A person is a unit of society, and not only personal well-being, but life in general depends on his interaction with his own kind. Information can be exchanged both verbally and non-verbally. Which of these communication methods is more effective? What is the role of non-verbal and verbal means of human communication? We'll talk about this below.
Which way of communication is more important?
It is impossible to give an unequivocal answer to this question, since in business communication the verbal method prevails, and in interpersonal communication, rather, the non-verbal one.
Let's imagine a situation where a person who reads a report, instead of the expected and necessary dry facts, begins to gesticulate, clatter his lips, wink, jump, and so on. will amuse the dormant audience, but can be perceived ambiguously. Business means the maximum pronunciation of the information that needs to be conveyed to the interlocutor. But even in a dry report there are many non-verbal components.
When talking to people with whom you have developed a close emotional connection, saying some points can look more ridiculous than replacing them with more understandable gestures. For example, when we call a person to come with us, it is enough to nod our head towards the exit; a sharp nod up and down with eyes wide open will mean a questioning look, which can be answered with a nod (which will mean "yes"), shake your head left and right (which will mean "no") or a shrug of the shoulders, which means "I don't I know".
Verbal
Speaking, listening, writing and reading are verbal means of communication. In oral or written communication, the exchange of knowledge occurs only through coded information (in the form of sounds or symbols).
Verbal communication, of course, has brought great benefits to humanity due to its unique function of high-speed duplication of the world. Saying the phrase "a cup is on the table" is much easier than trying to portray it with gestures.
By duplicating, a language encodes information into a very compact format. This unit of information is so conveniently transmitted from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation that it is thanks to verbal communication that we can see pictures of the world that was long before us.
Nonverbal
We receive most of the information about a person in the course of non-verbal communication, which can be synchronized with verbal communication or be an independent way of communication.
The interaction of non-verbal and verbal means of communication often occurs at a subconscious level. The latter include facial expressions, gestures, pantomime, change of location in the course of communication. But also of great importance in non-verbal communication is the appearance, style of clothing, hairstyle or headdress, accessories and aroma of a person.
A well-groomed, neat person with collected facial expressions and gestures can already tell a lot about himself to the interlocutor. At a minimum, you can read that a person respects himself, likes a certain style of clothing, prefers a certain brand of phone, works on his speech or is talented by nature, strives to make good money, has a positive attitude towards life, had a manicure this week, etc. Appearance - this is the first portion of non-verbal information. That is why they say that they are met by clothes.
Without facial expressions, gestures and pantomime, verbal communication would look boring and incomplete. In addition, it makes it possible to understand the true essence of words, because even the word "thank you", pronounced with different intonation, can have an absolutely opposite meaning.
Intonation, voice pitch, length of spoken sounds, facial expressions, gestures, posture, body dynamics, angle between interlocutors, gaze... All this can say more than the words themselves. If a person is well brought up, then the discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal information manifests itself more often.
For example, someone educated is late for the train, and his interlocutor still does not finish his story. Although this intelligent comrade will claim that he is attentively listening to his friend, his feet are likely to be directed towards the exit, with his eyes he will subconsciously look for alternative ways to leave the room, scratch or pull at his fingertips. Gestures and facial expressions can be both conscious and project our subconscious.
The effective use of verbal means of communication with non-verbal ones makes it possible to perceive information in the most voluminous way. That's why many messengers offer a whole arsenal of emoticons, cartoons and GIF animations.
Verbal means of communication
The characteristic of this communication method comes from the main functions, one of which is the transmission of encoded information. A code is a set of words in a particular language. For full-fledged communication, it is necessary that the interlocutors speak at least one common language, otherwise the words may be misinterpreted or not understood at all.
Many have had to be in a situation where you had to show or ask for directions from a foreigner in a language that you do not speak, or make out his broken Russian. Meeting an incomprehensible look and assessing the complexity of what is happening, the whole arsenal of non-verbal means begins to be used.
Therefore, an important characteristic of verbal means of communication is the clarity of the material presented. Unfortunately, misunderstandings in a conversation are much more common than you might think. This also applies to those cases when people speak the same language, but formulate their thoughts differently.
It turns out that the information seems to be voiced, but it is in the air, since the interlocutor is unable to accept it and sort it out, or the accents are so incorrectly placed in it that it is not possible to understand it correctly. Sounds are made, but there is little sense in them.
Types of speech activity
Speech communication can be both oral and written. Oral verbal means of communication include speaking and listening, and written means of writing and reading.
During the day, we use all four types of speech activity without knowing it. Even on the most passive day off, we greet someone, answer someone, listen to someone, read an ad in the entrance, a new newspaper or news on the Internet, send a message in a messenger ...
Although scientists consider verbal means of communication to be a bad way of communication, none of our days can do without them.
speaking
Just as one can listen but not hear, one can also speak but not say anything. Let's remember a boring lesson at school or a lecture at an institute that was not seasoned with emotions or hard facts, there was no such information that could leave an imprint in our memory. Or, for example, an ordinary conversation with a distant acquaintance about nature and weather, when silence looks ridiculous, but you don’t want to tell the secret.
Speaking, viewed through the prism of verbalism, is a competent linear and, most importantly, an understandable presentation of information to everyone. But here's the trouble: if the speech is monotonous, devoid of the necessary intonation, pauses and precise gestures, then it is impossible to perceive it for a long time. Even the most interested listener will not be able to delve into the essence of the text after 45 minutes. All the efforts of the teacher or speaker are no longer perceived by the audience.
In order for the information to reach the listener and, if possible, not immediately fly out of his head, this verbal method must be supplemented with non-verbal tricks. That is, to make accents, which works like For example, after voicing very important key information, it is worth pausing and then repeating the last sentence again. It is even better if this pause is complemented by a raised index finger.
Hearing
Listening is the most active type of speech activity, nothing more than decoding the information spoken. Although this process is more passive, it still requires considerable intellectual costs. It is especially difficult for those listeners who have poor command of the speaker's language or certain professional terminology, or the speaker does not express his thoughts linearly, jumping from topic to topic, forgetting what he was talking about at the beginning. Then the listener's brain works in an enhanced mode in order to put together a more or less clear picture from this.
It is worth separating the process of listening from hearing. Let there be no such word, but there are many popular expressions: it flew past the ears, flew into one ear, flew out into the other, etc. What does this mean? The listener accepts information only when it is intended to receive it. If internal problems or interests dominate information from outside, then most likely it will not be perceived.
We hear only important or interesting information, and just listen to everything else. For this, we must say thank you to our brain, because it knows how to divide all the surrounding noise into fractions and weed out the extra ones, otherwise we would just go crazy.
Letter
Writing is a type of verbal communication that appeared later than the previous two, but in our time its popularity has grown markedly: school notebooks, personal diaries, business documents... A striking example of a verbal means of communication in writing are dialogues in a social network.
However, the letter has one very important function - accumulative. This is the accumulation of information in large volumes, which would be impossible without its fixation.
Reading
Reading, as a type of communicative activity, is an analytical and synthetic process. The reader must decode the symbols written on paper, define the words so that they sound in his head, and, of course, understand the meaning of what he read.
In the first grade, when reading syllable by syllable, it is very difficult for children to concentrate on the content of the text, since most of their attention is occupied by decoding what is written in the book.
Learning foreign languages, people again go through all the same stages of adaptation to the written text. This is especially true for languages that use symbols that are unusual for us: Arabic, Georgian, Chinese, Berber and others.
Reading, we analyze and synthesize information, but if we are unable to generalize, draw conclusions and predict, reading is not of great benefit. Remember when at school the teacher asked: "Did you read or did you remember the letters?"
Types of verbal means of communication
Depending on the number of persons participating in the communicative process, dialogic and monologue communication are distinguished.
Everyone knows that a dialogue is a conversation between two or more people. It can be business, interpersonal or conflict in nature. Interview, conversation, discussion, interview and debate are referred to as dialogical communication.
A monologue is a story of one person. It can be directed both outside, to the public (lecture, theatrical monologue, report, etc.), and take place inside a person (internal monologue).
Zones of oral verbal communication
Have you noticed how uncomfortable you feel when a person comes too close to you in interpersonal communication? And how surprising is it when the other person, on the contrary, moves away, keeping a distance of two meters? Although this can be attributed specifically to non-verbal manifestations, however, when speaking verbally, it is worth knowing these rules for maintaining distance so as not to be considered strange or not to drive a person into an awkward position.
So, the intimate zone is a distance of up to 25 centimeters. It is often violated in public transport, but there are good reasons for this. If you get too close to a stranger, don't be surprised if they pull away. We let only the most trusted people into this zone, and the intrusion of outsiders causes at least discomfort.
Difficulties
Verbal means of communication (oral and written speech), according to the assumptions of some scientists, transmit only 20 to 40 percent of information. This means that the non-verbal component significantly prevails.
Indeed, if the facial expressions, gestures and pantomime of a person disgust us, then it does not matter at all what he will say.
So, with verbal face-to-face communication, the most complete exchange of information occurs, since the interlocutors have the opportunity to observe each other's facial expressions and gestures, catch intonations, smell the aroma, which is also a very important component of non-verbalism.
However, there are people (and in our time their number has increased markedly) who, when talking face to face, cannot convey very important or reverent information, it is much easier for them to do this using remote means of communication.
The total illiteracy of the population began to progress 15 years ago, when mobile communications and the Internet became available to almost everyone. The era of SMS has given rise to painful conciseness, frequent correspondence in various instant messengers and social networks has blurred the line between business and friendly communication.
Communication- this is the interaction of two or more people, which is the exchange of information of a cognitive or emotional-evaluative nature. This exchange is provided by non-verbal and verbal means of communication.
It seems that it could be easier to communicate through speech? But in fact, this process is not easy and ambiguous.
Verbal communicationis the process of exchanging information between people (or groups of people) using speech means. Simply put, verbal communication iscommunication through words, speech.
Of course, in addition to the transmission of specific “dry” information, during verbal communication, peopleinteractwith each other emotionally andaffecteach other, conveying their feelings and emotions in words.
In addition to verbal, there are alsonon-verbalcommunication (transmission of information without words, through facial expressions, gestures, pantomime). But this distinction is conditional. In practice, verbal and non-verbal communication are directly related to each other.
Body language always complements, “illustrates” speech. Pronouncing a certain set of words and trying to convey some idea to the interlocutor through them, a person speaks with a certain intonation, facial expression, gesticulating, changing posture, and so on, that is, helping himself in every possible way and supplementing speech with non-verbal means of communication.
Althoughspeech- it is a universal, rich and expressive means of information exchange, very little information is transmitted through it -less than 35%! Of these, only 7% falls directly on the words, the rest is intonation, tone and other sound means. More65% information is transmitted using non-verbal means of communication!
The priority of non-verbal means of communication is explained by psychologists by the fact that the non-verbal communication channel is simpler, evolutionarily more ancient, spontaneous and difficult to control (after all, non-verbalunconscious). And speech is the result of workconsciousness. Human awarethe meaning of your words as you speak them. Before you say something, you can always (and should) think, but controlling your facial expression or a spontaneous gesture is an order of magnitude harder.
The Importance of Verbal Communication
At personal, emotional-sensory communication is dominated (they are more priority and important) non-verbal means of communication. INbusinessinteraction, the ability to correctly, clearly, clearly convey one’s ideas verbally is more important, that is, the ability to competently build one’s monologue, conduct a dialogue, understand and correctly interpret in the first placespeechanother man.
The ability to competently express yourself, your personality through speech is very important in a business environment. Self-presentation, interviews, long-term cooperation, resolving disagreements and conflicts, finding compromises and other business interaction requires the ability to communicate effectivelythrough words.
If personal relationships are impossible without emotions and feelings, then business communication is for the most partemotionless.If emotions are present in it, then they are either hidden or expressed in the most restrained, ethical form. The literacy of speech and the culture of verbal communication are valued mainly.
But in matters of the heart, the ability totalk and negotiate! Long-term love, friendships and, of course, a strong family are built on the ability to speak, listen and hear each other.
Verbal means of communication
Oralspeech is the main and very important means of verbal communication, but not the only one. Speech is also distinguished as separate verbal means of communication.written And internalspeech (dialogue with oneself).
If you don’t need to learn non-verbal skills (these are innate skills), then verbal means of communication involve the development of certainskills, namely:
- perceive speech,
- listen and hear what the interlocutor says,
- speak competently (monologue) and conduct a conversation (dialogue),
- write well,
- conduct an internal dialogue.
especiallysuch communication skills are valued How:
- the ability to speak concisely, clearly formulating an idea,
- the ability to speak briefly, to the point,
- the ability not to deviate from the topic, to avoid a large number of “lyrical digressions”,
- the ability to inspire, motivate, convince, motivate speech,
- the ability to interest in speech, to be an interesting interlocutor,
- honesty, the habit of telling the truth and not uttering unverified information (which may turn out to be a lie),
- attentiveness during communication, the ability to accurately retell what was heard,
- the ability to objectively accept and correctly understand what is said by the interlocutor,
- the ability to “translate” the words of the interlocutor, determining for themselves their very essence,
- the ability to take into account the level of intelligence and other individual psychological characteristics of the interlocutor (for example, not to use terms whose meanings the interlocutor probably does not know),
- mood for a positive assessment of the speech of the interlocutor and his personality, the ability to find good intentions of a person even in negative words.
There are many other communication skills that are important for anyone who wants to be successful in their profession and happy in their personal lives.
Barriers to Verbal Communication
What a wonderful interlocutor it would not be possible to become, it must be borne in mind that human speechimperfect.
Verbal communication is the mutual exchange of information in whichAlwaysthere are several barriers. The meaning of words is lost, changed, misinterpreted, deliberately changed, and so on. This is because the information coming from the mouth of one person, coming to the second, overcomes several barriers.
Psychologist Predrag Micic in the book "How to have business conversations"described a scheme of gradual impoverishment of information during verbal communication.
The complete information (all 100%) that needs to be conveyed to the interlocutor is contained only in the mind of the speaker. Inner speech is more varied, richer and deeper than outer speech, therefore, already during its transformation into external speech, 10% of information is lost.
This is the first barrier to verbal communication, which Mitsich called"The Limit of the Imagination".A person cannot express everything he wants through words because of their limitations (compared to thoughts).
The second barrier is"Barrier of Desire"Even a thought that is ideally formulated to oneself is not always possible to express out loud the way you want for various reasons, at least because you have to adapt to your interlocutor and take into account the situation of communication with him. At this stage, another 10% of information is lost.
The fourth barrier is purely psychological -"Relationship Barrier". What and how one person hears, listening to another, depends on his attitude towards him. As a rule, out of 70% of the information heard, the interlocutor understands only 60% precisely for the reason that the need to logically comprehend what is heard is mixed with a personal attitude towards the speaker.
And finally, the last barrier -“memory capacity”. This is not so much a barrier to direct verbal communication as human memory. In memory, on average, only about25-10% information received from another person.
This is how out of 100% of the information that was originally in the mind of one person, only 10% is transmitted to another.
That is why it is so important to convey your thought as accurately and fully as possible, to convey it clearly and unambiguously, to express it in words understandable to the interlocutor, to try to make him hear, understand and remember what was said.
If you are talking to a person, this does not mean that words are the only information that your interlocutor receives. Of course, words are one of the main aspects in communication, but this is not the only and sometimes even the last thing we understand when talking with a person. Today we will talk about what non-verbal communication is.
Interpersonal communication contains many so-called non-verbal, that is, not related to words, communication. Do you think that this is only a small part of interpersonal interaction? Oh, that's far from it.
Of all our communication, only 7% are the words themselves. And all the other 93% are the same
What does non-verbal communication include?
Firstly, in communication we receive a lot of information through sound and sound means (about 38%). These are the tone of voice, volume, intonation of sound, the presence and absence of pauses, as well as numerous sounds that are not related to words, but show us the emotions of the interlocutor (for example, various exclamations and interjections “a”, “hoo”, “oh-oh- o”, “ooo”, “eh”, “mmm”).
But that's not all. We receive most of the information (at least 55%) through non-verbal means. These include facial expressions, gestures, postures, movement and position of our body. Rubbed your nose, touched your cheek, scratched your ear or back of your head, crossed your fingers, arms or legs, put your hand in your pocket or put it forward, lowered or raised your head - all this and much more is there. elements of non-verbal means. Now imagine how much we can “say” and how much we can “hear” by touching our face a couple of times during a conversation, frowning our eyebrows, crossing or relaxing our arms.
And one of the most important remarks, if not the most important, is that on Words can lie, but body language cannot. Of course, every rule has its exceptions. But these are just exceptions. By nature, our body cannot tell lies. Our gestures say what we think and feel. Why, you ask? There is a logical explanation here.
If you have ever dealt with Gestalt psychology, you have probably heard of focal and peripheral attention. If you have not encountered, then in a nutshell I will explain what this means. You and I can have one at the same time central (focal) attention and focus on one thing while everything else is in the zone peripheral attention.
Non-verbal communication
For example, you are watching a movie and eating popcorn. Your focus is on the movie, and your peripheral attention is on eating the popcorn. The most important thing is that the action performed on the periphery is done "on the machine", by itself. You do not think about how to take popcorn, how to pinch your fingers to grab corn, how to raise your hand and how to put popcorn in your mouth? If you are learning to play musical instruments, then you pay attention to the keys (strings or anything else), how and in what sequence you press them. But when you reach a certain level of skill, the way you play moves to the periphery, and the focus is on the melody.
The same thing happens to us during communication. We always focus on the words, on what we say. Less attention is paid to how we speak. And we pay very little attention to what we are doing, how we stand, what movements we make. And this is quite natural, we have only one focal attention. Our body operates on the periphery. We think and say, what we think or what we want to say is the focus. We think and say with the body what we think (a little confusing, isn't it, but it reflects the essence :)).
Our body expresses our own thoughts, feelings, mood, assessment. But since the posture, gestures and facial expressions are on the periphery, our consciousness cannot control them completely. And therefore, our words can tell a lie, but the body does not know how to lie.
How to recognize this mysterious "body language", how to unravel the sounds and intonation? The most important thing in this case is to listen, to observe. This is the first and easiest thing anyone can do. I will reveal a little the secrets of non-verbal communication. This knowledge is insanely interesting (at least for me) and, as experience has shown, can be useful. After all, we all communicate every day with many people. Being able to understand the non-verbal communication of other people and correctly express your thoughts is a very useful ability. And besides, each of you can become researcher of non-verbal communication. And perhaps, in the future, write your own article about your experience.
We tend to communicate with each other. Conversation is a process of exchanging opinions that are of interest to each other. It is impossible to imagine our life without it. There are verbal and non-verbal means of communication. In this article, we will focus on the first type in more detail.
If non-verbal communication is carried out through facial expressions and gestures, then with verbal communication it is much easier. With it, a person uses only words to exchange information with an interlocutor. So, verbal communication in a broad sense is the process of exchanging information between people, carried out by speech means.
People understand the meaning of verbal communication as opposed to non-verbal communication. After all, there is nothing complicated here. A person makes sounds from which words are obtained. If these words are interconnected in meaning, and the interlocutor understands the thought of his friend and answers him in the same way, then this is communication in a verbal way. There is nothing complicated here, is it?
Let's take a closer look at verbal and non-verbal communication, or rather, one of the myths that says that non-verbal contains much more information than verbal. There is some truth in this, but more often it is not. There are times when people don't talk to each other. However, they show dissatisfaction or something else to the interlocutor with the help of a simple gesture or facial expressions.
In this case, this myth is justified. But for the most part, people communicate through conversation. As examples, a boss assigns a task to his subordinate or junior manager. In this case, do not pay attention to his gestures or facial expressions. Here it is necessary to catch the words, they are important sources of information. Such communication is not an expression of one's own feelings, nor is it affiliative communication. So we considered verbal and non-verbal means of communication.
Communication rules
Verbal types of communication imply the observance of certain rules. Bring clarity to the conversation. It is necessary that the interlocutor understands you as best as possible, what you said to him and what you want. But this doesn't always work out. Many cannot immediately clearly and clearly form a sentence that will contain the main idea. Such verbal communication is unpleasant for the interlocutor.
He, in turn, ceases to perceive this information, begins to be distracted and “leave aside” what has been said. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly improve the quality of communication in a verbal way. You need to strive for the perfect conversation. Here are some tips to help you become a good conversationalist:
- Learn to speak correctly and as little as possible, but at the same time, without changing the meaning of the information brought. Speak clearly, clearly. The main idea must be correctly formulated.
- Follow the conversation of the interlocutor. And most importantly, listen carefully. Do not pretend that you are not listening to the person. In this case, he will lose interest in such communication and this will not lead to anything outstanding. Support him in different ways and do not move away from the conversation, do not get distracted. This is important to us.
- Be able to fully understand what you have been told. Not only the ability to listen correctly, but also to hear correctly. Understand that not all of us can clearly and briefly express the necessary thought, immediately start with the main thing. People do not always know how to communicate correctly, they start doing it from afar, and sometimes they miss the necessary thought. That's what you need to catch. Help such a person to understand what he said, help him understand his own words. It's important to the conversation.
- Rebuild what the interlocutor said in your head for yourself. That is, try to perceive these words personally for yourself.
More about verbal communication
Let's get back to verbal communication. So, verbal means of communication include speech and voice. We write a speech on a piece of paper, and sometimes we say it out loud to a friend, we can read a magazine without voicing it, or we just think about tomorrow and make some plan in our head. All this is speech.
It turns out that verbal communication is not only a conversation with an interlocutor, but also reading a book, speaking in front of an audience, and even your own thoughts expressed in words.
At the present stage of development of the psychology of communication, we understand that it is not always possible to understand a business person in verbal communication. As examples, relatives from South America or some other country came to you. They can learn Russian and more or less navigate it, but they will not be able to understand some words with diminutive suffixes. For this purpose, experts have created some rules that apply to business verbal communication.
So, in modern Russian there are 5 text styles. These are such types as official business, scientific, colloquial and so on. All information transmitted by us to the interlocutor refers to one or another style of speech. In a scientific style, speech should be logical and generalized, and in colloquial speech, this is the dialogue of two people, ordinary everyday conversations. Try to speak with your foreign guest in a scientific language, without any interjections and diminutive words.
Communication barriers
In communication between two business people, the verbal form is more often used. This is due to the fact that such people express their main thoughts briefly and clearly, using simple Russian, and not using any emotions and feelings. In the course of such a business conversation, it would be ridiculous not to know the rules of the Russian language, to make speech and stylistic mistakes. This is not the level where it is allowed. However, there are other problems that are called communication barriers:
- logic barrier. People have different types of thinking. One is highly intelligent, and the second has a lower level of intelligence development. This is where the logical barrier comes in. People stop understanding each other.
- common sense barrier. The bottom line is a misunderstanding of people from different countries. Indeed, in different localities, the same words may have a different meaning, the problem is in the different tolerance of people and their understanding of the same word. For some, it may seem ordinary, but for others it may be considered hostile to themselves.
- phonetic barrier. Such a barrier is most common, as it is due to the defiant diction of the interlocutor, for example, or some kind of business accent. Try to eliminate this barrier from communication. Speak directly and clearly.
Communication levels
Verbal communication, like non-verbal communication, has its own characteristics, which we will talk about now. When talking to a person, pay attention to the distance at which you are from each other. We will look at some basic communication layers:
- Intuition (or, intuitive level). We are talking about a person who somewhere did not fully hear any news or misunderstood the essence of the information they read. He transforms it the way he wants it. Such a person will not always correctly understand a hint in his direction, especially a very subtle hint.
- ethical level. Here we are talking about non-verbal means of communication. If a business person has a well-developed intuition, then he will easily understand any gesture or facial expression of his interlocutor. So he will understand what is really at stake.
- physical level. It appears only when the distance between communicating people is small enough. It is carried out due to any kind of touch. It is enough to pay attention to the frequent heartbeat or the manifestation of any emotions in a person, and much can be understood from this information.
Features of communication at the verbal level
The most important feature of verbal communication is that it is peculiar only to a person. The condition for such verbal communication is language acquisition. Due to this, much more information is transmitted with verbal communication than with non-verbal communication. But it will not be possible to completely exclude the non-verbal component in everyday life, no matter how much we would like to. When talking, some feelings, emotions still appear, facial expressions change. It is impossible to do without it.
In the process of even a short business communication, it is easy to find out what level of intelligence the interlocutor has. This is followed by a determination of his position in society. Through communication, we influence other people in a direct way. And imagine that in most cases, career growth, that is, the career growth of a business person, depends on communication. And gestures or facial expressions in this case, it is almost impossible to express. Be able to speak, use verbal rather than verbal ways. We do not pay attention to other types.
Sometimes we meet new people whom we have never encountered before in our life. It doesn't matter if the meeting is scheduled or random. The first thing we pay attention to is the appearance of a business person. How he looks, what he is wearing, what perfume and how he behaves.
The next stage of familiarization is already connected with communication. And often at this stage the idea of a person changes. Before that, everything could have been fine, but after hearing his speech, it immediately becomes clear that there is no desire to continue such communication, and negative things happen. The main thing is that you yourself do not find yourself in such a situation, in the place of this person. Watch your speech, speak correctly and understandably for others.
How often have you thought about the fact that the words "communication" and "society" are very similar. It is impossible to imagine human existence in society without communication. Communication is both a way of interaction between people and a means of exchanging information and activities. It is communication that is the basis of interpersonal relationships and the key to successful communication. In this article we will consider such concepts as verbal and non-verbal communication.
Humans have an undeniable advantage over other life forms: they can communicate
Verbal communication is the transfer of information through words. This concept includes oral and written speech. It is verbal communication that has the greatest rationality and awareness. When a person is engaged in mental activity, various words pop up in his subconscious. This means that human speech is an integral part of thinking. The concept of verbal communication consists of four processes: writing, reading, listening and speaking.
In psychology, there are three functions that verbal communication carries: will, expressive and informational. The last of these features gives people the ability to share information. It should be mentioned here that incorrectly presented information can give rise to misunderstandings and become a source of conflict. Because of this, it is very important to be able to correctly and competently convey your thoughts to others. If something is clear to you, then it is not necessary that the interlocutor will also understand it. Some words have different meanings, and their misinterpretation can create problems in contact between people. The stronger the bond between the people in the dialogue, the lower the chance that they will encounter a similar problem.
There is even a folk saying about people who have no difficulty in communicating with each other. They say about such people that they "found a common language." The will function is often referred to as the reality function. It contains the possibility of influencing one person on another with the help of words. A correctly composed phrase can completely change human destiny. It is this component of communications that is responsible for persuasion and suggestion.
Let's look at examples of verbal communication in a situation where parents choose certain words to influence the child's behavior. Volitional verbal communication is also manifested in communication between managers and staff, when well-chosen words can affect the efficiency of the work process. In each of the cases described, there is only one goal - to change the behavior of people with the help of words.
Communication is considered one of the main forms of human social activity. The expressive function of verbal communication is often called the function of emotional interaction. Each of the languages on our planet has expressiveness, and is able to embellish words with vivid emotions. In the literature, various hyperbole, comparisons and epithets are used to convey emotions. If for a moment imagine a situation in which people would give up their emotions, then their behavior would become similar to the action of robots. The speech itself, which has lost its emotional color, resembles technical documentation. It is the emotions in the added words that increase the chance to correctly convey your thoughts to the interlocutor.
There are certain types of verbal communication. They include:
- Communication- this term should be understood as the exchange of information between several people.
- cognitive communication- acquisition of new knowledge.
- Emotional- includes the expression of one's own emotions through intonation.
- accumulative– accumulation and storage of information that can be used in the future.
- Ethnic- a way to unite people using one language for communication.
- Constructive- the correct and clear expression of one's own thoughts.
- Contact setting- a way to create a relationship between several people.
How verbal communication is used
Having dealt with what verbal communication is, let's move on to consider how verbal communications are used. It is the verbal means of communication that make it possible to competently and clearly state their feelings, emotions and thoughts.
There are also colloquial expressions that may be obscure to the interlocutor. The expression of your thoughts should be consistent and logical. To do this, you need to constantly improve yourself and expand your vocabulary. For this purpose, you can attend public speaking courses, as well as devote as much time as possible to reading.
A well-delivered speech can not only convince the interlocutor to accept your point of view, but also attract interest in your person. You should also pay attention to developing the ability to hear other people. Professional etiquette is an integral part of business communication, which some people devote many years to learning.
Speech is considered a verbal means of communication. Non-verbal means of communication
Non-verbal communication is done through body language. This concept includes the distance between people, touch and posture. Much attention is paid to facial expressions and gestures. It is important to pay attention to the fact that this form of communication is less conscious. Most people are unable to take full control of their own body. That is why the movements of the eyes and lips can make it clear to the interlocutor about the veracity of the speaker's words.
Gesticulation serves as the main complement to the verbal transmission of information. This means that in certain cases, gestures can completely replace words. Movements of the arms, shoulders, body and head are a manifestation of gesticulation. In human psychology, gestures are classified into the following categories:
- Communicative- gestures with which a person greets or says goodbye to another person, attracts attention, asks a question or denies something. There are more than a few dozen varieties of communicative gestures.
- Modal- estimating and expressing attitude gestures. This category includes approving gestures, gestures that demonstrate trust or distrust in the words of the interlocutor.
- descriptive- such gestures make sense only in conjunction with speech.
- facial expressions- the movement of the facial muscles, reflecting the emotions of a person. It should be noted that for representatives of different cultures, mimic gestures are universal. People show emotions such as anger, joy and sadness in the same way all over the world. According to scientists, it is almost impossible to completely control your gaze and facial expressions.
There is a special classification for the look. During business communication, people concentrate their gaze on the forehead of the interlocutor. This action in a way emphasizes the seriousness of the reigning atmosphere. Social look - directed to the nose. It is this look that allows you to create an atmosphere of ease during communication. An intimate look is directed to the neck of the interlocutor. Such a look can demonstrate the presence of an interest in closer communication.
Features of verbal communication are such that some views can be regarded in two ways. A sidelong glance can mean both interest in the words of the interlocutor, and express hostility. That is why it is very important to be able to decipher additional emotions. A smile and raised eyebrows can be an expression of interest in a conversation. The lowered corners of the lips and the furrowed forehead clearly demonstrate a critical attitude towards the interlocutor.
Conversation is a way of exchanging information between people and building relationships. Non-verbal means of communication include pantomime. The position of the body of the interlocutor in space can clearly demonstrate the relationship of a person to the situation that has arisen. There are two distinct types of postures: closed and open. The first posture implies crossed arms or legs, which clearly indicates an attempt to protect oneself from communication. An open posture, on the contrary, indicates a readiness to continue the conversation.
A person's style of movement can say as much about a person as his speech. The amplitude, rhythm and dynamics of the step is a reflection of the human soul. A self-confident person walks lightly, and each step pushes the body off the ground, as if springs are attached to the legs. For a person who knows how to understand body language, a person’s gait can tell about the character, age and mood of its owner.
Posture, like gait, is regulated by reflexes. It is with the help of posture that one can understand the mood of the interlocutor, as it clearly demonstrates his sense of the world. To some extent, incorrect posture can cause a repulsive effect. In order to achieve effective and fruitful communication, one must learn to adopt the correct position of the back and neck. You should also pay attention to the general motor skills of the body. Increased fussiness, nervous and crumpled movements not only irritate the people around you, but also clearly demonstrate your insecurity in yourself and your words. That is why you should keep your body under strict control during important conversations.
Touching can be regarded as an attempt to invade the interlocutor's personal space. The appropriateness of touch depends on how our speech sounds. Business etiquette includes only shaking hands. Other forms of touch in such a situation are unacceptable. Psychologists say that there are three forms of handshake:
- dominant- your hand lies on top, but okay directed down.
- submissive- your hand lies down.
- Equitable- the palm is directed with an edge to the ground.
The distance between people clearly demonstrates the degree of their trust between them. There are a certain number of zones, each of which has its own characteristics. The intimate intersubjective zone is about half a meter and only close people communicate in this zone. The personal zone does not exceed one and a half meters. In this zone, an informal conversation takes place. The social zone varies from one and a half to three and a half meters. In this zone, formal relations between employees of a particular enterprise are carried out. There is also a public intersubjective zone, where the distance between interlocutors is more than three and a half meters.
In human society, communication can be carried out both verbally and non-verbally. Functions of non-verbal communication
Verbal means of communication include various ways to convey information verbally or in writing. Non-verbal means of communication allow you to supplement oral speech and give it more emotional colors. In some situations, non-verbal means completely replace verbal contact. An example is silent films, where the actors conveyed the essence of what was happening with the help of body language. This art is called "pantomime".
Also, non-verbal means of communication have the same set of functions as verbal ones. Each gesture and movement of the body allows you to convey information, express emotions and influence the interlocutor. Mastering this technique of communication is quite difficult. By focusing on the correct presentation of words and thoughts, most people completely forget about controlling their gestures. In some situations, the words may not match the body language completely. When a person talks about confidence, but his posture demonstrates the opposite, the interlocutor tends to believe exactly the body language.
That is why you should pay great attention to gestures in a conversation with other people. You should not try to hide your hands, since such a pose can be regarded as an attempt to close yourself from the interlocutor. Open palms facing the interlocutor are a sign of trust. When conducting business negotiations, one should try to stay as collected as possible and try to avoid relaxed or closed postures. In order to create comfortable conditions for a conversation, you should calculate in advance the correct distance for a conversation.
In order to master both communication techniques, one should develop such qualities as goodwill and confidence. . Constant self-development allows you to reach a level where body language and speech complement each other.
