| The world people live in is shrinking. Improvements in transportation technology, developments in communication technology and globalization of the economy are leading the world to a global village and making various cultures of the world far more accessible than ever before.With its entry into WTO, China has established its indisputable status of importance in the world and it will inevitably make intercultural contact with an increasing number of countries. As a result, China will witness the enormous interface of cultures in human affairs-from political and economic to art and leisure activities. When Chinese people are coming into contact with people from different cultural backgrounds, the realization of the importance of communicating effectively is of great significance.The process of intercultural communication is rarely smooth and problem free. In most situations, intercultural interactants do not share the same language but languages they have to learn, and larger communication problems will occur in the nonverbal realm. Nonverbal communication is a subtle, multidimentional, and usually spontaneous process. Indeed, individuals are not aware of most of their own nonverbal behavior, which is enacted mindlessly, spontaneously, and unconsciously. Since people are not usually aware of their own nonverbal behavior, it is extremely difficult to identify and master nonverbal behavior of another culture. Besides, nonverbal communication, a process that comprisestopics such as gestures, facial expressions, eye contact and gaze, posture and movement, touching, dress, silence, space, time and paralanguage, is a complex system itself.Most important of all, nonverbal communication is subject to the influence of culture in that communication and culture are inseparable. Hall (1984) pointed out that culture is primarily a nonverbal phenomenon because most aspects of one's culture are learned through observation and imitation rather than explicit verbal instruction or expression. The primary level of culture is communicated implicitly, for culture is expressed primarily by nonverbal means. People may have rudimentary knowledge about such nonverbal cues as gestures and facial codes, but they have almost no systematic knowledge on customs regulating physical contact, time and space codes and the underlying reasons for them.The lack of knowledge of nonverbal communication will give rise to cultural barriers in intercultural communication. However, quite a few Chinese scholars have made it clear that Chinese students are in need of raising nonverbal communication awareness. Therefore, increasing Chinese students' awareness of nonverbal communication should be made a goal of FLT.The dissertation comprises seven chapters.Chapter One serves as an introduction that gives a brief account of the purpose and the layout of the dissertation.Chapter Two defines communication, culture, and intercultural communication. It also examines the ingredients of communication and culture, and forms of intercultural communication. It can be noted that culture and intercultural communication are inseparably linked.Chapter Three is concerned with basic knowledge about nonverbal communication: its definition, functions and categories. Besides, it distinguishes nonverbal communication from verbal communication by attributing unique features to nonverbal communication.Chapter Four reviews the codes of nonverbal communication, discusses in detail numerous examples of intercultural differences between Chinese and English-speaking people for each nonverbal code, and locates culture as a part of interpersonal communication by examining four main dimensions of cultural variation, including contact versus noncontact, high context versus low context, individualism versus collectivism, and M-time and P-time.Chapter Five investigates students' awareness of cultural differences in nonverbal communication, and the results confirm that Chinese students' nonverbal competence isinferior to verbal competence.Chapter Six prop... |
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