A Preliminary Study Of Differences In Chinese & Australian Class Etiquette From The Perspective Of Nonverbal Communication

In the process of globalization, people from different cultures are closely connected. However, many examples demonstrate that although much intercultural communication is synchronous and harmonious, much is fraught with friction, conflict and numerous misunderstandings. Since the academic exchanges between China and Australia turn out to be more than ever, it is urgent and necessary to clarify the differences of class etiquette which varies from culture to culture.Class etiquette is represented by verbal and nonverbal behaviors that are considered acceptable and should be followed in class activities. According to Grant and Hennings (1971), "82% of the notions used in a classroom are nonverbal while only 18% are verbal." Therefore, it is self-evident that nonverbal communication plays a crucial role in class etiquette. Whether teachers and students display appropriate class etiquette largely depends on proper and effective nonverbal exchanges.Based on the thinking in these respects, the author intended to identify differences in Chinese and Australian class etiquette from the perspective of nonverbal communication so as to smooth the way for mutual academic promotion. The author proposed in this study the following two questions:1) Are there any differences in Chinese and Australian class etiquette from the perspective of nonverbal communication? If yes, what are they?2) If nonverbal differences do exist, what are underlying different concepts in Chinese and Australian class etiquette?In the research, a questionnaire of 28 statements was designed by the author to investigate nonverbal behaviors both in Chinese and Australian classes. The 120 subjects in the study were all students (60 from East China University of Technology and 60 from Curtin University of Technology in Australia). Excluding invalid questionnaire sheets, 52 subjects were chosen from each group so that a sound comparison would be conducted. The program SPSS 13.0 was used to conduct the analysis.The results are as follows:1) Apart from clothing, nonverbal differences in all the other five categories were statistically significant. Nonverbal behaviors in either Chinese or Australian class etiquette bore the marks of its own culture. These two cultures, one being the typical traditional Eastern culture and the other a typical Western culture, led to noticeably different nonverbal behaviors in class etiquette. The general trend of teachers' and students' nonverbal behaviors in Chinese classroom tended to be indirect and formal, while in Australian classroom, that tended to be direct and informal.2) The findings of the research also revealed the underlying concepts of apparent distinctions chiefly in two aspects, i.e., hierarchy vs. egalitarianism; high-context culture vs. low-context culture.In this research, a lot of work was done to compare and present exact nonverbal distinctions in Chinese and Australian class etiquette from the following aspects -class environment; class routine and body language. The author sincerely hopes that it will help teachers and students who intend to participate in bicultural classes or carry the study in related fields to form an impression of the differences and benefit from it.