultural identities. As with the social context, this acculturation process is a combination of explicit and implicit lessons. A child in Colombia, which is considered a more collectivist country in which people value group membership and cohesion over individualism, may not be explicitly told, “You are a member of a collectivistic culture, so you should care more about the family and community than yourself.” This cultural value would be transmitted through daily actions and through language use. Just as babies acquire knowledge of language practices at an astonishing rate in their first two years of life, so do they acquire cultural knowledge and values that are embedded in those language practices. At nine months old, it is possible to distinguish babies based on their language. Even at this early stage of development, when most babies are babbling and just learning to recognize but not wholly reproduce verbal interaction patterns, a Colombian baby would sound different from a Brazilian baby, even though neither would actually be using words from their native languages of Spanish and Portuguese (Crystal, 2005). The actual language we speak plays an important role in shaping our reality. Comparing languages, we can see differences in how we are able to talk about the world. In English, we have the words  grandfather  and  grandmother , but no single word that distinguishes between a maternal grandfather and a paternal grandfather. But in Swedish, there’s a specific word for each grandparent:  morfar  is mother’s father,  farfar  is father’s father,  farmor  is father’s mother, and  mormor  is mother’s mother (Crystal, 2005). In this example, we can see that the words available to us, based on the language we speak, influence how we talk about the world due to differences in and limitations of vocabulary. The notion that language shapes our view of reality and our cultural patterns is best represented by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Although some scholars argue that our reality is determined by our language, we will take a more qualified view and presume that language plays a central role in influencing our realities but doesn’t determine them (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). Culturally influenced differences in language and meaning can lead to some interesting encounters, ranging from awkward to informative to disastrous. In terms of awkwardness, you have likely heard stories of companies that failed to exhibit communication competence in their naming and/or advertising of products in another language. For example, in Taiwan, Pepsi used the slogan “Come Alive with Pepsi” only to later find out that when translated it meant, “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead” (Kwintessential Limited, 2012). Similarly, American Motors introduced a new car called the Matador to the Puerto Rico market only to learn that  Matador  means “killer,” which wasn’t very comforting to potential buyers (Kwintessential, 2012). At a more informative level, the words we use to give positive reinforcement are culturally relative. In the United States and England, parents commonly positively and negatively reinforce their child’s behavior by saying, “Good girl” or “Good boy.” There isn’t an equivalent for such a phrase in other European languages, so the usage in only these two countries has been traced back to the puritan influence on beliefs about good and bad behavior (Wierzbicka, 2004). In terms of disastrous consequences, one of the most publicized and deadliest cross-cultural business mistakes occurred in India in 1984. Union Carbide, an American company, controlled a plant used to make pesticides. The company underestimated the amount of cross-cultural training that would be needed to allow the local workers, many of whom were not familiar with the technology or language/jargon used in the instructions for plant operations to do their jobs. This lack of competent communication led to a gas leak that immediately killed more than two thousand people and over time led to more than five hundred thousand injuries (Varma, 2012).

Accents and Dialects

Accents and dialects, as note below from Communication in the Real World (2016), are present in all communication contexts – often, though, we don’t realize our own accent or dialect until we travel and hear the differences in how others accent words or use different dialects:

The documentary  American Tongues , although dated at this point, is still a fascinating look at the rich tapestry of accents and dialects that makes up American English. Dialect s are versions of languages that have distinct words, grammar, and pronunciation. Accents are distinct styles of pronunciation (Lustig & Koester, 2006). There can be multiple accents within one dialect. For example, people in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States speak a dialect of American English that is characterized by remnants of the linguistic styles of Europeans who settled the area a couple hundred years earlier. Even though they speak this similar dialect, a person in Kentucky could still have an accent that is distinguishable from a person in western North Carolina. Dialects and accents can vary by region, class, or ancestry, and they influence the impressions that we make of others. When I moved to Colorado from North Carolina, I was met with a very strange look when I used the word buggy to refer to a shopping cart. Research shows that people tend to think more positively about others who speak with a dialect similar to their own and think more negatively about people who speak differently. Of course, many people think they speak normally and perceive others to have an accent or dialect. Although dialects include the use of different words and phrases, it’s the tone of voice that often creates the strongest impression. For example, a person who speaks with a Southern accent may perceive a New Englander’s accent to be grating, harsh, or rude because the pitch is more nasal and the rate faster. Conversely, a New Englander may perceive a Southerner’s accent to be syrupy and slow, leading to an impression that the person speaking is uneducated.

Customs and Norms

In addition to reading the materials below  on cultural norms and code switching from Communication in the Real World (2016), also explore the Cultural Atlas:

Social norms are culturally relative. The words used in politeness rituals in one culture can mean something completely different in another. For example,  thank you  in American English acknowledges receiving something (a gift, a favor, a compliment), in British English it can mean “yes” similar to American English’s  yes, please , and in French  merci  can mean “no” as in “no, thank you” (Crystal, 2005). Additionally, what is considered a powerful language style varies from culture to culture. Confrontational language, such as swearing, can be seen as powerful in Western cultures, even though it violates some language taboos, but would be seen as immature and weak in Japan (Wetzel, 1988). Gender also affects how we use language, but not to the extent that most people think. Although there is a widespread belief that men are more likely to communicate in a clear and straightforward way and women are more likely to communicate in an emotional and indirect way, a meta-analysis of research findings from more than two hundred studies found only small differences in the personal disclosures of men and women (Dindia & Allen, 1992). Men and women’s levels of disclosure are even more similar when engaging in cross-gender communication, meaning men and woman are more similar when speaking to each other than when men speak to men or women speak to women. This could be due to the internalized pressure to speak about the other gender in socially sanctioned ways, in essence reinforcing the stereotypes when speaking to the same gender but challenging them in cross-gender encounters. Researchers also dispelled the belief that men interrupt more than women do, finding that men and women interrupt each other with similar frequency in cross-gender encounters (Dindia, 1987). These findings, which state that men and women communicate more similarly during cross-gender encounters and then communicate in more stereotypical ways in same-gender encounters, can be explained with communication accommodation theory.

Communication Accommodation and Code-Switching

Communication accommodation theory is a theory that explores why and how people modify their communication to fit situational, social, cultural, and relational contexts (Giles, Taylor, & Bourhis, 1973). Within communication accommodation, conversational partners may use convergence , meaning a person makes his or her communication more like another person’s. People who are accommodating in their communication style are seen as more competent, which illustrates the benefits of communicative flexibility. In order to be flexible, of course, people have to be aware of and monitor their own and others’ communication patterns. Conversely, conversational partners may use divergence  meaning a person uses communication to emphasize the differences between his or her conversational partner and his or herself. Convergence and divergence can take place within the same conversation and may be used by one or both conversational partners. Convergence functions to make others feel at ease, to increase understanding, and to enhance social bonds. Divergence may be used to intentionally make another person feel unwelcome or perhaps to highlight a personal, group, or cultural identity. For example, African American women use certain verbal communication patterns when communicating with other African American women as a way to highlight their racial identity and create group solidarity. In situations where multiple races interact, the women usually don’t use those same patterns, instead accommodating the language patterns of the larger group. While communication accommodation might involve anything from adjusting how fast or slow you talk to how long you speak during each turn, code-switching refers to changes in accent, dialect, or language (Martin & Nakayama, 2010). There are many reasons that people might code-switch. Regarding accents, some people hire vocal coaches or speech-language pathologists to help them alter their accent. If a Southern person thinks their accent is leading others to form unfavorable impressions, they can consciously change their accent with much practice and effort. Once their ability to speak without their Southern accent is honed, they may be able to switch very quickly between their native accent when speaking with friends and family and their modified accent when speaking in professional settings.

Additionally, people who work or live in multilingual settings may code-switch many times throughout the day, or even within a single conversation. Increasing outsourcing and globalization have produced heightened pressures for code-switching. Call center workers in India have faced strong negative reactions from British and American customers who insist on “speaking to someone who speaks English.” Although many Indians learn English in schools as a result of British colonization, their accents prove to be off-putting to people who want to get their cable package changed or book an airline ticket. Now some Indian call center workers are going through intense training to be able to code-switch and accommodate the speaking style of their customers. What is being called the “Anglo-Americanization of India” entails “accent-neutralization,” lessons on American culture (using things like Sex and the City DVDs), and the use of Anglo-American-sounding names like Sean and Peggy (Pal, 2004). As our interactions continue to occur in more multinational contexts, the expectations for code-switching and accommodation are sure to increase. It is important for us to consider the intersection of culture and power and think critically about the ways in which expectations for code-switching may be based on cultural biases.

Language and Cultural Bias

The authors of Communication in the Real World (2016) further examine language and cultural bias:

In the previous example about code-switching and communication accommodation in Indian call centers, the move toward accent neutralization is a response to the “racist abuse” these workers receive from customers (Nadeem, 2012). Anger in Western countries about job losses and economic uncertainty has increased the amount of racially targeted verbal attacks on international call center employees. It was recently reported that more call center workers are now quitting their jobs as a result of the verbal abuse and that 25 percent of workers who have recently quit say such abuse was a major source of stress (Gentleman, 2005). Such verbal attacks are not new; they represent a common but negative way that cultural bias explicitly manifests in our language use. Cultural bias is a skewed way of viewing or talking about a group that is typically negative. Bias has a way of creeping into our daily language use, often under our awareness. Culturally biased language can make reference to one or more cultural identities, including race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and ability. There are other sociocultural identities that can be the subject of biased language, but we will focus our discussion on these five. Much biased language is based on stereotypes and myths that influence the words we use. Bias is both intentional and unintentional, but as we’ve already discussed, we have to be accountable for what we say even if we didn’t “intend” a particular meaning—remember, meaning is generated; it doesn’t exist inside our thoughts or words. We will discuss specific ways in which cultural bias manifests in our language and ways to become more aware of bias. Becoming aware of and addressing cultural bias is not the same thing as engaging in “political correctness.” Political correctness takes awareness to the extreme but doesn’t do much to address cultural bias aside from make people feel like they are walking on eggshells. That kind of pressure can lead people to avoid discussions about cultural identities or avoid people with different cultural identities. Our goal is not to eliminate all cultural bias from verbal communication or to never offend anyone, intentionally or otherwise. Instead, we will continue to use guidelines for ethical communication that we have already discussed and strive to increase our competence. The following discussion also focuses on bias rather than preferred terminology or outright discriminatory language.

While we will explore the topic of race in much more detail later in the text, Communication in the Real World (2016) shares the following discussion of race and language:

People sometimes use euphemisms for race that illustrate bias because the terms are usually implicitly compared to the dominant group (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010). For example, referring to a person as “urban” or a neighborhood as “inner city” can be an accurate descriptor, but when such words are used as a substitute for racial identity, they illustrate cultural biases that equate certain races with cities and poverty. Using adjectives like  articulate  or  well-dressed  in statements like “My black coworker is articulate” reinforces negative stereotypes even though these words are typically viewed as positive. Terms like  nonwhite  set up whiteness as the norm, which implies that white people are the norm against which all other races should be compared. Biased language also reduces the diversity within certain racial groups—for example, referring to anyone who looks like they are of Asian descent as Chinese or everyone who “looks” Latino/a as Mexicans. Some people with racial identities other than white, including people who are multiracial, use the label  person/people of color to indicate solidarity among groups, but it is likely that they still prefer a more specific label when referring to an individual or referencing a specific racial group.

Racist Language

“Just before tipoff at the high school girls’ basketball tournament near Tulsa, Oklahoma, two announcers were caught on a hot mic reacting as team members kneeled during the national anthem. The announcers used racist and explicit language, including a racial slur. NBC’s Blayne Alexander reports for Weekend TODAY” (2021):

Gender-based topics will be a focus within our last unit of this book. The authors of Communication in the Real World (2016) share foundational research related to gender and communication below:

Language has a tendency to exaggerate perceived and stereotypical differences between men and women. The use of the term  opposite sex  presumes that men and women are opposites, like positive and negative poles of a magnet, which is obviously not true or men and women wouldn’t be able to have successful interactions or relationships. A term like  other gender  doesn’t presume opposites and acknowledges that male and female identities and communication are more influenced by gender, which is the social and cultural meanings and norms associated with males and females, than sex, which is the physiology and genetic makeup of a male and female. One key to avoiding gendered bias in language is to avoid the generic use of  he  when referring to something relevant to males and females. Instead, you can informally use a gender-neutral pronoun like  they  or  their  or you can use  his or her  (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010). When giving a series of examples, you can alternate usage of masculine and feminine pronouns, switching with each example. We have lasting gendered associations with certain occupations that have tended to be male or female dominated, which erase the presence of both genders. Other words reflect the general masculine bias present in English. The following word pairs show the gender-biased term followed by an unbiased term: waitress/server, chairman / chair or chairperson, mankind/people, cameraman / camera operator, mailman / postal worker, sportsmanship / fair play. Common language practices also tend to infantilize women but not men, when, for example, women are referred to as  chicks ,  girls , or  babes . Since there is no linguistic equivalent that indicates the marital status of men before their name, using  Ms.  instead of  Miss  or  Mrs. helps reduce bias.

The authors of Communication in the Real World (2016) explain how age impacts verbal communication:

Language that includes age bias can be directed toward older or younger people. Descriptions of younger people often presume recklessness or inexperience, while those of older people presume frailty or disconnection. The term  elderly  generally refers to people over sixty-five, but it has connotations of weakness, which isn’t accurate because there are plenty of people over sixty-five who are stronger and more athletic than people in their twenties and thirties. Even though it’s generic,  older people  doesn’t really have negative implications. More specific words that describe groups of older people include  grandmothers/grandfathers  (even though they can be fairly young too),  retirees , or  people over sixty-five  (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010). Referring to people over the age of eighteen as  boys  or  girls  isn’t typically viewed as appropriate.

Sexual Orientation

We have visited topics related to LGBTQ+ communities before. You can learn more, too, in the cultural highlights section of this book about LGBTQ+ concerns . In the following section, the authors of Communication in the Real World (2016) share observations/research on sexual orientation and language use:

Discussions of sexual and affectional orientation range from everyday conversations to contentious political and personal debates. The negative stereotypes that have been associated with homosexuality, including deviance, mental illness, and criminal behavior, continue to influence our language use (American Psychological Association, 2012). Terminology related to gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) people can be confusing, so let’s spend some time raise our awareness about preferred labels. [From Lori and Mark – note, often LGBTQ is used today]. First, sexual orientation  is the term preferred to  sexual preference .  Preference  suggests a voluntary choice, as in someone has a preference for cheddar or American cheese, which doesn’t reflect the experience of most GLB people or research findings that show sexuality is more complex. You may also see  affectional orientation  included with  sexual orientation  because it acknowledges that GLB relationships, like heterosexual relationships, are about intimacy and closeness (affection) that is not just sexually based. Most people also prefer the labels  gay ,  lesbian , or  bisexual  to  homosexual , which is clinical and doesn’t so much refer to an identity as a sex act. Language regarding romantic relationships contains bias when heterosexuality is assumed. Keep in mind that individuals are not allowed to marry someone of the same gender in most states in the United States. For example, if you ask a gay man who has been in a committed partnership for ten years if he is “married or single,” how should he answer that question? Comments comparing GLB people to “normal” people, although possibly intended to be positive, reinforces the stereotype that GLB people are abnormal. Don’t presume you can identify a person’s sexual orientation by looking at them or talking to them. Don’t assume that GLB people will “come out” to you. Given that many GLB people have faced and continue to face regular discrimination, they may be cautious about disclosing their identities. However, using gender neutral terminology like  partner  and avoiding other biased language mentioned previously may create a climate in which a GLB person feels comfortable disclosing his or her sexual orientation identity. Conversely, the casual use of phrases like  that’s gay to mean “that’s stupid” may create an environment in which GLB people do not feel comfortable. Even though people don’t often use the phrase to actually refer to sexual orientation, campaigns like “ThinkB4YouSpeak.com” try to educate people about the power that language has and how we should all be more conscious of the words we use.

Consideration of ability and how verbal language represents ability is shared by the authors of Communication in the Real World (2016):

People with disabilities make up a diverse group that has increasingly come to be viewed as a cultural/social identity group. People without disabilities are often referred to as  able-bodied . As with sexual orientation, comparing people with disabilities to “normal” people implies that there is an agreed-on definition of what “normal” is and that people with disabilities are “abnormal.”  Disability  is also preferred to the word  handicap . Just because someone is disabled doesn’t mean he or she is also handicapped. The environment around them rather than their disability often handicaps people with disabilities (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010). Ignoring the environment as the source of a handicap and placing it on the person fits into a pattern of reducing people with disabilities to their disability—for example, calling someone a paraplegic instead of a person with paraplegia. In many cases, as with sexual orientation, race, age, and gender, verbally marking a person as disabled isn’t relevant and doesn’t need spotlighting. Language used in conjunction with disabilities also tends to portray people as victims of their disability and paint pictures of their lives as gloomy, dreadful, or painful. Such descriptors are often generalizations or completely inaccurate.

Recently, in the area of ability, a woman contacted grammy award-winning musician, Lizzo, about a lyric in the song GRRRLS. Within hours, Lizzo apologized, changed the word, re-recorded, and promoted the new version of the song.  Entertainment Tonight posted the following story:

Lizzo is changing a line in  her new song , “GRRRLS,” after facing backlash for a lyric that some listeners called an “ableist slur.” Fans took to social media following the release of the track to call out the singer for her use of the word “spaz” in the song’s opening verse, calling it a derogatory term.

“Hold my bag, b***h/ Hold my bag/ Do you see this s**t?/ I’m a spaz/ I’m about to knock somebody out/ Yo, where my best friend?/ She the only one I know to talk me off the deep end,” Lizzo sings.

“Hey @lizzo my disability Cerebral Palsy is literally classified as Spastic Diplegia (where spasticity refers to unending painful tightness in my legs) your new song makes me pretty angry + sad. ‘Spaz’ doesn’t mean freaked out or crazy. It’s an ableist slur. It’s 2022. Do better,” a disappointed listener tweeted.”

When deciding which video to include in this section, we decided to include both a BBC video from a United Kingdom perspective.

BBC News Report:

Tervor Noah provides commentary on this topic stating, “Lizzo does what society asks us to do…” He shares how connotative meaning differs by culture. Note – he does swear in this piece (and of course, some folks are offended by swearing)…He talks about the words and the context and how it matters.

“Getting Critical”

Hate Speech – shared with permission from the authors of Communication in the Real World (2016)

Hate  is a term that has many different meanings and can be used to communicate teasing, mild annoyance, or anger. The term  hate , as it relates to hate speech, has a much more complex and serious meaning.  Hate  refers to extreme negative beliefs and feelings toward a group or member of a group because of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or ability (Waltman & Haas, 2011). We can get a better understanding of the intensity of hate by distinguishing it from anger, which is an emotion that we experience much more regularly. First, anger is directed toward an individual, while hate is directed toward a social or cultural group. Second, anger doesn’t prevent a person from having sympathy for the target of his or her anger, but hate erases sympathy for the target. Third, anger is usually the result of personal insult or injury, but hate can exist and grow even with no direct interaction with the target. Fourth, anger isn’t an emotion that people typically find pleasure in, while hatred can create feelings of self-righteousness and superiority that lead to pleasure. Last, anger is an emotion that usually dissipates as time passes, eventually going away, while hate can endure for much longer (Waltman & Haas, 2011). Hate speech is a verbal manifestation of this intense emotional and mental state.

Hate speech is usually used by people who have a polarized view of their own group (the in-group) and another group (the out-group). Hate speech is then used to intimidate people in the out-group and to motivate and influence members of the in-group. Hate speech often promotes hate-based violence and is also used to solidify in-group identification and attract new members (Waltman & Haas, 2011). Perpetrators of hate speech often engage in totalizing, which means they define a person or a group based on one quality or characteristic, ignoring all others. A Lebanese American may be the target of hate speech because the perpetrators reduce him to a Muslim—whether he actually is Muslim or not would be irrelevant. Grouping all Middle Eastern- or Arab-looking people together is a dehumanizing activity that is typical to hate speech.

Incidents of hate speech and hate crimes have increased over the past fifteen years. Hate crimes, in particular, have gotten more attention due to the passage of more laws against hate crimes and the increased amount of tracking by various levels of law enforcement. The Internet has also made it easier for hate groups to organize and spread their hateful messages. As these changes have taken place over the past fifteen years, there has been much discussion about hate speech and its legal and constitutional implications. While hate crimes resulting in damage to a person or property are regularly prosecuted, it is sometimes argued that hate speech that doesn’t result in such damage is protected under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees free speech. Just recently, in 2011, the Supreme Court found in the  Snyder v. Phelps  case that speech and actions of the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who regularly protest the funerals of American soldiers with signs reading things like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “Fag Sin = 9/11,” were protected and not criminal. Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the decision, “We cannot react to [the Snyder family’s] pain by punishing the speaker. As a nation we have chosen a different course—to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate” (Exploring Constitutional Conflicts, 2012).

• Do you think the First Amendment of the Constitution, guaranteeing free speech to US citizens, should protect hate speech? Why or why not?
• Visit the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map” (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2012) (http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map) to see what hate groups they have identified in your state. Are you surprised by the number/nature of the groups listed in your state? Briefly describe a group that you didn’t know about and identify the target of its hate and the reasons it gives for its hate speech.

Translation & Interpretation

Translation and interpretation are two processes, as well as two occupations, while similar are quite different.  Due to our globalized world, it is likely that you have already encountered a text or comment that was translated, and perhaps you have been in a situation where someone has helped interpret your message. In Minnesota, you can take your driver’s license in six different languages (English, Hmong, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese) while in California, there are thirty-three languages to choose from when taking your driver’s license exam ( usenglish.org, 2022) . In Rochester, MN, you can find interpreter services at the Mayo Clinic in 200+ languages as well as services to support people with hearing impairment ( Mayo Clinic , 2020). Rochester, MN Public Schools shares, ” The Multi-Language Learning Program serves a very diverse group of students. There are currently 2,090 multilingual students, which is about 11% of the total student population. These students speak more than 80 languages and dialects. Our largest groups are refugees or descendants of former refugees, migrants or settled migrants, and long-term medical visitors. Our multi-language learning team’s goal is to collaborate and advocate to inspire, challenge, and empower multilingual learners as they develop their social and academic English language while maintaining their multicultural identities” ( RPS , 2022). 

With this great diversity in our own backyard, it is helpful to better understand the distinction between interpretation and translation. Grand Canyon University shares the difference between translation and interpretation (2022):

Main Responsibilities Both interpreters and translators convey meaning from one language into another. Usually, they translate into their native language. For instance, if you are a native English speaker, you might interpret or translate Spanish into English. The main difference between these two professions is the medium they work with. An interpreter works with spoken language, whereas a translator works with written materials. In order to do their jobs effectively, interpreters and translators must have not only a solid grasp of at least two languages but also an in-depth understanding of foreign cultures. Quite often, culture influences linguistic meaning. For instance, in America, nodding or saying “Yes” indicates agreement. In Japan, nodding or saying “Hai” (“Yes”) means “I understand” or “I am listening.” It doesn’t necessarily mean the person agrees. Interpreters and translators do not always translate language word-for-word. Rather, they seek to convey the original meaning and intent of the language. As another example, in America, one might say, “I’m tickled to death to meet you.” If you were to translate this word-for-word into another language, the original meaning might be lost; the listener might hear with bewilderment: “I’ve met you, so scratch me until I die,” rather than: “I’m happy to meet you.” Although interpreters and translators share the goal of conveying meaning and intent, the similarities generally end there.

Kent State University further explains:

Translation When working within the translation field, one is working to successfully decipher the meaning of written content from a source language into the language that is targeted. One of the biggest differences between translation vs. interpretation is that translators often use a wider range of computer-assisted tools when working. Translators are able to use software, such as a translation memory and a termbase, that facilitates the translation process and quickly fills in the missing gaps. They are able to go through text and refer to other written materials such as parallel texts to ensure an accurate translation. Translators focus on working with written materials like print or websites, which is one main difference between translation and interpretation. Interpretation Interpretation focuses more on paraphrasing the content that the speaker is trying to convey. An interpreter, someone who repeats the message but in a different language, deals with live conversation, which can include translating meetings, conferences, appointments, live TV, and more. Since interpretation is in real time, it requires someone who is able to work under pressure with excellent communication skills. Interpreters translate phrases and idioms between two languages instantly, which leaves a lot of room for inaccuracies. Conversely, translators have more time to analyze a text and research the best transference of meaning. As a result, translations tend to be much more accurate than interpretations ( interproinc.com, 2022 ).

Final Thoughts – Verbal Communication Advice

Most often, thinking before speaking is an adage one can benefit from taking. Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy (2017) offer additional advice as summarized below:

• The phrase, “The slower you go, the faster you go,” can apply to conversing with someone who does not share the same native language.
• English learners will appreciate clear, concise, and concrete language choices — so will native English speakers. If one’s intercultural communication partner has limited shared language, simplicity helps both increase shared meaning. Remember, though, speaking louder does not help if one does not know the language. This generally becomes more insulting to the English learner and can become a barrier in the interview process.
• If you can, research the language of the speaker prior to your interview.
• A Minnesotan will speak with a different accent, generally, than a Mississippian. Remembering that we “all have accents” to individuals not from the same region or country helps to gain patience for the decoding process.
• “Dialects not only identify someone as being from a certain region, but also are distinctive of a person’s country” (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, 2017, p. 274). Try not to be diverted by someone’s dialect.
• Good paraphrasing and perception checking begin with “I” language.
• While it sounds contradictory, preparation does not mean listing more questions than the interviewee has time to thoughtfully address without information overload. Sometimes, less is more. While preparation is helpful, decide upon a few key questions for the interview and keep open to the possibility of new topics coming up during the interview.
• Ensure both you and the interview share the same meaning for the interview.
• Remember there is a difference between connotative (commonly/emotionally powered meanings) and denotative (more dictionary-based and “proper”) meanings. Individuals speaking in a second language, initially, rely more on the denotative meaning of a term as they learn the new language.
• The meaning one has by using slang is often connotatively confusing between co-cultures (age, race, region); it’s best to avoid.
• “By definition, idioms are a group of words that when used together have a particular meaning different from the sum of the meanings of the individual words in isolation. Hence, idioms are not capable of literal translation” (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, 2017, p. 276).
• Argot is a “…specialized informal language used by people who are affiliated with a particular co-culture. This dedicated vocabulary serves two main purposes. First, it is an in-group and secret language. While ‘outsiders’ may understand the language and even try to use it, it is, nevertheless, part of the domain of the co-culture. Second, the language establishes a strong sense of identity, as it is associated only with members of the co-culture” (Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, & Roy, 2017, pp. 274-275).

Case Study: How to be a Good Ally

What is an ally.

As you consider your role in using language to build bridges vs. barriers, you might consider what it means to be an “ally.” As the speaker in the video below suggests, being an “ally” is more than just saying, “Sure, I am an ally.” The Open Education Sociology Dictionary (2022) defines an ally as: “( noun ) An  individual  with a  privileged   status  that supports efforts to eliminate the  systemic  oppression that grants  them  greater  power  and  privilege .” As an advisor to the RCTC LGBTQ+ Alliance Club, Lori has encountered many faculty, staff, and students who support the club and want to assist. This support can come in terms of announcing meetings, helping put up fliers, and promoting the mission of the organization. Allies and members of the LGBTQ+ Community often join the club or support the cause by taking pronoun buttons, taking a Pride flag at a table, or sharing their support in some fashion. When it comes to attending the club meetings, all RCTC students are welcome per RCTC Student Life guidelines (as with all clubs on campus). What can be hard, though, is determining how to take on the role of ally for individuals who identify as straight and/or cis-gender.  At one tabling event, Lori heard one student tell club members, “I don’t personally condemn you.”

In some identity-based clubs, “I support you” might become a half-hour statement — understanding how to balance the talk time is hard. Some groups, such as the RCTC MSCF Chapter (Faculty Union), have created new guidelines for talk time to better “share the talk time.” Knowing when to step back and listen is a key role for allies and is often a lesson that might need to be revisited. Just like a nonmusician attending a band rehearsal might not have full comprehension or ability to contribute to the musicality of the group, some groups are more prone to membership qualities. Mark played basketball his whole life, but as he has aged, he is not the first one selected as he might have been while a captain of his high school team.

• How to be an Ally

Being an ally requires mindful consideration of supporting marginalized individuals – generally, this would include supporting individuals in a co-culture to which you do not belong. The Harvard Business Review’s authors  Tsedale M. Melaku, Angie Beeman, David G. Smith, and W. Brad Johnson suggest:

“We view allyship as a strategic  mechanism used by individuals to become  collaborators,  accomplices,  and  coconspirators who fight injustice and promote equity in the workplace through supportive personal relationships and public acts of sponsorship and advocacy. Allies endeavor to drive systemic improvements to workplace policies, practices, and culture. In a society where customers, employees, and investors increasingly see equity and inclusion as not just a nice-to-have but a must-have, allyship by an organization’s senior leaders has become essential” (2020).

They further suggest :

• Educate yourself.  “Do your homework. It can be tempting to simply ask women, people of color, and women of color about their experiences with inequality and injustice. But that unfairly burdens them with emotional and cognitive labor. An ally takes the time to read, listen, watch, and deepen understanding first. White leaders at U.S. companies, for example, should not only study the country’s history of  systemic racism and the struggles people of color face but also consider how their own behaviors have perpetuated discrimination.”
• Own your privilege. “Being an ally requires recognizing the advantages, opportunities, resources, and power you’ve automatically been accorded as a white man while others have been overtly or subtly denied them. This can be painful because it often means admitting that you haven’t entirely earned your success. But it’s necessary. It’s also important to understand that privilege is a resource that can be deployed for good.”
• I recognize I have work to do.
• How can I make this right?
• I believe you.”
• Become a confidant. “Make yourself available, listen generously, and try to empathize with and validate their experiences.”
• Bring diversity to the table.
• See something, say something. “Also look out for  gaslighting —psychological manipulation that creates doubt in victims of sexist or racist aggression, making them question their own memory and sanity. This tactic is designed to  invalidate someone’s experience .
• Sponsor marginalized coworkers.
• Insist on diverse candidates.
• Build a community of allies.

Read the full article: Be a Better Ally

How to be a Good Ally – Identity, Privilege, Resistance

The following video explains how one can enact the advice above in a more personalized manner:

Case Study: Latin Americans, Latinos, Latinas, Latinx, and Hispanics

The materials below are shared by Grothe (2021):

The label  Latin American  generally refers to people who live in Central American countries. Although Spain colonized much of what is now South and Central America and parts of the Caribbean, the inhabitants of these areas are now much more diverse. Depending on the region or country, some people primarily trace their lineage to the indigenous people who lived in these areas before colonization, or to a Spanish and indigenous lineage, or to other combinations that may include European, African, and/or indigenous heritage.  Latina  and  Latino  are labels that are preferable to  Hispanic for many who live in the United States and trace their lineage to South and/or Central America and/or parts of the Caribbean. In verbal communication you might say “Latina” when referring to a particular female or “Latino” when referring to a particular male of Latin American heritage. When referring to the group as a whole, you could say “Latinx” instead of just “Latinos,” which would be more gender inclusive. While Hispanic  is used by the US Census, it refers primarily to people of Spanish origin, which doesn’t account for the diversity of background of many Latinx. The term  Hispanic  also highlights the colonizer’s influence over the indigenous, which erases a history that is important to many. Additionally, there are people who claim Spanish origins and identify culturally as Hispanic but racially as white. Labels such as  Puerto Rican  or  Mexican American , which further specify region or country of origin, may also be used. Just as with other cultural groups, if you are unsure of how to refer to someone, you can always ask for and honor someone’s preference ( Grothe , 2021).

What Word to Use? Hispanics and Identity

The emergence of hispanic, latino and latinx (pew research center, 2021).

Throughout the last half-century in the U.S., different pan-ethnic terms have arisen to describe Americans who trace their roots to Latin America and Spain.

The term Hispanic was first used by the U.S. government in the  1970s after Mexican American and other Hispanic organizations lobbied the federal government to collect data on the population. Subsequently, the U.S Congress passed  Public Law 94-311 in 1976, mandating the collection of information about U.S. residents of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, South American and other Spanish-speaking country origins. The law called for the U.S. Census Bureau to create a broader category that encompassed all people who identified having roots from these countries. The term Hispanic was first used in a full census in 1980.

The 1990s brought  resistance to the term Hispanic, as it embraced a strong connection with Spain, and an alternative term emerged: Latino. By 1997, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget issued a directive adding the term Latino to government publications. The two terms are used interchangeably, with Latino first appearing on the U.S. census in 2000, alongside Hispanic.

More recently, Latinx has emerged as an alternative to Hispanic and Latino. Online searches for the term among the general U.S. population appeared online in the early 2000s. But the first substantial rise  in searches (relative to all online searches) appeared in June 2016 following a  shooting at Pulse nightclub , an LGBTQ dance club in Orlando, Florida, that was hosting its Latin Night on the  date of the attack . In subsequent years, the term’s use on social media by celebrities ,  politicians  and grassroots  organizations has grown. In addition, some academic centers at  community colleges ,  public universities  and  Ivy League  universities are replacing Latino program names that were established in previous decades with new Latinx-focused names.

In more than 15 years of polling by  Pew Research Center , half of Americans who trace their roots to Spanish-speaking Latin America and Spain have consistently said they have no preference for either Hispanic or Latino as a term to describe the group. And when one term is chosen over another, the term Hispanic has been preferred to Latino. Importantly, the same surveys show, country of origin labels (such as Mexican or Cuban or Ecuadorian) are preferred to these pan-ethnic terms among the population they are meant to describe.

Attribution: this section was written by the Pew Research Center

Noe-Bustamante, L., Mora, L., & Lopez, M. H. (2021, March 15). Latinx used by just 3% of U.S. Hispanics. About one-in-four have heard of it. Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/

Featured TED Talk: Ibram X. Kendi

“the difference between being ‘not racist’ and antiracist”.

English and Intercultural Communication – Case Study

Appendix – NEA’s Racial Justice in Education: Key Terms and Definitions

The following terms are from the National Education Association

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND THAT MANY TERMS CONVEY IS ESSENTIAL TO ENCOURAGING USAGE THAT REFLECTS CULTURAL AND RACIAL AWARENESS.

NEA’s Source: Equity in the Center (equityinthecenter.org) and Dismantling Racism Works (dismantlingracism.org)

Affirmative action —  This term describes policies adopted since the 1960s that require “affirmative” (or positive) actions be to taken to ensure people of color and women have opportunities equal to those of white men in the areas of promotions, salary increases, school admissions, financial aid, scholarships, and representation among vendors in government contracts. Although they have been effective in redressing injustice and discrimination that persisted in spite of civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees, the policies have been attacked because of perceived “reverse discrimination.” The Supreme Court has not ruled all affirmative action unconstitutional, but it has limited the use and ways which policies can be written and applied.  See “Reverse Racism” below. Anti-racism —  The work of actively opposing racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life. Anti-racism tends to be an individualized approach, and set up in opposition to individual racist behaviors and impacts. Civil rights —  A group of laws designed to protect various groups against discrimination based on race, sex, religion, age, national origin, and other characteristics. Often used in connection to the civil rights movement, widely recognized as taking place from 1954 to 1968, which included issues and practices such as school desegregation, sit-ins, “Freedom Rides,” voter registration campaigns, and acts of civil disobedience to protest racial discrimination. Class —  Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups, held in place by attitudes that rank people according to economic status, family lineage, job status, level of education, and other divisions. One’s race can be a major determinant of one’s social or economic class. The variables of race and class, though closely connected, each need distinct attention. “Colorblind” —  A term used to describe the act or practice of disregarding or ignoring racial characteristics, or being uninfluenced by racial prejudice. The concept of colorblindness is often promoted by those who dismiss the importance of race in order to proclaim the end of racism. It presents challenges when discussing diversity, which requires being racially aware, and equity that is focused on fairness for people of all races. Colorism —  Discrimination based on skin color, which often privileges lighter-skinned people within a racial group, positioning people with darker complexions at the bottom of the racial hierarchy. It is an example of how white supremacy can operate amongst the members of a single racial or ethnic group. This form of prejudice often results in reduced opportunities for those who are discriminated against, and numerous studies have revealed differences in life outcomes by complexion. Cultural appropriation or “misappropriation” —  Adoption of elements of a culture that has been subordinated in social, political, economic, status by a different cultural group. It may rely on offensive stereotypes, and is insensitive to how the culture of a group has been exploited by the culture in power, often for profit. Discrimination —  Treatment of an individual or group based on their actual or perceived membership in a social category, usually used to describe unjust or prejudicial treatment on the grounds of race, age, sex, gender, ability, socioeconomic class, immigration status, national origin, or religion. Diversity —  There are many kinds of diversity, based on race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, country of origin, education, religion, geography, physical, or cognitive abilities. Valuing diversity means recognizing differences between people, acknowledging that these differences are a valued asset, and striving for diverse representation as a critical step towards equity.  See “Equity.” Equity —  Equity means fairness and justice and focuses on outcomes that are most appropriate for a given group, recognizing different challenges, needs, and histories. It is distinct from diversity, which can simply mean variety (the presence of individuals with various identities). It is also not equality, or “same treatment,” which doesn’t take differing needs or disparate outcomes into account. Systemic equity involves a robust system and dynamic process consciously designed to create, support and sustain social justice.  See “Racial Justice.” Ethnicity —  A socially constructed grouping of people based on culture, tribe, language, national heritage, and/or religion. It is often used interchangeably with race and/or national origin, but should be instead considered as an overlapping, rather than identical, category.  See “Racial & Ethnic Categories.” Hate crime —  Criminal acts, motivated by bias, that target victims based on their perceived membership in a certain social group. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse, offensive graffiti, letters or email. Hate crime laws enhance the penalties associated with conduct that is already criminal under other laws. Implicit bias/unconscious bias —  Attitudes that unconsciously affect our decisions and actions. People often think of bias as intentional, i.e. someone wanted to say something racist. However, brain science has shown that people are often unaware of their bias, and the concept of implicit bias helps describe a lot of contemporary racist acts that may not be overt or intentional. Implicit bias is just as harmful, so it is important to talk about race explicitly and to take steps to address it. Institutions are composed of individuals whose biases are replicated, and then produce systemic inequities. It is possible to interrupt implicit bias by adding steps to decision-making processes that thoughtfully consider and address racial impacts. Inclusion —  Being included within a group or structure. More than simply diversity and quantitative representation, inclusion involves authentic and empowered participation, with a true sense of belonging and full access to opportunities. Intersectionality — The acknowledgement that multiple power dynamics and ”isms” are operating simultaneously — often in complex and compounding ways — and must be considered together in order to have a more complete understanding of oppression and ways to transform it. There are multiple forms of privilege and oppression based on race, gender, class, sexuality, age, ability, religion, citizenship or immigration status, and so on. These social hierarchies are products of our social, cultural, political, economic, and legal environment. They drive disparities and divisions that help those in power maintain and expand their power. There’s a danger in falsely equating different dynamics (e.g. racism and sexism) or comparing different systems to each other (sometimes referred to as the “oppression Olympics”). It is important to give each dynamic distinct, specific and sufficient attention. Every person is privileged in some areas and disadvantaged in other areas. Minority/minorities —  A term that has historically referred to non-white racial groups, indicating that they were numerically smaller than the dominant white majority. Defining people of color as “minorities” is not recommended because of changing demographics and the ways in which it reinforces ideas of inferiority and marginalization of a group of people. Defining people by how they self-identify is often preferable and more respectful. The term “minority” may be needed in specific cases (such as “minority contracting” and “minority-owned businesses”) to reflect data that is collected using those categories.  See the term “People of color.” Mixed race, biracial, multiracial —  Generally accepted terms to describe a person who has mixed ancestry of two or more races. Many terms for people of various multiracial backgrounds exist, some of which are pejorative or are no longer used. The U.S. Census first gave the option for a person to identify as belonging to more than one race in 2000, at which time approximately 9 million individuals, or 2.9 percent of the population, self-identified as multiracial. Multicultural —  Involving various cultures in a society, usually with intent to promote tolerance, inclusion, and equal respect for cultural diversity. Does not include an explicit racial lens. Multiculturalism often focuses on interpersonal interaction and communication between people of different cultures rather than a systemic approach to advance equity. People of color —  Often the preferred collective term for referring to non-white racial groups, rather than “minorities.” Racial justice advocates have been using the term “people of color” (not to be confused with the pejorative “colored people”) since the late 1970s as an inclusive and unifying frame across different racial groups that are not white, to address racial inequities. While “people of color” can be a politically useful term, and describes people with their own attributes (as opposed to what they are not, eg: “non-white”), it is also important whenever possible to identify people through their own racial/ethnic group, as each has its own distinct experience and meaning and may be more appropriate. “Post-racial” —  A term used to describe a time in which racial prejudice and discrimination no longer exist. Deep racial disparities and divisions exist across our society, and some are even widening. Much like the notion of “colorblindness,” the idea of a “post-racial” society does not acknowledge that racism and inequity sit at the core of many of our nation’s deepest challenges.  See “Colorblind.” Privilege —  A set of advantages systemically conferred on a particular person or group of people. White people are racially privileged, even when they are economically underprivileged. Privilege and oppression go hand-in-hand: They are two sides of the same power relationship, and both sides of the equation must be understood and addressed. People can be disadvantaged by one identity and privileged by another.  See “Intersectionality” and “White supremacy.” Race —  While often assumed to be a biological classification, based on physical and genetic variation, racial categories do not have a scientific basis. However, the consequences of racial categorization are real, as the ideology of race has become embedded in our identities, institutions, and culture, and is used as a basis for discrimination and racial profiling. How one is racialized is a major determinant of one’s socioeconomic status and life opportunities. See “Racial & ethnic categories.” Racial & ethnic categories —  System of organizing people into groups based on their identified race and ethnicity, with categories that may change over time. Data is derived from self-identification questions; however, people often do not get to select the categories from which they must choose, making most methods of categorizing and counting highly political and often problematic. Racial hierarchy —  Ranking of different races/ethnic groups, based on physical and perceived characteristics. Racial hierarchy is not a binary of white vs. non-white, rather a complex system where groups occupy different rungs of political, economic and cultural power. Racist ideology relies on maintaining hierarchies, even among racial groups. Racial justice —  The systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Racial justice — or racial equity — goes beyond “anti-racism.” It is not just the absence of discrimination and inequities, but also the presence of deliberate systems and supports to achieve and sustain racial equity through proactive and preventative measures. Racial profiling —  The discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting people of color for suspicion of crime without evidence of criminal activity, based on their perceived race, ethnicity, national origin or religion (e.g., “stop-and frisk”). Racial profiling is ineffective, damages community-police relationships, and is being litigated around the country as a violation of constitutional rights. However, racial profiling continues to be used by law enforcement authorities at the federal, state, and local levels. Racial slur —  Derogatory, pejorative, or insulting terms for members of a racial or ethnic group. While some slurs, like the “n-word” are understood as such and are avoided, some slurs are still used in everyday speech, with little understanding of their harm. Racism —  Historically rooted system of power hierarchies based on race — infused in our institutions, policies and culture — that benefits white people and hurts people of color. Racism isn’t limited to individual acts of prejudice, either deliberate or accidental. Rather, the most damaging racism is built into systems and institutions that shape our lives. Most coverage of race and racism is not “systemically aware,” meaning that it either focuses on racism at the level of an individuals’ speech or actions, individual-level racism, dismisses systemic racism, or refers to racism in the past tense. Racist —  Describes a person, behavior, or incident that perpetuates racism. Stories of race and racism that focus on personal prejudice (“who’s a racist?”) get a disproportionate share of attention in the media. This reinforces the message that racism is primarily a phenomenon of overt, intentional acts carried out by prejudiced individuals who need correcting and/or shaming, and tends to spark debates of limited value about that individual’s character. It is important for media and racial justice advocates to use a systemic lens on race-related stories and topics to examine systems, institutional practices, policies, and outcomes. “Reverse racism” —  A concept based on a misunderstanding of what racism is, often used to accuse and attack efforts made to rectify systemic injustices. Every individual can be prejudiced and biased at one time or another about various people and behaviors, but racism is based on power and systematic oppression. Individual prejudice and systemic racism cannot be equated. Even though some people of color hold powerful positions, white people overwhelmingly hold the most systemic power. The concept of “reverse racism” ignores structural racism, which permeates all dimensions of our society, routinely advantaging white people and disadvantaging people of color. It is deeply entrenched and in no danger of being dismantled or “reversed” any time soon. Stereotype —  Characteristics ascribed to a person or groups of people based on generalization and oversimplification that may result in stigmatization and discrimination. Even so-called positive stereotypes (e.g., Asians as “model minorities”) can be harmful due to their limiting nature. Systemic analysis —  A comprehensive examination of the root causes and mechanisms at play that result in patterns. It involves looking beyond individual speech, acts, and practices to the larger structures — organizations, institutions, traditions, and systems of knowledge. White supremacy —  A form of racism centered upon the belief that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds and that whites should politically, economically, and socially dominate non-whites. While often associated with violence perpetrated by the KKK and other white supremacist groups, it also describes a political ideology and systemic oppression that perpetuates and maintains the social, political, historical and/or industrial white domination. White Supremacy Culture — Characteristics of white supremacy that manifest in organizational culture, and are used as norms and standards without being proactively named or chosen by the full group. The characteristics are damaging to both people of color and white people in that they elevate the values, preferences, and experiences of one racial group above all others. Organizations that are led by people of color or have a majority of people of color can also demonstrate characteristics of white supremacy culture. RACIAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION LINKS

• Racial Justice in Education Resource Guide
• N EA and Racial Justice in Education

Sample Discussion Board Topics

This week we are looking at the topic of language or “verbal communication.” This chapter focuses on communication theory and please know we will come back to this topic with more contemporary concepts related to verbal (and nonverbal) communication in the last unit – “What are we doing here together.” In other words, this is just the first look into the power of language.

Your class is wonderful! I have looked at Think Piece 1 and they are AMAZING.  In Think Piece 2, you will explore a culture or co-culture different than your own. This week you can begin your research.

First, read Chapter 5 .  Also, you will explore the Cultural Atlas .

Post to the Discussion (about 500 words):

1) what did you learn about “ verbal communication” this week from the textbook.

• List 1 concept that you were impacted by in the chapter and explain the concept. How/why did this concept impact you?
• List 1 idea you have to add to this chapter for future classes (we are constantly updating the e-book).

2) How does the Cultural Atlas describe “American” verbal communication?

• You will also use the Cultural Atlas this week to research the norms, communication patterns, and “do’s and don’ts” of language in “American” culture as well as in other countries. This website is hosted in Australia, what do you think?
• “Naming” in the USA
• Communication in the USA
• Other Considerations in the USA
• Do’s and Don’ts in the USA
• Check out other links too!

3) Choose at least 1 other country you are interested in learning more about and explore the Cultural Atlas’ resources for that country.

• See: https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/countries
• Describe 5 norms/rules of verbal communication pattern norms from this country.
• Is there a way you can learn more about this culture in your own area?

4) Use of Words

• Look at the tips/suggestions for using language effectively in Chapter 5 as well as the do’s and don’ts in professional communication listed at the Cultural Atlas .
• Imagine you are the HR manager at work or a Dean at the College or Club President – what rules might you enact about the use of verbal communication in a professional setting?
• This week, explore the rules of language use. What will you do/did you do?

Original Posts Due on Wednesday @ 11:59 pm.

Replies:  due sunday @ 11:59 pm.

Video Reply to yourself: What did you do? How did it go?  What rules of language did you discover? What do you want to learn next? What do you have questions about?

Reply to 2 classmates:

• Reply to 2 peers. Try to dig in and share ideas. Where might this person go to learn more about this topic? As before, remember to react to their posts respectfully.
• How do you or do you not share the reactions of your classmates mentioned in their posts?

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

Chapter 5 Key Terms:

• Verbal Symbol
• “Acculturation is the process of social, psychological, and cultural change that happens when cultures blend.”
• Codes Codes are culturally agreed on and ever-changing systems of symbols that help us organize, understand and generate meaning (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1993)
• Confirmation
• Disconfirmation
• Triangle of meaning
• Translation and Interpretation
• How language can be a barrier
• How language can be a bridge
• Dialects, slang, idioms, argot, accents
• How to use language more effectively

Attributions

Communication in the Real World  by University of Minnesota is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Resources from other OER Books

• King, L. C., Thomas, & Turner, W. (2021, July 25). Types of Language. Southwest Tennessee Community College. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/108258
• “ Exploring Intercultural Communication (Grothe)” by Tom Grothe, LibreTexts is licensed under CC BY .

Addtional Works Cited

Noe-Bustamante, L., Mora, L., & Lopez, M. H. (2021, March 15). Latinx is used by just 3% of U.S. Hispanics. About one-in-four have heard of it. Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/

"Bias... refers to differences that do not have exactly the same meaning within and across cultures."

Source: Culture and Psychology by L D Worthy; T Lavigne; and F Romero is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Samovar, et. al, (2013) shares that they prefer to use the term dominant culture [over umbrella culture, majority culture, etc.] "because it clearly indicates that the group we are referring to generally exercises the greatest influence on the beliefs, values, perceptions, communication patterns, and customs of the culture. A dominant group is characteristic of all cultures, and this collective of people possesses those instruments of power that allow it to set the broad societal agenda the majority of others will commonly follow. The power we are referring to does not necessarily reside in numerical dominance but in the ability to control the major institutions within the culture — governmental, educational, mass media, economic, military, religious, and the like. What a dominant cultural group uses as the basis of power (money, fear, the military, and such) may differ from culture to culture, but in every case, the group determines the political, economic, and social agenda. Regardless of the source of power, certain people within every culture possess and exercise disproportionate influence, and that influence is translated into how other members of the culture shape their lives" (pp. 8-9).

" Norms  are things that are considered normal, appropriate, or ordinary for a particular group of people and guide members on how they should behave in a given context. In Western cultures wearing dark clothing and appearing solemn are normative behaviors at a funeral. In certain cultures, they reflect the values of respect and support of friends and family" (Worthy, Lavigne & Romero, 2020).

See: https://open.maricopa.edu/culturepsychology/chapter/culture-and-development/

is how people interpret reality and events, including their images of themselves and how they relate to the world around them” (Samavor et.al., 2017, p. 57).

In low-context cultures, verbal communication is given primary attention. The assumption is that people will say what they mean relatively directly and clearly. Little will be left for the receiver to interpret or imply. In the U.S., if someone does not want something, we expect them to say, “No.”

"a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families only" (Green, et al., 2018).

Samovar, et al. (2018) define language as: "a set of shared symbols to create meaning. The words that people use are not only symbolic but the relationship between the symbol and the meaning is often arbitrary. Symbols can evoke both denotative and connotative meanings...A culture's use of language influences how that culture perceives the world and communicates within that world" (p. 292).

words - verbal communication refers to any communication with grammatical structure. This includes spoken and written language.

“Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior other than words. Rather than thinking of nonverbal communication as the opposite of or as separate from verbal communication, it’s more accurate to view them as operating side by side—as part of the same system” (Communication, 2016, p.165).

Samovar, et. al (2018) add, "we purpose that nonverbal communication involves all those nonverbal stimuli in a communication setting that are generated by both the source and [their] use of the environment and that have potential message value for the source and/or receiver.

In communication, a symbol is an expression that stands for something else and the act of assigning meaning to symbols is at the core of human communication" (Samovar, et. al, pp. 28-31).

Additionally, "a symbol is something that stands in for or represents something else. Symbols can be communicated verbally (speaking the word hello), in writing (putting the letters H-E-L-L-O together), or nonverbally (waving your hand back and forth). In any case, the symbols we use stand in for something else, like a physical object or an idea; they do not actually correspond to the thing being referenced in any direct way" (Communication, pp. 113-114).

"Acculturation is the process of social, psychological, and cultural change that happens when cultures blend."

Codes are culturally agreed on and ever-changing systems of symbols that help us organize, understand and generate meaning (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1993).

"Personal identities include the components of self that are primarily intrapersonal and connected to our life experiences. For example, I consider myself a puzzle lover, and you may identify as a fan of hip-hop music" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

symbols–or words– have several possible meanings, which often change over time.

"words are not material, physical, or have any innate connection to reality. Language is symbolic and uses words to represent objects and ideas" (Indiana State Department of COMM, 2016).

"symbols have no direct relationship to the objects or ideas they represent" (Indiana State Department of COMM, 2016).

Nccj.org shares: 

"Privilege: Unearned access to resources (social power) that are only readily available to some people because of their social group membership; an advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by one societal group above and beyond the common advantage of all other groups. Privilege is often invisible to those who have it."

the referent is the object or idea to which the symbol refers (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

"Denotation refers to definitions that are accepted by the language group as a whole, or the dictionary definition of a word" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

"Connotation refers to definitions that are based on emotion- or experience-based associations people have with a word" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

Grammar refers to the rules that govern how words are used to make phrases and sentences.

According to Goffman, "stigma is an attribute that discredits and reduces the person ‘from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one" (Goffman, 1963, p. 3).

The OED defines Reappropriate as, "transitive. To take back; to reclaim for one's own use."

Neologisms are newly coined or used words. Newly coined words are those that were just brought into linguistic existence. Newly used words make their way into languages in several ways, including borrowing and changing structure (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

"Slang refers to new or adapted words that are specific to a group, context, and/or time period; regarded as less formal; and representative of people’s creative play with language" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

the misperception of an inference (conclusion based on limited information) (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

"Dialects are versions of languages that have distinct words, grammar, and pronunciation" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

"Accents are distinct styles of pronunciation (Lustig & Koester, 2006). There can be multiple accents within one dialect" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

Communication accommodation theory is a theory that explores why and how people modify their communication to fit situational, social, cultural, and relational contexts (Giles, Taylor, & Bourhis, 1973).

a person makes his or her communication more like another person’s.

"a person uses communication to emphasize the differences between his or her conversational partner and his or herself" (Communication in the Real World, 2016).

"refers to changes in accent, dialect, or language" (Martin & Nakayama, 2010) as quoted in Communication in the Real World (2016).

Kent State University shares: "When working within the translation field, one is working to successfully decipher the meaning of written content from a source language into the language that is targeted. One of the biggest differences between translation vs. interpretation is that translators often use a wider range of computer-assisted tools when working" (2022).

"Interpretation focuses more on paraphrasing the content that the speaker is trying to convey. An interpreter, someone who repeats the message but in a different language, deals with live conversation, which can include translating meetings, conferences, appointments, live TV, and more. Since interpretation is in real time, it requires someone who is able to work under pressure with excellent communication skills" (Kent State University, 2022).

"—psychological manipulation that creates doubt in victims of sexist or racist aggression, making them question their own memory and sanity. This tactic is designed to invalidate someone’s experience"  From: https://hbr.org/2020/11/be-a-better-ally

Developing Intercultural Communication Competence Copyright © 2018 by Lori Halverson-Wente is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Cross Cultural Communication: Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication, Interpretation and Translation

• First Online: 03 July 2018

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• Larry Purnell Ph.D., R.N., FAAN 4 , 5 , 6  

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Effective cultural communication is a key to establishing trust, obtaining accurate health assessments, and implementing culturally congruent care with patients and their families. Cross-cultural communication includes verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal communication involves preferred language and dialects, contextual use of the language, preferred greetings, voice volume and tone, health literacy, and the need for interpretation and translation. Nonverbal communication is just as important as verbal communication and encompasses temporality, acceptance of touch, degree of eye contact, facial expressions, and spatial distancing. Sign languages, of which there are numerous ones, are a combination of verbal and nonverbal communication. Recommendations for clinical practice, administration, education and training, and research are included.

Guideline: Nurses shall use culturally competent verbal and nonverbal communication skills to identify clients’ values, beliefs, practices, perceptions, and unique healthcare needs. Douglas et al. ( 2014 : 112)

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Developing Cross-Cultural Communication Skills

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Appendix 1: Communication Exercise

Effective communication is essential in the delivery of culturally congruent health and nursing care. For cultural communication to be effective, the healthcare providers need to understand their own communication practices. The following exercise will assist providers to understand their own communication practices.

Instructions

Identify your own cultural identity and personal communication practices and how they differ with family, friends, and strangers, including patients.

Investigate the scholarly literature on your culture after you have completed the exercises.

Identify how your communication patterns differ from what was in the scholarly literature.

Posit why these personal practices differ.

Note: Variant characteristics within a culture can be used as a guide to addressing the statements below. These variant cultural characteristics include:

Once this exercise is completed, it should be shared with others for a discussion. This exercise can be used in academic classes, continuing education classes, and in-services.

Identify your cultural ancestry. If you have more than one cultural ancestry, choose one for the sake of this exercise.

Explore the willingness of individuals in your culture to share thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Can you identify any area of discussion that would be considered taboo?

Explore the practice and meaning of touch in your culture. Include information regarding touch between family members, friends, members of the opposite sex, and healthcare providers.

Identify personal spatial and distancing strategies used when communicating with others in your culture. Discuss differences between friends and families versus strangers.

Discuss your culture’s use of eye contact. Include information regarding practices between family members, friends, strangers, and persons of different age groups.

Explore the meaning of gestures and facial expressions in your culture. Do specific gestures or facial expressions have special meanings? How are emotions displayed?

Are there acceptable ways of standing and greeting people in your culture?

Discuss the prevailing temporal relation of your culture. Is the culture’s worldview past, present, or future oriented?

Discuss the impact of your culture on your nursing and/or healthcare. Be specific, that is, not something that is very general.

Appendix 2: Reflective Exercises

The following reflective exercises can be used in formal courses at any level and discipline or interdisciplinary. They can also be used in staff development.

What changes in ethnic and cultural diversity have you seen in your community over the last 5 years? Over the last 10 years? Have you had the opportunity to interact with newer groups?

What health disparities have you observed in your community? To what do you attribute these disparities? What can you do as a professional to help decrease these disparities?

Who in your family had the most influence in teaching you cultural values and practices? Mother, father, or grandparent?

How do you want to be addressed? First name or last name with a title?

How do you address older people in your culture? First name or last name with a title?

What activities have you done to increase your cultural competence?

Given that everyone is ethnocentric to some degree, what do you do to become less ethnocentric?

How do you distinguish a stereotype from a generalization?

How have your variant characteristics of culture changed over time?

What ethnic and racial groups do you encounter on a regular basis? Do you see any racism or discrimination among these groups?

What does your organization do to increase diversity and cultural competence?

What barriers do you see to culturally competent care in your organization? School, work, etc.

How many languages are spoken in your community?

Do different languages pose barriers to healthcare, including health literacy? What affordability concerns for healthcare do you see in your community?

What complementary/alternative healthcare practices do you use?

What complementary/alternative healthcare practices are available in your community?

Is public transportation readily available to healthcare services in your community? What might be done to improve them?

What do you do when you cannot understand the language of your patient?

In what languages are healthcare instructions provided in your organization?

Does your organization offer both interpreter and translation services?

Given the heritage and diversity of the population in your community, what cultural, social, and material issues do you consider important?

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About this chapter

Purnell, L. (2018). Cross Cultural Communication: Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication, Interpretation and Translation. In: Douglas, M., Pacquiao, D., Purnell, L. (eds) Global Applications of Culturally Competent Health Care: Guidelines for Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69332-3_14

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4 Verbal Communication

After reading this chapter you should be able to:

• Define verbal communication and explain its main characteristics.
• Explain the three qualities of symbols.
• Describe the rules governing verbal communication.
• Explain the differences between written and spoken communication.
• Describe the functions of verbal communication.

“Consciousness can’t evolve any faster than language” – Terence McKenna

Imagine for a moment that you have no language with which to communicate. It’s hard to imagine isn’t it? It’s probably even harder to imagine that with all of the advancements we have at our disposal today, there are people in our world who actually do not have, or cannot use, language to communicate.

Nearly 25 years ago, the Nicaraguan government started bringing deaf children together from all over the country in an attempt to educate them. These children had spent their lives in remote places and had no contact with other deaf people. They had never learned a language and could not understand their teachers or each other. Likewise, their teachers could not understand them. Shortly after bringing these students together, the teachers noticed that the students communicated with each other in what appeared to be an organized fashion: they had literally brought together the individual gestures they used at home and composed them into a new language. Although the teachers still did not understand what the kids were saying, they were astonished at what they were witnessing—the birth of a new language in the late 20th century! This was an unprecedented discovery.

In 1986 American linguist Judy Kegl went to Nicaragua to find out what she could learn from these children without language. She contends that our brains are open to language until the age of 12 or 13, and then language becomes difficult to learn. She quickly discovered approximately 300 people in Nicaragua who did not have language and says, “They are invaluable to research – among the only people on Earth who can provide clues to the beginnings of human communication.” To access the full transcript, view the following link: CBS News: Birth of a Language .

Adrien Perez, one of the early deaf students who formed this new language (referred to as Nicaraguan Sign Language), says that without verbal communication, “You can’t express your feelings. Your thoughts may be there but you can’t get them out. And you can’t get new thoughts in.” As one of the few people on earth who has experienced life with and without verbal communication, his comments speak to the heart of communication: it is the essence of who we are and how we understand our world. We use it to form our identities, initiate and maintain relationships, express our needs and wants, construct and shape world-views, and achieve personal goals (Pelley).

In this chapter, we provide and explain our definition of verbal communication, highlight the differences between written and spoken verbal communication, and demonstrate how verbal communication functions in our lives.

Defining Verbal Communication

When people ponder the word communication, they often think about the act of talking. We rely on verbal communication to exchange messages with one another and develop as individuals. The term verbal communication often evokes the idea of spoken communication, but written communication is also part of verbal communication. Reading this book you are decoding the authors’ written verbal communication in order to learn more about communication. Let’s explore the various components of our definition of verbal communication and examine how it functions in our lives.

Verbal communication is about language, both written and spoken. In general, verbal communication refers to our use of words while nonverbal communication refers to communication that occurs through means other than words, such as body language, gestures, and silence. Both verbal and nonverbal communication can be spoken and written. Many people mistakenly assume that verbal communication refers only to spoken communication. However, you will learn that this is not the case. Let’s say you tell a friend a joke and he or she laughs in response. Is the laughter verbal or nonverbal communication? Why? As laughter is not a word we would consider this vocal act as a form of nonverbal communication. For simplification, the box below highlights the kinds of communication that fall into the various categories. You can find many definitions of verbal communication in our literature, but for this text, we define Verbal Communication as an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols used to share meaning. Let’s examine each component of this definition in detail.

A System of Symbols

Symbols are arbitrary representations of thoughts, ideas, emotions, objects, or actions used to encode and decode meaning (Nelson & Kessler Shaw). Symbols stand for, or represent, something else. For example, there is nothing inherent about calling a cat a cat.

Rather, English speakers have agreed that these symbols (words), whose components (letters) are used in a particular order each time, stand for both the actual object, as well as our interpretation of that object. This idea is illustrated by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richard’s triangle of meaning. The word “cat” is not the actual cat. Nor does it have any direct connection to an actual cat. Instead, it is a symbolic representation of our idea of a cat, as indicated by the line going from the word “cat” to the speaker’s idea of “cat” to the actual object.

Symbols have three distinct qualities: they are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract. Notice that the picture of the cat on the left side of the triangle more closely represents a real cat than the word “cat.” However, we do not use pictures as language, or verbal communication. Instead, we use words to represent our ideas. This example demonstrates our agreement that the word “cat” represents or stands for a real cat AND our idea of a cat. The symbols we use are arbitrary and have no direct relationship to the objects or ideas they represent . We generally consider communication successful when we reach agreement on the meanings of the symbols we use (Duck).

Not only are symbols arbitrary, they are ambiguous — that is, they have several possible meanings . Imagine your friend tells you she has an apple on her desk. Is she referring to a piece of fruit or her computer? If a friend says that a person he met is cool, does he mean that person is cold or awesome? The meanings of symbols change over time due to changes in social norms, values, and advances in technology. You might be asking, “If symbols can have multiple meanings then how do we communicate and understand one another?” We are able to communicate because there are a finite number of possible meanings for our symbols, a range of meanings which the members of a given language system agree upon. Without an agreed-upon system of symbols, we could share relatively little meaning with one another.

A simple example of ambiguity can be represented by one of your classmates asking a simple question to the teacher during a lecture where she is showing PowerPoint slides: “can you go to the last slide please?” The teacher is half way through the presentation. Is the student asking if the teacher can go back to the previous slide? Or does the student really want the lecture to be over with and is insisting that the teacher jump to the final slide of the presentation? Chances are the student missed a point on the previous slide and would like to see it again to quickly take notes. However, suspense may have overtaken the student and they may have a desire to see the final slide. Even a simple word like “last” can be ambiguous and open to more than one interpretation.

The verbal symbols we use are also abstract , meaning that, words are not material or physical. A certain level of abstraction is inherent in the fact that symbols can only represent objects and ideas . This abstraction allows us to use a phrase like “the public” in a broad way to mean all the people in the United States rather than having to distinguish among all the diverse groups that make up the U.S. population. Similarly, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series, wizards and witches call the non-magical population on earth “muggles” rather than having to define all the separate cultures of muggles. Abstraction is helpful when you want to communicate complex concepts in a simple way. However, the more abstract the language, the greater potential there is for confusion.

Rule-Governed

Verbal communication is rule-governed . We must follow agreed-upon rules to make sense of the symbols we share . Let’s take another look at our example of the word cat. What would happen if there were no rules for using the symbols (letters) that make up this word? If placing these symbols in a proper order was not important, then cta, tac, tca, act, or atc could all mean cat. Even worse, what if you could use any three letters to refer to cat? Or still worse, what if there were no rules and anything could represent cat? Clearly, it’s important that we have rules to govern our verbal communication. There are four general rules for verbal communication, involving the sounds, meaning, arrangement, and use of symbols.

• Phonology is the study of speech sounds . The pronunciation of the word cat comes from the rules governing how letters sound, especially in relation to one another. The context in which words are spoken may provide answers for how they should be pronounced. When we don’t follow phonological rules, confusion results. One way to understand and apply phonological rules is to use syntactic and pragmatic rules to clarify phonological rules.
• Semantic rules help us understand the difference in meaning between the word cat and the word dog . Instead of each of these words meaning any four-legged domestic pet, we use each word to specify what four-legged domestic pet we are talking about. You’ve probably used these words to say things like, “I’m a cat person” or “I’m a dog person.” Each of these statements provides insight into what the sender is trying to communicate. We attach meanings to words; meanings are not inherent in words themselves. As you’ve been reading, words (symbols) are arbitrary and attain meaning only when people give them meaning. While we can always look to a dictionary to find a standardized definition of a word , or its denotative meaning , meanings do not always follow standard, agreed-upon definitions when used in various contexts. For example, think of the word “sick”. The denotative definition of the word is ill or unwell. However, connotative meanings , the meanings we assign based on our experiences and beliefs , are quite varied. Sick can have a connotative meaning that describes something as good or awesome as opposed to its literal meaning of illness, which usually has a negative association. The denotative and connotative definitions of “sick” are in total contrast of one another which can cause confusion. Think about an instance where a student is asked by their parent about a friend at school. The student replies that the friend is “sick.” The parent then asks about the new teacher at school and the student describes the teacher as “sick” as well. The parent must now ask for clarification as they do not know if the teacher is in bad health, or is an excellent teacher, and if the friend of their child is ill or awesome.
• Syntactics is the study of language structure and symbolic arrangement . Syntactics focuses on the rules we use to combine words into meaningful sentences and statements. We speak and write according to agreed-upon syntactic rules to keep meaning coherent and understandable. Think about this sentence: “The pink and purple elephant flapped its wings and flew out the window.” While the content of this sentence is fictitious and unreal, you can understand and visualize it because it follows syntactic rules for language structure.
• Pragmatics is the study of how people actually use verbal communication . For example, as a student you probably speak more formally to your professors than to your peers. It’s likely that you make different word choices when you speak to your parents than you do when you speak to your friends. Think of the words “bowel movements,” “poop,” “crap,” and “shit.” While all of these words have essentially the same denotative meaning, people make choices based on context and audience regarding which word they feel comfortable using. These differences illustrate the pragmatics of our verbal communication. Even though you use agreed-upon symbolic systems and follow phonological, syntactic, and semantic rules, you apply these rules differently in different contexts. Each communication context has different rules for “appropriate” communication. We are trained from a young age to communicate “appropriately” in different social contexts.

It is only through an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols that we can exchange verbal communication in an effective manner. Without agreement, rules, and symbols, verbal communication would not work. The reality is, after we learn language in school, we don’t spend much time consciously thinking about all of these rules, we simply use them. However, rules keep our verbal communication structured in ways that make it useful for us to communicate more effectively.

Spoken versus Written Communication: What’s the Difference?

While both spoken and written communication function as agreed-upon rule-governed systems of symbols used to convey meaning, there are enough differences in pragmatic rules between writing and speaking to justify discussing some of their differences. Imagine for a moment that you’re a college student who desperately needs money. Rather than looking for a job you decide that you’re going to ask your parents for the money you need to make it through the end of the semester. Now, you have a few choices for using verbal communication to do this. You might choose to call your parents or talk to them in person. You may take a different approach and write them a letter or send them an email. You can probably identify your own list of pros and cons for each of these approaches. But really, what’s the difference between sending a quick text (writing) or a quick stop by their house (talking) in these situations? Let’s look at four of the major differences between the two: 1) formal versus informal, 2) synchronous versus asynchronous, 3) recorded versus unrecorded, and 4) privacy.

Text Version

FYI… we’re meeting on friday. wanna go to the office party after? its byob so bring w/e you want. Last years was sooo fun. Your dancing made everyone lol! hope to see ya there 🙂 -T

Letter Version

For your information, we are having a meeting on Friday, November 6th. Afterwards, there will be an office party. Do you want to go? It will be a Bring Your Own Beverage party, so feel welcome to bring whatever you like. Last year’s was so fun, your dancing made everyone laugh out loud!

I hope to see you there,

The first difference between spoken and written communication is that we generally use spoken communication informally while we use written communication formally . Consider how you have been trained to talk versus how you have been trained to write. Have you ever turned in a paper to a professor that “sounds” like how you talk? How was that paper graded compared to one that follows the more formal structures and rules of the English language? In western societies like the U.S., we follow more formal standards for our written communication than our spoken communication. With a few exceptions, we generally tolerate verbal mistakes (e.g. “should of” rather than “should have”) and qualifiers (e.g. “uh” “um” “you know,” etc.) in our speech, but not our writing. Consider a written statement such as, “I should of, um, gone and done somethin’ ‘bout it’ but, um, I I didn’t do nothin’.” In most written contexts, this is considered unacceptable written verbal communication. However, most of us would not give much thought to hearing this statement spoken aloud by someone. While we may certainly notice mistakes in another’s speech, we are generally not inclined to correct those mistakes as we would in written contexts. Even though most try to speak without qualifiers and verbal mistakes, there is something to be said about those utterances in our speech while engaging in an interpersonal conversation. According to John Du Bois, the way two people use utterances and structure their sentences during conversation creates an opportunity to find new meaning within the language and develop “parallelism” which can lead to a natural feeling of liking or sympathy in the conversation partner. So, even though it may seem like formal language is valued over informal, this informal language that most of us use when we speak inadvertently contributes to bringing people closer together.

While writing is generally more formal and speech more informal, there are some exceptions to the rule, especially with the growing popularity of new technologies. For the first time in history, we are now seeing exceptions in our uses of speech and writing. Using text messaging and email, people are engaging in forms of writing using more informal rule structures, making their writing “sound” more like conversation. Likewise, this style of writing often attempts to incorporate the use of “nonverbal” communication (known as emoticons) to accent the writing. Consider the two examples in the box. One is an example of written correspondence using text while the other is a roughly equivalent version following the more formal written guidelines of a letter.

Notice the informality in the text version. While it is readable, it reads as if Tesia was actually speaking in a conversation rather than writing a document. Have you noticed that when you turn in written work that has been written in email programs, the level of formality of the writing decreases? However, when students use a word processing program like Microsoft Word, the writing tends to follow formal rules more often. As we continue using new technologies to communicate, new rule systems for those mediums will continue altering the rule systems in other forms of communication.

The second difference between spoken and written forms of verbal communication is that spoken communication or speech is almost entirely synchronous while written communication is almost entirely asynchronous. Synchronous communication is communication that takes place in real time , such as a conversation with a friend. When we are in conversation and even in public speaking situations, immediate feedback and response from the receiver is the rule. For instance, when you say “hello” to someone, you expect that the person will respond immediately. You do not expect that the person will get back to you sometime later in response to your greeting.

In contrast, asynchronous communication is communication that is not immediate and occurs over longer periods of time , such as letters, email, or even text messages at times. When someone writes a book, letter, email, or text, there is no expectation from the sender that the receiver will provide an immediate response. Instead, the expectation is that the receiver will receive the message, and respond to it when they have time. This is one of the reasons people sometimes choose to send an email instead of calling another person, because it allows the receiver to respond when they have time rather than “putting them on the spot” to respond right away.

Just as new technologies are changing the rules of formality and informality, they are also creating new situations that break the norms of written communication as asynchronous and spoken communication as synchronous. Voicemail has turned the telephone and our talk into asynchronous forms of communication. Even though we speak in these contexts, we understand that if we leave a message on voicemail we will not get an immediate reply. Instead, we understand that the receiver will call us back at their convenience. In this example, even though the channel of communication is speaking, there is no expectation for immediate response to the sent message. Similarly, texting is a form of written communication that follows the rules of spoken conversation in that it functions as synchronous communication. When you type a text to someone you know, the expectation is that they will respond almost immediately.

The lines continued to blur when video chats were introduced as communication technologies. These are a form of synchronous communication that mimics face-to-face interaction and in some cases even have an option to send written messages to others. The possible back and forth between written and spoken communication has allowed many questions to arise about rules and meaning behind interactions. Maria Sindoni explains in her article, “Through the Looking Glass” that even though people are having a synchronous conversation and are sharing meaning through their words, they are ultimately in different rooms and communicating through a machine which makes the meaning of their exchanges more ambiguous.

The third difference between spoken and written communication is that written communication is generally archived and recorded for later retrieval , while spoken communication is generally not recorded. When we talk with friends, we do not tend to take notes or tape record our conversations. Instead, conversations tend to be ongoing and catalogued into our personal memories rather than recorded in an easily retrievable written format. On the other hand, it is quite easy to reference written works such as books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and electronic sources such as web pages and emails for long periods after the sender has written them. Social media applications like Instagram and Facebook add to the confusion. These apps give users the option to record themselves and post it to their profiles or pages. This would be considered a form of spoken communication, yet it is archived and asynchronous so others can look at the videos weeks or months later. To make the matter more complicated, Snapchat’s many functions come into play. The feeling of technological communication not being archived can lead to a false sense of privacy, which can lead to some negative consequences.

As with the previous rules we’ve discussed, new technologies are changing many of the dynamics of speech and writing. Just take a look at the “Verbal Communication Then” sidebar and see how far we have come. For example, many people use email and texting informally like spoken conversation, as an informal form of verbal communication. Because of this, they often expect that these operate and function like a spoken conversation with the belief that it is a private conversation between the sender and receiver. However, many people have gotten into trouble because of what they have “spoken” about others through email and text. The corporation Epson (a large computer electronics manufacturer) was at the center of one of the first lawsuits regarding the recording and archiving of employees’ use of email correspondence. Employees at Epson assumed their email was private and therefore used it to say negative things about their bosses. What they didn’t know was their bosses were saving and printing these email messages, and using the content of these messages to make personnel decisions. When employees sued Epson, the courts ruled in favor of the corporation, stating that they had every right to retain employee email for their records.

While most of us have become accustomed to using technologies such as texting and instant messaging in ways that are similar to our spoken conversations, we must also consider the repercussions of using communication technologies in this fashion because they are often archived and not private. We can see examples of negative outcomes from archived messages in recent years through many highly publicized sexting scandals. One incident that was very pertinent was former congressman and former candidate for Mayor of New York, Anthony Weiner, and a series of inappropriate exchanges with women using communication technologies. Because of his position in power and high media coverage, his privacy was very minimal. Since he had these conversations in a setting that is recorded, he was not able to keep his anonymity or confidentiality in the matter. These acts were seen as inappropriate by the public, so there were both professional and personal repercussions for Weiner. Both the Epson and Anthony Weiner incidents, even though happening in different decades, show the consequences when assumed private information becomes public.

As you can see, there are a number of differences between spoken and written forms of verbal communication. Both forms are rule-governed as our definition points out, but the rules are often different for the use of these two types of verbal communication. However, it’s apparent that as new technologies provide more ways for us to communicate, many of our traditional rules for using both speech and writing will continue to blur as we try to determine the “most appropriate” uses of these new communication technologies. As Chapter 2 pointed out, practical problems of the day will continue to guide the directions our field takes as we continue to study the ways technology changes our communication. As more changes continue to occur in the ways we communicate with one another, more avenues of study will continue to open for those interested in being part of the development of how communication is conducted. Now that we have looked in detail at our definition of verbal communication, and the differences between spoken and written forms of verbal communication, let’s explore what our use of verbal communication accomplishes for us as humans.

Functions of Verbal Communication

Our existence is intimately tied to the communication we use, and verbal communication serves many functions in our daily lives. We use verbal communication to define reality, organize, think, and shape attitudes.

Case In Point

Being able to communicate effectively through verbal communication is extremely important. No matter what you plan to do as a career, effective verbal communication helps you in all aspects of your life. Former President Bush was often chided (and even chided himself) for the verbal communication mistakes he made. Here is a list of his “Top 10” according to About.com.10) “Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.” —LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

9) “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.” —Greater Nashua, N.H., Jan. 27, 2000

8) “I hear there’s rumors on the Internets that we’re going to have a draft.” —second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004

7) “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.” —Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000

6) “You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.” —to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 2005

5) “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

4) “They misunderestimated me.” —Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000

3) “Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?” —Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000

2) “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

1) “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

• Verbal communication helps us define reality. We use verbal communication to define everything from ideas, emotions, experiences, thoughts, objects, and people (Blumer). Think about how you define yourself. You may define yourself as a student, employee, son/daughter, parent, advocate, etc. You might also define yourself as moral, ethical, a night-owl, or a procrastinator. Verbal communication is how we label and define what we experience in our lives. These definitions are not only descriptive, but evaluative. Imagine you are at the beach with a few of your friends. The day starts out sunny and beautiful, but the tides quickly turn when rain clouds appeared overhead. Because of the unexpected rain, you define the day as disappointing and ugly. Suddenly, your friend comments, “What are you talking about, man? Today is beautiful!” Instead of focusing on the weather, he might be referring to the fact that he was having a good day by spending quality time with his buddies on the beach, rain or shine. This statement reflects that we have choices for how we use verbal communication to define our realities. We make choices about what to focus on and how to define what we experience and its impact on how we understand and live in our world.
• Verbal communication helps us organize complex ideas and experiences into meaningful categories. Consider the number of things you experience with your five primary senses every day. It is impossible to comprehend everything we encounter. We use verbal communication to organize seemingly random events into understandable categories to make sense of our experiences. For example, we all organize the people in our lives into categories. We label these people with terms like, friends, acquaintances, romantic partners, family, peers, colleagues, and strangers. We highlight certain qualities, traits, or scripts to organize outwardly haphazard events into meaningful categories to establish meaning for our world.
• Verbal communication helps us think. Without verbal communication, we would not function as thinking beings. The ability most often used to distinguish humans from other animals is our ability to reason and communicate. With language, we are able to reflect on the past, consider the present, and ponder the future. We develop our memories using language. Try recalling your first conscious memories. Chances are, your first conscious memories formed around the time you started using verbal communication. The example we used at the beginning of the chapter highlights what a world would be like for humans without language. In the 2011 Scientific American article, “How Language Shapes Thought”, the author, Lera Boroditsky, claims that people “rely on language even when doing simple things like distinguishing patches of color, counting dots on a screen or orienting in a small room: my colleagues and I have found that limiting people’s ability to access their language faculties fluently–by giving them a competing demanding verbal task such as repeating a news report, for instance–impairs their ability to perform these tasks.” This may be why it is difficult for some people to multitask – especially when one task involves speaking and the other involves thinking.

Additionally, in an article called How Language Seems To Shape One’s View Of The World , Lera Boroditsky, who is an an associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, mentions how, if someone wants to learn another language and become fluent in that language, he or she might have to change the way he or she behaves, especially in how he or she sort things into categories and he or she notices in his or her focus.

While we have overly-simplified the complexities of verbal communication for you in this chapter, when it comes to its actual use—accounting for the infinite possibilities of symbols, rules, contexts, and meanings—studying how humans use verbal communication is daunting. When you consider the complexities of verbal communication, it is a wonder we can communicate effectively at all. But, verbal communication is not the only channel humans use to communicate. In the next chapter we will examine the other most common channel of communication we use: nonverbal communication.

In this chapter we defined verbal communication as an agreed-upon and rule-governed system of symbols used to share meaning. These symbols are arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract. The rules that dictate our use and understanding of symbols include phonology, semantics, syntactics, and pragmatics. As you recall there are distinct differences between written and spoken forms of verbal communication in terms of levels of formality, synchronicity, recording, and privacy. Yet, new technologies are beginning to blur some of these differences. Finally, verbal communication is central to our identity as humans and it allows us to define reality, organize ideas and experiences into categories, help us think, and shape out attitudes about the world.

Discussion Questions 

• In what ways do you define yourself as a person? What kinds of definitions do you have for yourself? What do you think would happen if you changed some of your self-definitions?
• How do advances in technology impact verbal communication? What are some examples?
• How does popular culture impact our verbal communication? What are some examples?
• When you use text messages or email, are you formal or informal?
• In what situations/contexts would it be appropriate to speak formally rather than informally? Why?
• To what extent do you believe that verbal communication drives thought, or vice versa?
• Can you think of a recent incident you encountered or were a part of, where something that was written was misinterpreted because it was not spoken aloud?
• How does your verbal communication change when you are speaking to your friends, peers, family and professors/ bosses
• asynchronous
• connotative meaning
• denotative meaning
• rule-governed
• synchronous
• verbal communication

References 

“Birth Of A Language.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 25 Apr. 2000. Web. 01 Dec. 2014. < http://www.cbsnews.com/news/birth-of-a-language/ >.

Blumer, Herbert. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969. Print.

Boroditsky, Lera. “How Language Shapes Thought.” Scientific American 304.2 (2011): 62-65. Academic Search Premier. Web.

Du Bois, John W. “Towards a Dialogic Syntax.” Cognitive Linguistics 25.3 (2014): 359-410. Web.

Duck, Steve. “Maintenance as a Shared Meaning System.” Ed. Daniel J. Canary and Laura Stafford. Communication and Relational Maintenance. San Diego: Academic, 1994. N. pag. Print.

Hussein, Basel Al-Sheikh. “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Today.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies , 2 (2012): 642-646. Web.

Lucy, John. “Through the Window of Language: Assessing the Influence of Language Diversity on Thought.” THEORIA : An International Journal for Theory , 20 (2010): 299-309. Web.

Maxwell, Alexander. “Magyarization, Language Planning, and Whorf: The Word as a Case Study in Linguistic Relativism.” Multilingua – Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 23.4 (2004): 319-37. Web.

Nelson, Katherine, and Lea Kessler Shaw. “Developing a Socially Shared Symbolic System.” Language, Literacy, and Cognitive Development: The Development and Consequences of Symbolic Communication . Ed. Eric Amsel and James P. Byrnes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. 27-58. Print.

Ogden, C. K., and I. A. Richards. “The Meaning of Meaning” a Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1923. Print.

Pelley, S. “Birth Of A Language.” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 2000. Web. 20 Apr. 2006.

Perlovsky, Leonid. “Language and Emotions: Emotional Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis.” Neural Networks , 22.5 (2009): 518-526. Web.

“Playing with Words: Poems, Rhymes, Tongue twisters, Anagrams.” Playing with Words: Poems, Rhymes, Tonguetwisters, Anagrams. UK Student Life , 2002-2009. Web. 15 Dec. 2014. < http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Ideas/Fun/Wordplay.htm >.

Sapir, Edward. “Communication.” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences . New York: Macmillan, 1933. Print.

Sapir, Edward. Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality . Ed. David Goodman Mandelbaum. Berkeley: U of California, 1958. Print.

Simpson, Brenton. “Examination of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Through the Perspective of the Comparison and Contrast of the Chinese and Maya Languages.” n.p.: ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2011. Web.

Sindoni, Maria Grazia. “Through the Looking Glass: A Social Semiotic and Linguistic Perspective on the Study of Video Chats.” Text & Talk , 34.3 (2014): 325-347.

Vicente, Agustín, and Fernando Martínez-Manrique. “Thought, Language, And The Argument From Explicitness.” Metaphilosophy 39.3 (2008): 381-401.Academic Search Premier. Web.

Whorf, Benjamin Lee, and John B. Carroll. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings . Cambridge, MA: Technology of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1956. Print.

Introduction to Human Communication Copyright © 2023 by Araceli Bachner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 03 July 2018

Verbal and non-verbal communication skills including empathy during history taking of undergraduate medical students

• Daniela Vogel 1 ,
• Marco Meyer 1 &
• Sigrid Harendza 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  18 , Article number:  157 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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Verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication as well as empathy are known to have an important impact on the medical encounter. The aim of the study was to analyze how well final year undergraduate medical students use skills of verbal and non-verbal communication during history-taking and whether these aspects of communication correlate with empathy and gender.

During a three steps performance assessment simulating the first day of a resident 30 medical final year students took histories of five simulated patients resulting in 150 videos of physician-patient encounters. These videos were analyzed by external rating with a newly developed observation scale for the verbal and non-verbal communication and with the validated CARE-questionnaire for empathy. One-way ANOVA, t-tests and bivariate correlations were used for statistical analyses.

Female students showed signicantly higher scores for verbal communication in the case of a female patient with abdominal pain ( p  < 0.05), while male students started the conversations significantly more often with an open question ( p  < 0.05) and interrupted the patients significantly later in two cases than female students ( p  < 0.05). The number of W-questions asked by all students was significantly higher in the case of the female patient with abdominal pain ( p  < 0.05) and this patient was interrupted after the beginning of the interview significantly earlier than the patients in the other four cases ( p  < 0.001). Female students reached significantly higher scores for non-verbal communication in two cases ( p  < 0.05) and showed significantly more empathy than male students in the case of the female patient with abdominal pain ( p  < 0.05). In general, non-verbal communication correlated significantly with verbal communication and with empathy while verbal communication showed no significant correlation with empathy.

Conclusions

Undergraduate medical students display differentiated communication behaviour with respect to verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication and empathy in a performance assessment and special differences could be detected between male and female students. These results suggest that explicit communication training and feedback might be necessary to raise students’ awareness for the different aspects of communication and their interaction.

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Verbal as well as non-verbal communication and empathy play an important role in patient-physician encounters. Affiliative styles of communication were shown to be positively related to patients’ satisfaction with a physician while a negative association of patients’ satisfaction with a physician correlated with dominant/active communication styles [ 1 , 2 ]. An affiliative style of communication reduced patients’ anxiety and facilitated their openness whereas a dominant/active communication style displayed reprimanding or condescending features, which resulted in reduced patient disclosure and compliance [ 1 ]. A physician’s communication style seems to be very important for the first encounter with a new patient, because patients build their first impression of a physician by a strong focus on his or her communication style [ 1 ]. Furthermore, patients’ outcomes are congruently associated with their feelings about aspects of communication after the consultation with a physician [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. In patient-physician communication, a patient-centred approach is crucial which includes five aspects: a biopsychosocial perspective, the ‘patient-as-person’, sharing power and responsibility, therapeutic alliance, and ‘doctor-as-person’ [ 6 ].

Communication in medical encounters comprises verbal and non-verbal aspects. If these forms of communication are inconsistent or contradictory, the non-verbal messages tend to override the verbal messages [ 7 ]. Mehrabian and Ferris even developed a formula for verbal and non-verbal effects of a message: total impact = .07 verbal + .38 vocal + .55 facial [ 8 ]. For patient-physician encounters, important non-verbal signs by a physician, which influence a patient’s disclosure of history details in a consultation are eye contact, posture, the tone of voice, head nods, gesture, and the postural position [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Relationships could be detected between some of these non-verbal signs, patients’ satisfaction [ 13 , 14 ], physicians’ workload [ 15 ], physicians’ malpractice claim history [ 10 ], patients’ recall of medical information, and compliance with keeping appointments and medical regimens [ 7 , 16 , 17 ]. Furthermore, the position of the patients facing forward to the physician in a 45-degree angle was the best regarding the frequency of eye contact [ 18 ]. Several studies reported a correlation between using records like computer or paper and the loss of eye contact while making notes. This lead to a reduced frequency of asking about psychosocial aspects in a patient’s medical history, a reduced response to emotional aspects provided by the patients, and to a reduced disclosure of history details by the patients [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].

Physicians who express empathy in patient encounters by acting in a warm, friendly and reassuring way seem to be more effective in reaching patients’ satisfaction and recovering [ 24 ]. Empathy is of great significance for better healthcare outcomes as part of a warm and friendly communication style [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Communication trainings are an effective teaching method to improve technical communication skills as well as empathy as a communication skill [ 29 , 30 ]. However, the focus of communication trainings for undergraduate medical students is often on particular aspects of communication, e.g. informed consent or breaking bad news [ 31 , 32 ]. Whether medical students are able to pay attention to all aspects of adequate and patient-centred communication in complex situations they will encounter in their future workplace is not known. Furthermore, gender has been reported to have an effect on patient-physician communication. Female physicians showed greater engagement in patient-centered communication and their consultation times were longer [ 33 , 34 ]. On the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, female medical students scored significantly higher than male medical students [ 35 ]. The aim of our study was to analyze, whether and how well final year undergraduate medical students use skills of verbal and non-verbal communication during history taking and whether a correlation can be found with the empathy shown towards a standardized patient as observed by an external rater and with gender.

Until 2012, the undergraduate medical curriculum at the medical faculty of Hamburg consisted of two pre-clinical years, three clinical years, and a sixths practice year [ 36 ]. During the two pre-clinical years, history taking is taught in seminars with a focus on verbal communication skills and history taking techniques. In the three clinical years, which were organized in six thematic blocks, verbal and nonverbal history taking skills are practiced in bedside teaching courses on the hospital wards in the different medical disciplines. Seminars with standardized patients were scheduled in the thematic block “psycho-social medicine”, with a particular focus on empathetic communication including feedback by the actors.

In July 2011, 30 undergraduate medical students near graduation from the medical faculty of Hamburg University participated in a performance assessment resembling the first day of a beginning resident in hospital called UHTRUST (Utrecht Hamburg Trainee Responsibility for Unfamiliar Situations Test), which had been developed in a cooperation between the universities of Utrecht and Hamburg [ 37 ]. This assessment consisted per student of five 10-min consultations for history taking with standardized patients, followed by 3 hours where participants could gather further information and also interacted with nurses and other staff, and ended with a report to the individual supervisor about the five patients (30 min). All 150 patient interviews were videotaped and the content of the patient cases is described in further details elsewhere [ 38 , 39 ]. In brief, the contents for the five different cases are: Case 1: coeliac disease (the mother of a 5-year-old girl describing the girls fatigue and abdominal pain), case 2: granulomatous polyangiitis (a 53-year-old missionary from Africa visiting his sister in Germany, complaining of hemoptysis and weakness), case 3: perforated sigmoid diverticulitis (a 58-year-old woman presenting with abdominal pain), case 4: myasthenia gravis (a 65-year-old female with difficulties to speak and to swallow who is accompanied by her husband), case 5: varicella zoster infection (a 36-year-old male under immunosuppressive therapy for rheumatoid arthritis and complaining of fever). The medical scenarios were developed by medical experts from the universities of Utrecht and Hamburg based on certain facets of competences as described earlier [ 37 ].

For the observation of the videos, three different instruments were used. Empathy was rated with the German version of the so-called CARE (Consultation and Relational Empathy) questionnaire [ 40 ]. The questionnaire was developed originally for assessment of physicians’ empathy by patients and contains 10 items, which have to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1: “I totally disagree” to 5: “I totally agree”). We used it in our study for external rating of empathy with only eight items because two items refer to therapy, which is not applicable in our setting of mere history taking. For verbal communication, six aspects have been adapted from the literature and were combined in a newly designed observation form: “uses suitable language” [ 41 ], “keeps the conversation running” [ 42 ], and “summarizes what has been said” [ 42 ], which were rated on a 3-point Likert scale (0: “does not apply”, 1: “applies partly”, 2: “applies fully”). For these aspects, a maximum score of 6 could be reached per patient case. Two further aspects, “opens the conversation with an open question” and “closes the conversation with an open question” were adapted from Sennekamp et al. [ 43 ] and answered dichotomously. Furthermore, the number of W-questions (what, when, why etc.) was counted per patient interview. For nonverbal communication, five aspects were combined in a new observation form: adequate body posture, appropriate facial expressions, eye contact, and appropriate tone of voice [ 18 , 42 , 43 ] were rated on a 3-point Likert scale (0: “not shown”, 1: “partially shown”, 2: “completely shown”). If all components were complete shown, a maximum value of 8 points per scenario could be reached. Additionally, the time between the end of the first question of the participant to the first interruption during the patient’s answer was measured.

All rating forms were piloted. Two raters rated 15 patient interviews (in each case five interviews of three patients) independently. The limit of acceptable difference was defined in the following way: two points for the non-verbal form and one point for the verbal form. Difference in agreements were 1.5 for the non-verbal and 1.2 for the verbal form. Hence, no further revision was necessary. The CARE questionnaire was piloted with ten patient interviews (five interviews of two patients) by two independent raters (MM, a physician, and DV, an educationalist). A maximum difference of eight points for the total score was defined as acceptable. After repeated discussion of the rating aspects, an acceptable agreement was reached. The videos were watched once for each questionnaire, i.e. three times in total. One-way ANOVA as well as t-tests and bivariate correlations were used for statistical analyses.

Of the 30 participating final year students, 22 were female and eight were male. This resulted in 150 patient interviews altogether with 110 patient histories taken by female students and 40 histories taken by male students. Fifty percent of the students were between 24 and 25 years old, 46.7% were between 26 and 30 years old, and one student was 36 years old. All students were in the final year of their undergraduate medical curriculum lasting 6 years in total.

All students showed the highest verbal competence in case 4 (woman with difficulties to speak and swallow, accompanied by her husband) (Table  1 ). Female students were rated significant higher for their verbal communication over all cases ( p  < 0.05) and particularly in case 3 (woman with abdominal pain) than male students ( p  < 0.05). All students asked the highest number of W-questions in case 3 (Table  2 ). This number was significantly different versus case 2 ( p  < 0.05) and case 4 ( p  < 0.01). Significant gender differences could not be found.

Students interrupted the patient in case 3, compared to all other cases, significantly earlier, already after 7.5 ± 6.4 s, while they interrupted the patient in case 2 latest after 32.7 ± 22.0 s (Table  3 ). Male students interrupted the patients over all cases significantly later than female students ( p  < 0.05), particularly in case 1 ( p  < 0.01), case 2 ( p  < 0.05), and case 5 ( p  < 0.05). About 65% of the students started the interview with an open question, 87.5% of the male and 56.4% of the female students, which shows a significant gender difference of p  < 0.05. This difference is also found for the first, fourth and fifth case ( p  < 0.01; p  < 0.01; p  < 0.05). The interview of case 5 was started significantly more frequently with an open question than the interview of the second case ( p  < 0.05). Only one third of the students closed the interview with an open question (32.7% of the female students versus 30.0% of the male students). The interview of case 1 was closed significantly more frequently with an open question (46.7%) than the interview of case 4 (23.3%, p  < 0.05). With respect to non-verbal communication (Table  4 ), female students displayed significantly more signs of non-verbal communication over all cases ( p  < 0.01), particularly in case 3 ( p  < 0.05) and 4 ( p  < 0.01) than male students did.

With respect to empathy, no differences were found for all participants between the five cases (Table  5 ). For case 3, female students were rated by an external rater to be more empathetic than male students ( p  < 0.05). Overall verbal communication correlated significantly with non-verbal communication ( p  < 0.01; r  = .524) but not with empathy. Empathy correlated significantly with non-verbal communication ( p  < 0.01; r  = .371).

The objective of the study was to analyze how well final year undergraduate medical students use skills of verbal and non-verbal communication during history-taking and whether these aspects of communication correlate with empathy. We found a significant correlation between verbal and non-verbal communication in our study. This could be interpreted as a sign for congruent communication, which is important for the interpersonal relationship [ 44 ]. This study also showed that inconsistent messages were associated with greater interpersonal distances, which might hamper the patient-physician relationship. The significant correlation of empathy with non-verbal communication but not with verbal communication supports the finding that physician involvement was associated with higher patient ratings of empathy and satisfaction [ 45 ]. Gaze and body orientation, two aspects of non-verbal communication, which were part of our observation scale, have been demonstrated to be important links to the perception of clinical empathy [ 46 ]. Furthermore, our findings support the idea, that non-verbal behaviour might be more important than verbal messages in the communication of empathy [ 47 ] and serves as the primary vehicle for expressing emotions [ 45 ].

Participants reached the highest scores for verbal and non-verbal communication skills with case 4, the female patient with difficulties to speak and swallow whom her husband accompanied. The fact that the patient’s speech was slurred and that a relative accompanied her might have drawn the students’ attention to particularly careful communication. From patients with aphasia it is known, that family members want physicians to try to communicate with the patient [ 48 ]. Whether students behaved in this manner instinctively or whether they were encouraged to behave in this way by training cannot be distinguished. With respect to gender differences, female students reached significantly higher scores than male students for verbal and non-verbal communication skills over all cases and in case 3, the woman with abdominal pain, and they received significantly higher scores for empathy in case 3. For communicating error disclosures, it is known that female physicians smiled more and were more attentive than male physicians were [ 49 ]. This might also be the case in our patient scenario with a female patient who was brought to the consulting room in a wheelchair because of severe abdominal pain. Another study reports empirical evidence for more signs of non-verbal and verbal ways of communication in female physicians including smiling, disclosing information about themselves, and encouraging and facilitating others to talk more freely [ 50 ]. The higher ratings for empathy are in line with another study, which showed that female students were more patient-centred than male students [ 51 ]. Furthermore, students in this study were more attuned to the concerns of patients of their own gender [ 51 ], which also might be the case with the patient in case 3.

The patient in case 3 was interrupted most frequently after the shortest interval from the start of the conversation and the highest number of W-questions was asked. Furthermore, in case 3 students have been shown to have asked significantly more questions about medical details than in any other case [ 38 ]. Case 3 covers the symptom abdominal pain, which is taught repeatedly in our 6-year undergraduate medical curriculum [ 36 ] and W-questions are important to distinguish differential diagnoses [ 52 ]. Our results might demonstrate, that students have studied the workup of patients with abdominal pain well. However, female students were found to interrupt patients significantly earlier than male students over all cases. With respect to interrupting a conversation, the important finding in the literature is that the quality of the interruption needs to be distinguished as there is a cooperative and an intrusive way of interrupting [ 53 ]. In physician-patient interviews, female patients exhibited cooperative interruptions more frequently than male patients [ 54 ]. Whether this might be the case for the female students in our study and account for the higher frequency of interruptions by female students requires further investigation. In general, female as well as male students in our study interrupted patients less frequently – except for that patient in case 3 – than primary care physicians who interrupted their patients on average after 12 s [ 44 ].

The medical students in our study show a decline of empathy during their undergraduate medical education [ 55 ]. Unfortunately, this is in line with observations of other groups in undergraduate [ 56 ] and postgraduate [ 57 ] medical students. As potential reasons for the decline of empathy, the hidden curriculum [ 57 ] as well as a lack of role models, high learning-volume, time pressure, hierarchy, cynicism, bureaucracy, and an atrophy of idealism during students’ socialization are given [ 56 ]. Positive role models and communication skills trainings with continuous student supervision with reflections and constructive feedback, which has been shown to have a positive influence on students’ performance, might help to prevent the decrease of empathy [ 55 ].

Strengths and weaknesses of this study

A strength of our study is the special format of a validated competency based assessment [ 37 ] with video material of 150 student-patient encounters. One weakness of this project is that only the CARE questionnaire is a validated instrument while the observation forms for signs of verbal and non-verbal communication were designed using aspects from the literature. Another weakness of our study is the large difference in numbers between male and female participants even though it resembles roughly the actual percentage of 60% female medical students in our cohorts. Another strength of this project is the external rating of the patient interviews with the CARE questionnaire, which is independent of the personal perception of empathy by the simulated patients. An additional weakness is the fact that the participant-patient encounters were only filmed with one camera, which does not allow for a very differentiated analysis of the facial mimic of participant and patient. Furthermore, the camera was visible and could have influenced the participants and the standardized patients in their reactions. However, a strength is that a similar format of videotaping is used in our communication course, which allows differentiated video feedback to the participants.

In conclusion, undergraduate medical students display differentiated communication behaviour with respect to verbal and non-verbal aspects and empathy in a competency-based assessment. While their verbal communication correlated significantly with their non-verbal communication but not with their empathy, their empathy correlated significantly with their non-verbal communication. Female students interrupted the simulated patients earlier than male students but showed in several cases significantly more signs of non-verbal communication. Since verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication are known to have an important impact on the physician-patient-encounter, the differences in communicatory aspects measured in our study suggest explicit teaching of verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication in communication classes during undergraduate training. Assessing different aspects of communication under simulated circumstances could be an important means for giving feedback to the students.

Abbreviations

Consultation and Relational Empathy Questionnaire

Utrecht Hamburg Trainee Responsibility for Unfamiliar Situations Test

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DV and SH designed the study. MM coordinated the study and the data acquisition. DV and MM performed the statistical analyses and interpreted the results with SH. DV and SH drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Vogel, D., Meyer, M. & Harendza, S. Verbal and non-verbal communication skills including empathy during history taking of undergraduate medical students. BMC Med Educ 18 , 157 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-018-1260-9

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Verbal and non-verbal communication skills including empathy during history taking of undergraduate medical students

Daniela vogel.

Department of Internal Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf III. Medizinische Klinik Martinistr. 52, D-20246 Hamburg, Germany

Marco Meyer

Sigrid harendza, associated data.

Data and materials can be obtained from the corresponding author upon request.

Verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication as well as empathy are known to have an important impact on the medical encounter. The aim of the study was to analyze how well final year undergraduate medical students use skills of verbal and non-verbal communication during history-taking and whether these aspects of communication correlate with empathy and gender.

During a three steps performance assessment simulating the first day of a resident 30 medical final year students took histories of five simulated patients resulting in 150 videos of physician-patient encounters. These videos were analyzed by external rating with a newly developed observation scale for the verbal and non-verbal communication and with the validated CARE-questionnaire for empathy. One-way ANOVA, t-tests and bivariate correlations were used for statistical analyses.

Female students showed signicantly higher scores for verbal communication in the case of a female patient with abdominal pain ( p  < 0.05), while male students started the conversations significantly more often with an open question ( p  < 0.05) and interrupted the patients significantly later in two cases than female students ( p  < 0.05). The number of W-questions asked by all students was significantly higher in the case of the female patient with abdominal pain ( p  < 0.05) and this patient was interrupted after the beginning of the interview significantly earlier than the patients in the other four cases ( p  < 0.001). Female students reached significantly higher scores for non-verbal communication in two cases ( p  < 0.05) and showed significantly more empathy than male students in the case of the female patient with abdominal pain ( p  < 0.05). In general, non-verbal communication correlated significantly with verbal communication and with empathy while verbal communication showed no significant correlation with empathy.

Conclusions

Undergraduate medical students display differentiated communication behaviour with respect to verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication and empathy in a performance assessment and special differences could be detected between male and female students. These results suggest that explicit communication training and feedback might be necessary to raise students’ awareness for the different aspects of communication and their interaction.

Verbal as well as non-verbal communication and empathy play an important role in patient-physician encounters. Affiliative styles of communication were shown to be positively related to patients’ satisfaction with a physician while a negative association of patients’ satisfaction with a physician correlated with dominant/active communication styles [ 1 , 2 ]. An affiliative style of communication reduced patients’ anxiety and facilitated their openness whereas a dominant/active communication style displayed reprimanding or condescending features, which resulted in reduced patient disclosure and compliance [ 1 ]. A physician’s communication style seems to be very important for the first encounter with a new patient, because patients build their first impression of a physician by a strong focus on his or her communication style [ 1 ]. Furthermore, patients’ outcomes are congruently associated with their feelings about aspects of communication after the consultation with a physician [ 3 – 5 ]. In patient-physician communication, a patient-centred approach is crucial which includes five aspects: a biopsychosocial perspective, the ‘patient-as-person’, sharing power and responsibility, therapeutic alliance, and ‘doctor-as-person’ [ 6 ].

Communication in medical encounters comprises verbal and non-verbal aspects. If these forms of communication are inconsistent or contradictory, the non-verbal messages tend to override the verbal messages [ 7 ]. Mehrabian and Ferris even developed a formula for verbal and non-verbal effects of a message: total impact = .07 verbal + .38 vocal + .55 facial [ 8 ]. For patient-physician encounters, important non-verbal signs by a physician, which influence a patient’s disclosure of history details in a consultation are eye contact, posture, the tone of voice, head nods, gesture, and the postural position [ 9 – 12 ]. Relationships could be detected between some of these non-verbal signs, patients’ satisfaction [ 13 , 14 ], physicians’ workload [ 15 ], physicians’ malpractice claim history [ 10 ], patients’ recall of medical information, and compliance with keeping appointments and medical regimens [ 7 , 16 , 17 ]. Furthermore, the position of the patients facing forward to the physician in a 45-degree angle was the best regarding the frequency of eye contact [ 18 ]. Several studies reported a correlation between using records like computer or paper and the loss of eye contact while making notes. This lead to a reduced frequency of asking about psychosocial aspects in a patient’s medical history, a reduced response to emotional aspects provided by the patients, and to a reduced disclosure of history details by the patients [ 19 – 23 ].

Physicians who express empathy in patient encounters by acting in a warm, friendly and reassuring way seem to be more effective in reaching patients’ satisfaction and recovering [ 24 ]. Empathy is of great significance for better healthcare outcomes as part of a warm and friendly communication style [ 25 – 28 ]. Communication trainings are an effective teaching method to improve technical communication skills as well as empathy as a communication skill [ 29 , 30 ]. However, the focus of communication trainings for undergraduate medical students is often on particular aspects of communication, e.g. informed consent or breaking bad news [ 31 , 32 ]. Whether medical students are able to pay attention to all aspects of adequate and patient-centred communication in complex situations they will encounter in their future workplace is not known. Furthermore, gender has been reported to have an effect on patient-physician communication. Female physicians showed greater engagement in patient-centered communication and their consultation times were longer [ 33 , 34 ]. On the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, female medical students scored significantly higher than male medical students [ 35 ]. The aim of our study was to analyze, whether and how well final year undergraduate medical students use skills of verbal and non-verbal communication during history taking and whether a correlation can be found with the empathy shown towards a standardized patient as observed by an external rater and with gender.

Until 2012, the undergraduate medical curriculum at the medical faculty of Hamburg consisted of two pre-clinical years, three clinical years, and a sixths practice year [ 36 ]. During the two pre-clinical years, history taking is taught in seminars with a focus on verbal communication skills and history taking techniques. In the three clinical years, which were organized in six thematic blocks, verbal and nonverbal history taking skills are practiced in bedside teaching courses on the hospital wards in the different medical disciplines. Seminars with standardized patients were scheduled in the thematic block “psycho-social medicine”, with a particular focus on empathetic communication including feedback by the actors.

In July 2011, 30 undergraduate medical students near graduation from the medical faculty of Hamburg University participated in a performance assessment resembling the first day of a beginning resident in hospital called UHTRUST (Utrecht Hamburg Trainee Responsibility for Unfamiliar Situations Test), which had been developed in a cooperation between the universities of Utrecht and Hamburg [ 37 ]. This assessment consisted per student of five 10-min consultations for history taking with standardized patients, followed by 3 hours where participants could gather further information and also interacted with nurses and other staff, and ended with a report to the individual supervisor about the five patients (30 min). All 150 patient interviews were videotaped and the content of the patient cases is described in further details elsewhere [ 38 , 39 ]. In brief, the contents for the five different cases are: Case 1: coeliac disease (the mother of a 5-year-old girl describing the girls fatigue and abdominal pain), case 2: granulomatous polyangiitis (a 53-year-old missionary from Africa visiting his sister in Germany, complaining of hemoptysis and weakness), case 3: perforated sigmoid diverticulitis (a 58-year-old woman presenting with abdominal pain), case 4: myasthenia gravis (a 65-year-old female with difficulties to speak and to swallow who is accompanied by her husband), case 5: varicella zoster infection (a 36-year-old male under immunosuppressive therapy for rheumatoid arthritis and complaining of fever). The medical scenarios were developed by medical experts from the universities of Utrecht and Hamburg based on certain facets of competences as described earlier [ 37 ].

For the observation of the videos, three different instruments were used. Empathy was rated with the German version of the so-called CARE (Consultation and Relational Empathy) questionnaire [ 40 ]. The questionnaire was developed originally for assessment of physicians’ empathy by patients and contains 10 items, which have to be rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1: “I totally disagree” to 5: “I totally agree”). We used it in our study for external rating of empathy with only eight items because two items refer to therapy, which is not applicable in our setting of mere history taking. For verbal communication, six aspects have been adapted from the literature and were combined in a newly designed observation form: “uses suitable language” [ 41 ], “keeps the conversation running” [ 42 ], and “summarizes what has been said” [ 42 ], which were rated on a 3-point Likert scale (0: “does not apply”, 1: “applies partly”, 2: “applies fully”). For these aspects, a maximum score of 6 could be reached per patient case. Two further aspects, “opens the conversation with an open question” and “closes the conversation with an open question” were adapted from Sennekamp et al. [ 43 ] and answered dichotomously. Furthermore, the number of W-questions (what, when, why etc.) was counted per patient interview. For nonverbal communication, five aspects were combined in a new observation form: adequate body posture, appropriate facial expressions, eye contact, and appropriate tone of voice [ 18 , 42 , 43 ] were rated on a 3-point Likert scale (0: “not shown”, 1: “partially shown”, 2: “completely shown”). If all components were complete shown, a maximum value of 8 points per scenario could be reached. Additionally, the time between the end of the first question of the participant to the first interruption during the patient’s answer was measured.

All rating forms were piloted. Two raters rated 15 patient interviews (in each case five interviews of three patients) independently. The limit of acceptable difference was defined in the following way: two points for the non-verbal form and one point for the verbal form. Difference in agreements were 1.5 for the non-verbal and 1.2 for the verbal form. Hence, no further revision was necessary. The CARE questionnaire was piloted with ten patient interviews (five interviews of two patients) by two independent raters (MM, a physician, and DV, an educationalist). A maximum difference of eight points for the total score was defined as acceptable. After repeated discussion of the rating aspects, an acceptable agreement was reached. The videos were watched once for each questionnaire, i.e. three times in total. One-way ANOVA as well as t-tests and bivariate correlations were used for statistical analyses.

Of the 30 participating final year students, 22 were female and eight were male. This resulted in 150 patient interviews altogether with 110 patient histories taken by female students and 40 histories taken by male students. Fifty percent of the students were between 24 and 25 years old, 46.7% were between 26 and 30 years old, and one student was 36 years old. All students were in the final year of their undergraduate medical curriculum lasting 6 years in total.

All students showed the highest verbal competence in case 4 (woman with difficulties to speak and swallow, accompanied by her husband) (Table  1 ). Female students were rated significant higher for their verbal communication over all cases ( p  < 0.05) and particularly in case 3 (woman with abdominal pain) than male students ( p  < 0.05). All students asked the highest number of W-questions in case 3 (Table  2 ). This number was significantly different versus case 2 ( p  < 0.05) and case 4 ( p  < 0.01). Significant gender differences could not be found.

Verbal communication

a p  < 0.05

The bold numbers in the tables are significant

Average number of W-questions

a Total, case 3 vs. 2 ( p  < 0.05), b Total, case 3 vs. 4 ( p  < 0.01)

Students interrupted the patient in case 3, compared to all other cases, significantly earlier, already after 7.5 ± 6.4 s, while they interrupted the patient in case 2 latest after 32.7 ± 22.0 s (Table  3 ). Male students interrupted the patients over all cases significantly later than female students ( p  < 0.05), particularly in case 1 ( p  < 0.01), case 2 ( p  < 0.05), and case 5 ( p  < 0.05). About 65% of the students started the interview with an open question, 87.5% of the male and 56.4% of the female students, which shows a significant gender difference of p  < 0.05. This difference is also found for the first, fourth and fifth case ( p  < 0.01; p  < 0.01; p  < 0.05). The interview of case 5 was started significantly more frequently with an open question than the interview of the second case ( p  < 0.05). Only one third of the students closed the interview with an open question (32.7% of the female students versus 30.0% of the male students). The interview of case 1 was closed significantly more frequently with an open question (46.7%) than the interview of case 4 (23.3%, p  < 0.05). With respect to non-verbal communication (Table  4 ), female students displayed significantly more signs of non-verbal communication over all cases ( p  < 0.01), particularly in case 3 ( p  < 0.05) and 4 ( p  < 0.01) than male students did.

Time to first interruption of the patient in seconds

a p < 0.05, b p < 0.01, c p < 0.001

Non-verbal communication

a p  < 0.05, b p  < 0.01

With respect to empathy, no differences were found for all participants between the five cases (Table  5 ). For case 3, female students were rated by an external rater to be more empathetic than male students ( p  < 0.05). Overall verbal communication correlated significantly with non-verbal communication ( p  < 0.01; r  = .524) but not with empathy. Empathy correlated significantly with non-verbal communication ( p  < 0.01; r  = .371).

Empathy evaluated with the CARE questionnaire

a p < 0.05

The objective of the study was to analyze how well final year undergraduate medical students use skills of verbal and non-verbal communication during history-taking and whether these aspects of communication correlate with empathy. We found a significant correlation between verbal and non-verbal communication in our study. This could be interpreted as a sign for congruent communication, which is important for the interpersonal relationship [ 44 ]. This study also showed that inconsistent messages were associated with greater interpersonal distances, which might hamper the patient-physician relationship. The significant correlation of empathy with non-verbal communication but not with verbal communication supports the finding that physician involvement was associated with higher patient ratings of empathy and satisfaction [ 45 ]. Gaze and body orientation, two aspects of non-verbal communication, which were part of our observation scale, have been demonstrated to be important links to the perception of clinical empathy [ 46 ]. Furthermore, our findings support the idea, that non-verbal behaviour might be more important than verbal messages in the communication of empathy [ 47 ] and serves as the primary vehicle for expressing emotions [ 45 ].

Participants reached the highest scores for verbal and non-verbal communication skills with case 4, the female patient with difficulties to speak and swallow whom her husband accompanied. The fact that the patient’s speech was slurred and that a relative accompanied her might have drawn the students’ attention to particularly careful communication. From patients with aphasia it is known, that family members want physicians to try to communicate with the patient [ 48 ]. Whether students behaved in this manner instinctively or whether they were encouraged to behave in this way by training cannot be distinguished. With respect to gender differences, female students reached significantly higher scores than male students for verbal and non-verbal communication skills over all cases and in case 3, the woman with abdominal pain, and they received significantly higher scores for empathy in case 3. For communicating error disclosures, it is known that female physicians smiled more and were more attentive than male physicians were [ 49 ]. This might also be the case in our patient scenario with a female patient who was brought to the consulting room in a wheelchair because of severe abdominal pain. Another study reports empirical evidence for more signs of non-verbal and verbal ways of communication in female physicians including smiling, disclosing information about themselves, and encouraging and facilitating others to talk more freely [ 50 ]. The higher ratings for empathy are in line with another study, which showed that female students were more patient-centred than male students [ 51 ]. Furthermore, students in this study were more attuned to the concerns of patients of their own gender [ 51 ], which also might be the case with the patient in case 3.

The patient in case 3 was interrupted most frequently after the shortest interval from the start of the conversation and the highest number of W-questions was asked. Furthermore, in case 3 students have been shown to have asked significantly more questions about medical details than in any other case [ 38 ]. Case 3 covers the symptom abdominal pain, which is taught repeatedly in our 6-year undergraduate medical curriculum [ 36 ] and W-questions are important to distinguish differential diagnoses [ 52 ]. Our results might demonstrate, that students have studied the workup of patients with abdominal pain well. However, female students were found to interrupt patients significantly earlier than male students over all cases. With respect to interrupting a conversation, the important finding in the literature is that the quality of the interruption needs to be distinguished as there is a cooperative and an intrusive way of interrupting [ 53 ]. In physician-patient interviews, female patients exhibited cooperative interruptions more frequently than male patients [ 54 ]. Whether this might be the case for the female students in our study and account for the higher frequency of interruptions by female students requires further investigation. In general, female as well as male students in our study interrupted patients less frequently – except for that patient in case 3 – than primary care physicians who interrupted their patients on average after 12 s [ 44 ].

The medical students in our study show a decline of empathy during their undergraduate medical education [ 55 ]. Unfortunately, this is in line with observations of other groups in undergraduate [ 56 ] and postgraduate [ 57 ] medical students. As potential reasons for the decline of empathy, the hidden curriculum [ 57 ] as well as a lack of role models, high learning-volume, time pressure, hierarchy, cynicism, bureaucracy, and an atrophy of idealism during students’ socialization are given [ 56 ]. Positive role models and communication skills trainings with continuous student supervision with reflections and constructive feedback, which has been shown to have a positive influence on students’ performance, might help to prevent the decrease of empathy [ 55 ].

Strengths and weaknesses of this study

A strength of our study is the special format of a validated competency based assessment [ 37 ] with video material of 150 student-patient encounters. One weakness of this project is that only the CARE questionnaire is a validated instrument while the observation forms for signs of verbal and non-verbal communication were designed using aspects from the literature. Another weakness of our study is the large difference in numbers between male and female participants even though it resembles roughly the actual percentage of 60% female medical students in our cohorts. Another strength of this project is the external rating of the patient interviews with the CARE questionnaire, which is independent of the personal perception of empathy by the simulated patients. An additional weakness is the fact that the participant-patient encounters were only filmed with one camera, which does not allow for a very differentiated analysis of the facial mimic of participant and patient. Furthermore, the camera was visible and could have influenced the participants and the standardized patients in their reactions. However, a strength is that a similar format of videotaping is used in our communication course, which allows differentiated video feedback to the participants.

In conclusion, undergraduate medical students display differentiated communication behaviour with respect to verbal and non-verbal aspects and empathy in a competency-based assessment. While their verbal communication correlated significantly with their non-verbal communication but not with their empathy, their empathy correlated significantly with their non-verbal communication. Female students interrupted the simulated patients earlier than male students but showed in several cases significantly more signs of non-verbal communication. Since verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication are known to have an important impact on the physician-patient-encounter, the differences in communicatory aspects measured in our study suggest explicit teaching of verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication in communication classes during undergraduate training. Assessing different aspects of communication under simulated circumstances could be an important means for giving feedback to the students.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all students who participated in this study.

No internal or external sources of funding were used to support this work.

Availability of data and materials

Abbreviations.

Authors’ contributions

DV and SH designed the study. MM coordinated the study and the data acquisition. DV and MM performed the statistical analyses and interpreted the results with SH. DV and SH drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Ethics Committee of the Chamber of Physicians approval (PV3649). Participation was voluntary, anonymized and with written consent.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

SH has a position as Section Editor to BMC Medical Education. DV and MM declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Daniela Vogel, Email: [email protected] .

Marco Meyer, Email: [email protected] .

Sigrid Harendza, Phone: +49 40 7410 53908, Email: ed.eku@azdnerah .

H umanising L anguage T eaching

August 2020 - year 22 - issue 4, issn 1755-9715.

• Various Articles - Teachers’ perspective

A Case Study on Nonverbal Communication in EFL Classes in the Indonesian Context

• Yazid Basthomi, Indonesia
• Rida Afrilyasanti, Indonesia

Rida Afrilyasanti teaches at Taruna Nala Senior High School. She has published two books entitled Digital Storytelling as an Alternative Learning Media for EFL Learners and Learn English with Merah Putih Emas.

Yazid Basthomi is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Having interests in genre analysis, intercultural education, and digital culture, he is currently coordinator of the publication division of TEFLIN.

In this study, the nonverbal communication used by five Indonesian EFL teachers with different ranges of teaching experiences was evaluated. The study later found out that nonverbal communication surely bring some positive impacts for the teachers as well as learners when both parties have the same interpretation of the nonverbal cues used.

Nonverbal communication is inseparable from verbal communication. How our body moves, how and where we stand or sit, how we speak, and what expression we make are all nonverbal messages that in some ways are far more convincing than spoken word (Feldman and Rime, 1991). In his study, Gallo (2007) has identified that people tend to communicate nonverbally: 7% of communication involves actual words and the other 93% is nonverbal. He further states that 38% is vocal nonverbal signals such as pitch, speed, and volume of one’s voice and 55% of the nonverbal is visual such as body language and eye contact (Gallo, 2007).

Nonverbal communication in teaching and learning, especially in a foreign language context is very demanding, because nonverbal communication contributes to the students’ comprehension and understanding of concepts. Nonverbal communication helps to reach the aim of teaching, and develop teaching quality and methods (Pan, 2014). By employing nonverbal communication, teachers can more easily win the students’ attention so that they can focus on the subject matter.

In employing nonverbal cues in teaching, however, not all the teachers’ nonverbal cues are completely understood by the students. This happens as much about body language is defined by culture. Some people greet with handshakes, some hugs, and others kisses. Some consider that it is fine to point others using their index finger but some do not. Reiman (2007) has explained that these cultural expressions are dictated by “display rules”, the specific expectations every group has about body language. Nonverbal communication also involves the possibility of misunderstanding when it is misused and/or misinterpreted (Elfatihi, 2005; Lustig & Koester, 2006).

This paper aims to provide a brief analysis of the nonverbal communication used by teachers within their interactions with the students. Specifically, it touches on the use of nonverbal communication in EFL classes in the Indonesian context.

As nonverbal communication is bondless and there is no dictionary of nonverbal communication like in verbal communication, there must be some limitations in order to easily analyze the phenomena. Therefore, in order to answer the research questions, Darn’s (2005) article on the aspects of nonverbal communication will be used as the platform in describing the varieties of nonverbal communication used in the Indonesian EFL classes. In Darn’s (2005) study, it is explained that less than ten percent interpersonal communication involves words there are also varieties of nonverbal types or devices such as kinesics (movement), proxemics (space/physical distance), haptics (touch), oculesics (eye-contact), chronemics (time) & silence, vocalics (vocal set and qualities), sound symbols, adornment, and posture, which either replace or accompany verbal communication.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the importance and use of nonverbal communication in EFL classes in the Indonesian context. It highlights and analyzes nonverbal communication in terms of its various types and functions. This qualitative study involved five Indonesian EFL teachers with different ranges of teaching experiences. The participants responded to qualitative interview questions.

In order to enrich the data, observations of nonverbal cues performed by the teachers were also done. The participants’ nonverbal cues were analyzed based on the following nonverbal aspects: kinesics, proxemics, haptics, oculesics, chronemics & silence, vocalics, sound symbols, adornment, and posture (refer to Darn, 2005). In order to provide detailed reflections of the participants’ responses, a constructivist grounded theory approach to research was implemented so that the findings display direct representations of the data produced by the participants.

A total of five EFL teachers from Indonesia participated in the study. Of the sample, three teachers were female and two were male. Those teachers ranged in age from 23 to over 50. Three of the sample had a bachelor’s degree and two had obtained a master’s degree. Of those with bachelor degrees, two had teaching certificates and one did not. Meanwhile, of those with master's degrees, one had teaching certificate and one did not.

The teachers had some teaching experiences. Their experiences ranged from novice teachers with only two years of experience, to experienced teachers with over 30 years of experience. All of those five teachers had been teaching in senior high schools in which the ages of the students ranged from 16 to 18 years.

Findings and discussion

This section presents the results of data analysis along with some discussions.

The Importance of nonverbal communication in EFL classes

The teachers involved in this study said that gestures would help them in presenting language items such as grammar and vocabulary. The teachers admitted that their gestures help their students understand language items better. Some of the responses regarding the use of gestures in emphasizing teachers’ explanation on the language items are presented as follows:

Teacher I: “I tend to act out to present new verbs for my students. It helps them understand the meaning of the words more quickly and easily.”

Teacher II: “When I teach descriptive text, I prefer to start with vocabulary games and I use a lot of gestures. I point out certain parts of my body, pictures or objects around the students… and I think that really works.”

Many previous studies such as Behjat et.al. (2014), Shi & Fan (2010), and Sukirlan (2014) have come up with the similar findings on the importance of nonverbal cues in classroom interaction. Those are to help the students with inadequate target linguistic resources to communicate their message, to avoid being artificial and boring, and to encourage students to take active participation, which consequently enhances the level of their retention and understanding.

The teachers observed demonstrated a wide variety of nonverbal communication either consciously or unconsciously. However, when the teachers were explaining about concept and meaning, most of them consciously used various nonverbal cues along with their verbal explanation. They admitted that their nonverbal cues really accommodate their intent to help the students get the concept and meaning.

As depicted in the results of the interviews as well as observations, it can be construed that nonverbal communication can help improve the teaching practice and the learning process. Furthermore, the use of gestures is a good solution to solve misunderstandings. One of the examples is the use of pictures, movements, and gestures to explain the concept of time signal in English sentences.

Kinesics

Moving around the class when teaching could show attention.

Putting thumbs up was used to praise or say “good job.”

Pointing the student using the pointed finger was considered impolite.

Answering the teacher’s question using gesture (nodding to say “yes” or shrugging and head shaking to say “no”) could be considered impolite if it was not accompanied by verbal communication.

Smile was frequently used in Indonesian classes to appreciate students’ work, in humorous situations, to alter boredom or uncomfortable atmosphere.

Students raised their palm or index finger to ask permission to both, ask and answer questions.

Proxemics

It was considered okay to approach closely to the students to check their work (in Indonesian context, there is not rigid rules in spatial separation).

Haptics

Soft tap on the student’s shoulder could make the students’ alert and encouraged.

It was considered polite and respectful to kiss the teacher’s hand while hand shaking.

Oculesics

Teacher must be able to share his/her eye contact to the all the students in the class.

Teachers used eye contact to seek for the students’ responses, whether they understand, are confused or bored.

In Indonesian context, for the students, moving his/her eyes all around when being asked by teacher was considered impolite.

Students would take their eyes far away when they could not answer the question.

Students would also do eye contact while the teacher was explaining to show giving attention.

Chronemics & Silence

After giving questions to a student, letting him/her to remain silent for a long time could be considered offensive and discouraging.

Teacher’s silence and standing still were to indicate that the students must stop their noise and start paying attention to the teacher.

Vocalics

High tone was commonly used when the teacher gets angry or reminds/warns the students.

Sound Symbols

Teacher must tell the students how much they can tolerate the use of sound symbols.

Adornment

There were different rules in clothing, jewelry, and hairstyle for each school.

Posture

In talking with teacher, students must not be in a “relaxed” posture in order to show respect and enthusiasm to teach. Students must also bow while talking with their teacher.

The data taken from our classroom observations and interviews showed that teachers used kinesics behaviors a lot more rather than other types of nonverbal behaviors. All of the five subjects constantly used hand and head gestures. They either consciously or unconsciously used movements along with their verbal communication and/or used them alone.

The teachers used movements to call the attention of the students. They admitted that pointing gestures to call a student is effective to invite students’ participation. Likewise, pointing gestures to highlight certain written concept or explanation makes the presentation more lively and convincing. The teachers also often used nonverbal feedback such as holding thumb up as a quick and simple action to show appreciation.

It is interesting to note that we also found that interpersonal communication is so much dictated by the participants’ faith (religion) and culture. This is actually in line with Rasyid’s (2015) findings. How the students shake and kiss their teacher’s hand every time they meet is the representation of Indonesian culture about politeness, which is known as sungkem in Javanese society.

Darn (2005) explains that nonverbal communication is so essential and that it should be employed by teachers in their classroom to help them communicate their message, assist the students get the concept and meaning, avoid being artificial and boring, and to encourage students to take active participation as well as positive behaviors, which consequently enhance the level of retention and understanding of the students. In this case, the teachers need to make sure that their students understand their nonverbal cues.

Barabar , A. & Caganaga, C.K. (2015). Using nonverbal communication in EFL classes. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences . 10(2), 136-147.

Behjat, F., Bayat, S., & Kargar, A.A. (2014). An investigation of students’ attitudes on teachers' nonverbal interaction in Iranian EFL classroom. International Journal of Language and Linguistics. Vol.2(6-1): 13-18.

Darn, S. (2005). Aspects of nonverbal communication. The Internet TESL Journal . Vol. XI(2): 1-5.

Elfatihi, M. (2005).  The role of nonverbal communication in beginners’ EFL classrooms . Retrieved on May 22, 2016 from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED491813.pdf.

Feldman, R. S., & Rime , B. (1991). Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gallo, C. (2007, February 14). Body language: A key to success in the workplace: Personal finance news from yahoo! Finance. Yahoo! Finance – Business. Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News. Retrieved September 5, 2010 from http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/102425/Body_Language:_A_Key_to_Success_in_the_Workplace.

Lustig, M. W., & Koester, J. (2006). Intercultural competence: interpersonal communication across cultures (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Pan, Q. (2014). Nonverbal teacher-student communication in the foreign language classroom. Theory and Practice in Language Studies , 4(12).

Rasyid, M. A. (2015). Interpersonal communication that inspires in EFL teaching. ELT Worldwide. Vol. 2 (2:) 33-44.

Reiman, T. (2007). The power of body language: How to succeed in every business and social encounter . New York: Pocket 68 Books.

Shi, Y. & Fan. S. (2010). An analysis of non-verbal behavior in intercultural communication. The International Journal - Language Society and Culture . Vol. 31, 113-120

Sukirlan, M. (2014). Teaching communication strategies in an EFL class of tertiary level. Theory and Practice in Language Studies . Vol. 4(10): 2033-2041.

Please check the Train the Traner course at Pilgrims website.

• 3.various__ridha.FINAL doc

Problems Encountered by Student-Teachers in Two Junior High Schools in Central Java Yulio Ageng Prastomo and Listyani, Indonesia

“learning from the past”: self-reflections of three indonesian pre-service english teachers veronico n. tarrayo, philippines;m. faruq ubaidillah, indonesia;shinta amalia, indonesia, a case study on nonverbal communication in efl classes in the indonesian context yazid basthomi, indonesia;rida afrilyasanti, indonesia.

Speaking of Psychology: Nonverbal communication speaks volumes, with David Matsumoto, PhD

If you think reading people is not a science, think again. Understanding expressions that only appear on someone’s face for tenths of a second can mean a lot to those who know what to look for. In this episode, psychologist and nonverbal communication expert David Matsumoto, PhD, talks about why nonverbal communication is so important in everything from police investigations to intercultural exchanges.

About the expert: David Matsumoto, PhD

Matsumoto is also the head instructor of the East Bay Judo Institute in El Cerrito, California. He holds a 7th degree black belt and has won countless awards, including the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Coach of the Year Award in 2003. Matsumoto served as the head coach of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Judo Team and was the team leader for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Judo Team.

Streaming Audio

Audrey Hamilton: A fleeting change in someone’s face or body language can signal a lot of different emotions. Why do people’s faces change when they’re angry or sad? In this episode, we speak with a psychologist and expert in facial expression, gestures and other nonverbal behavior about how not speaking can speak volumes. I’m Audrey Hamilton and this is “Speaking of Psychology.”

David Matsumoto is a professor of psychology and director of the Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory at San Francisco State University. An expert on facial expressions, nonverbal behavior and deception, he is director of Humintell, a company that conducts research and training for organizations such as the Transportation Security Administration, the FBI and the U.S. Marshalls Service. Welcome, Dr. Matsumoto. 

David Matsumoto: Thank you for having me. 

Audrey Hamilton: We’re probably all familiar with the universal facial expressions of our emotions – you know, anger, joy, sadness – you know, those are some of them. Can you give examples of some of the less obvious facial expressions? I think you call them microexpressions, you know where someone is maybe attempting to conceal his or her emotions. These are much harder to detect. Is that right? 

David Matsumoto: Microexpressions are unconscious, extremely quick, sometimes full-face expressions of an emotion. And sometimes they’re partial and very subtle expressions of emotion. But because they’re extremely quick and because they’re unconscious, when they occur, they occur often times less than half a second – sometimes as fast as one-tenth of a second or even one-fifteenth of a second. Most people don’t even see them. Some people do see them but they don’t know what they’re seeing. They see something that has changed on the face, but they don’t know exactly what is was that was changed.

Audrey Hamilton: It’s fleeting? 

David Matsumoto: It’s very fleeting, but if you take a freeze frame on it on a video, you’ll see that a lot of times there’s a big facial expression that is very clear about what the person’s mental state is. 

Audrey Hamilton: It all sounds very interesting, but how is this useful in the real world? You work with numerous organizations like I mentioned – the FBI, the TSA – to help train interrogators and business people in the skill of reading people. Tell us about your applied work in training programs. 

David Matsumoto: Well, learning to read microexpressions and nonverbal behaviors in general can be very valuable for anyone whose job it is to understand other people’s true feelings, their thoughts, their motivations, their personalities or their intentions. So obviously, there’s an application for people who are doing interviews or interrogations. That would be people in the criminal justice system, law enforcement, national security, intelligence – those are the kinds of people that we primarily work with because their job is to try to find about whether a person is concealing facts or concealing knowledge or concealing something or has some information that would be useful for solving a crime or getting some other kinds of information. And so, when one wants to be able to do that it’s very useful to be able to read these microexpressions.

But again, the application is very clear for anybody whose job it is to be able to get that kind of additional insight – what I call data superiority – for the individual who’s observing others. So it could be for sales people. It could be for the legal profession. It could be for healthcare professionals or psychotherapists. Medical doctors. Sales person, I think I mentioned sales person. Anybody whose job it is to gain some additional insight about the person that you’re talking with so that you can leverage that information for a particular outcome. 

Audrey Hamilton: I imagine these skills are particularly important in intercultural exchanges. Are facial expressions and gestures different in other cultures and can you give us some examples? 

David Matsumoto: Well, facial expressions of emotion are universal in the sense that everybody around the world regardless of race, culture, nationality, sex, gender, etc., whatever the demographic variable is, we all show the same facial muscle expressions on our faces when we have the same emotions. 

Now, of course, the question is context will moderate all of that and what kinds of things bring about different emotions in different cultures. So, of course, there are cultural differences and large individual differences in when people express emotions and how they express them when they feel the emotions. But if there’s no reason to change anything when people are feeling extremely strong emotions and they can express it freely, they will express those emotions on their faces in exactly the same ways. 

Gestures are very different. There are many different types of gestures and so the two types of gestures that we generally work with are called speech illustrators and emblems. Speech illustrators are these gestures that accompany speech that when you see a person using their hands when they’re talking to illustrate a point; they’re like animation. They’re like how we use our voice. They’re functionally universal in the sense that everybody around the world uses hand gestures as speech illustrators. But people around the world differ in the amount that they do them and in the form. So if you can picture people waving around. Some people in some cultures wave around their hands in a certain way. Some people point when they talk. Some people are doing various different types of things with their hands when they talk. So the form in which the illustrator occurs is different, but the function is the same across different cultures. 

Emblems is another type of gesture. These are generally culturally specific. These are gestures that refer to specific words or phrases. So, if you can imagine, the listeners can imagine the thumbs up, which has a meaning around the world, which is like “OK” or “good.” These things are culture specific, so every culture, just as every culture has a verbal vocabulary – different verbal vocabulary – every culture creates a vocabulary of emblematic gestures that correspond to certain types of phrases that they think are important to have in a gesture. 

So those are very culture specific. Now what’s really interesting about that is that some of our most recent research published a couple of years ago has shown that some gestures are beginning to be universally recognized around the world, like head nods for yes and head shakes for no. Of course, there’s places around the world that still do them in different ways. But they are increasingly being recognized universally around the world, probably because of a lot of shared mass media and because of the Internet or movies and things like that. So, in summary, with nonverbal behaviors, there’s some aspects of it that are very universal and some aspects of it that are culturally specific. 

Audrey Hamilton: Some of your research has involved the study of blind athletes. I thought this was interesting. Can you tell us how that research has furthered your understanding of human emotions? 

David Matsumoto: Yeah, well to tell you the truth, one of the pervasive questions about facial expressions of emotion in the past has been whether they’re universal or not and I think there’s very conclusive evidence about the universality of facial expressions of emotion. 

Then, the next question becomes where do they come from? Because it could be that we are all born with some kind of innate skill that is an evolutionarily based kind of adaptation that we share with non-human primates and other animals. Or it could be that humans have just all around the world learned, regardless of where they are, from the time that they’re infants. So it could be something that is learned or something that is biologically innate. 

Now studying blind individuals, and especially congenitally blind individuals, is a particularly great thing to do to address this particular research question because when you study blind individuals and you study their expressions you know that as long as they were congenitally blind that there was no way that they could possibly learn to see those expressions and put them on their faces from birth because they’ve been blind from birth. And so when you study a population like that it helps you address a certain research question. And so in the studies that we’ve done, we’ve actually studied the spontaneous facial expressions of blind individuals from around the world from many different cultures and we show that in the same emotionally evocative situations that blind individuals produce on their faces exactly the same facial muscle configurations where the same emotions as sighted individuals do. And again, because these are individuals who are blind from birth, there’s no way that they could have possibly learned to do that by seeing others do it. 

And so it leads me to think and many others to believe that the ability to have facial expressions of emotion is something that is biologically innate and that we are all born with. 

I’ve done judo for 48 years of my life here and I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of our Olympic movement in judo. I was the Olympic coach for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games for the United States. We studied the expressions of the athletes in the sighted – in the regular Olympic Games – for these are all sighted individuals and we study their expressions right at the moment they won or lost their medal match. And we’re taking photographs. These are high-speed photographs – eight shots per second with a very expensive camera – and so we can track the expressions – you know in minute second by second or fractions of a second resolution – right at the time of winning or losing the match. And we also could see the expression of the same athletes on the podium 30 minutes later in a social context. So we could do that comparison. 

Two weeks after the Olympic Games, every Olympics, what happens in every Olympics is the Paralympics rolls into town using exactly the same venue. So my guy was there still and every sport has a different disability. For judo, it’s blindness. So all of the judo athletes in the judo Paralympic Games are all blind. Half of them or some degree of them are congenitally blind and some are acquired blindness through some kind of disease or accident (there are no differences between them, by the way). But anyway, we were able to do the same kind of study with the Paralympic judo blind athletes in the Paralympic Games.

When you compare the expressions of the blind athletes in the Paralympic Games to the sighted athletes in the regular Olympic Games, what you find is that for the winners – winners and losers – they all do the same thing. We measure the exact facial muscle movements that are occurring right at the time of winning or losing that match. So I think the correspondence – the correlation between the facial muscle movements is something like 0.9 or some incredibly high number that you never see in research nowadays – so that correspondence is amazingly high between the blind and the sighted athletes.  

What’s really interesting about blind athletes is this – or sighted – if we asked our listeners to show on their faces what do you do, what do you show, what do you think you do on your face when you express anger? Everybody can give you something and it will be pretty much accurate. And the reason is because all of us have seen it. We’ve seen it in ourselves if we’ve seen ourselves angry in the mirror. Or we see it in others when they’re angry. So we see it. We know what it looks like. We’ve seen ourselves do it. We know what it feels like. A blind athlete has never seen it. So if you ask a blind person, “Hey, show me what you look like when you’re angry or when you’re sad,” you’ll get something that’s close but you don’t get the exact facial muscle movements that occur when those emotions occur spontaneously. However, when it occurs spontaneously, the exact facial muscle movements are exactly the same. So blind individuals produce them spontaneously but don’t produce exactly the same thing when you ask them to pose whereas sighted people do. 

Audrey Hamilton: Interesting. 

David Matsumoto: And so this to me is another example of how there’s differences between the blind and the sighted and why they are because this is a biologically innate thing. They can do it when it’s spontaneous.  

Audrey Hamilton: Well, thank you Dr. Matsumoto for joining us today. It’s been very interesting. 

David Matsumoto: My pleasure. 

Audrey Hamilton: For more information on Dr. Matsumoto’s work and to hear more episodes, please go to our website . With the American Psychological Association’s “Speaking of Psychology,” I’m Audrey Hamilton.  

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Episode 34:  Nonverbal communication speaks volumes

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Speaking of Psychology

Speaking of Psychology is an audio podcast series highlighting some of the latest, most important, and relevant psychological research being conducted today.

Produced by the American Psychological Association, these podcasts will help listeners apply the science of psychology to their everyday lives.

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About the host: Audrey Hamilton

Audrey Hamilton was the host of Speaking of Psychology from 2013 to 2018. A former broadcast news reporter, she worked in APA’s Office of Public Affairs from 2008 to 2018.

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Case Study on NonVerbal Communication

Non-verbal communication case study:.

Nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless (mostly visual) cues between people.

Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch, by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact, which are all considered types of nonverbal communication. Speech contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, rate, pitch, volume, and speaking style, as well prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation, and stress. Non-verbal communication is very important when one wants to produce positive first impression. When one appears in the new place with a new circle of people, his clothes, posture, expression, gestures, will say much about his character and occupation. Non verbal communication across cultures is very different, so when you travel abroad to a certain exotic country, always remember that your gestures may be treated there in different way.

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In order not to be understood wrongly one should avoid intensive usage of gestures or read about the traditions and customs, prejudices of the country you are travelling to.Much have be researched and written about nonverbal communication, but still many moments stay undiscovered. Students who study psychology, tourism are sure to prepare case studies on non verbal communication, because they have to be aware of such things, if they want to become professionals in their field. A well-organized case study on non verbal communication should be informative, interesting and contain reliable information on the topic. The case should be researched scrupulously and one should present the peculiarities of the non verbal communication in the case site and analyze the cause and effect of the problem, which occurred after it.

Case study writing is a big problem for inexperienced students who are not aware of professional paper writing. in order to complete a good case study and analyze the problem of the case, one should research the site carefully and in detail. It is possible to read various periodicals or encyclopedias dedicated to the topic and collect data from that sources. Moreover, one should read free example case studies on non verbal communication peculiarities in the Internet.One can find a lot of models for writing in the web and improve his knowledge in paper writing.

Every free sample case study on non verbal communication in different countries is useful for every student to understand the manner of writing, formatting and composition of the paper. On the other hand one should be careful choosing an example, because some of them are prepared by the poorly-trained amateur writers. It is obvious that help of this kind will only make harm to you. So, select only high-quality samples for help, if you want to complete an original informative case study on your own.

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• Use of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
• Cross Cultural Barriers in Nonverbal Communication
• Case Study on Verbal Communication
• Case Study on Intercultural Communication
• Verbal and Nonverbal Messages

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