Language Blog
Part 1: You were asked to engage in a conversation for 15 minutes where you were not allowed to use any version of a symbolic language (no speaking, writing, or ASL).
1. Thoroughly describe your own experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment. Did you find this assignment easy or difficult and why? Did your partners alter the way they communicated with you because of your absence of communication?
- For this portion of this assignment, I gathered my four roommates and we conducted random conversations. We spiced it up slightly by creating a drinking game with whoever guessed wrong with what I was trying to say. It wasn't long until the drinks began to flow but eventually my roommates began to pick up the topics I was trying to "speak" about. We are all golfers and we had previously played a round just earlier in the day. I tried to explain my way around one of the holes I played today but this proved difficult for the first few minutes. I found this assignment much more difficult then I thought it would be, mostly because there were times that I had something to say but I simply couldn't through non-verbal communication or people were just talking over me. Public speaking or speaking in general, takes much effort in both hand movements as well as verbal communication. Not being able to do either, it was difficult to convey what I wanted to explain. My partners in the experiment did end up altering the way they communicated but not entirely. They would sometimes try to make other hand motions rather than words in order to mimic what I was trying to say.
2. Who was in control of the conversation, you or your partner? Who initiated or changed topics? Who asked and who answered questions? If you conducted this experiment with more than one person, were you ever excluded from the conversation? If you think of a conversation as a balance of power between two (or more) individuals, who had the power in this conversation, you or your partner.
- I found that my partners were more in control of the conversation. I would do my best to say what I had in mind but eventually one of the others would give their input which would then lead to another one saying something else, leaving me quiet and unable to continue. As for changing topics, everyone would have their own chance to change up the topic or explain one of their best shots of the day. I never felt that there was an imbalance with my roommates changing up the subjects. I answered most of the questions, it was more difficult for me to ask a question of my own without verbal communication. At some points, I did find that I was excluded from the conversation but mostly because I couldn't blurt out my input like everyone else was. As for the balance in power in the conversation, my roommates definitely had more over me. This is simply because they had the ability to speak their minds as they pleased versus me, having to wait for my turn by eye gazes.
3. Imagine that you and your partners in the conversation represent two different cultures, one that uses spoken language and one that doesn’t. Which culture has the advantage in communicating complex ideas within their population? What attitudes might the speaking culture have toward the culture that does not use symbolic language? Can you identify any modern situations that mirror or resemble this relationship between a culture that can speak and culture that can’t?
- The culture that would have more of an advantage with communicating their ideas would definitely have to be the one with spoken language. I believe this because people can be very intricate with their word choices when it comes to the complex language that English is. I've only taken one class of ASL but from what I have learned, it's that sign language is mostly general and can be hard for some to depict. The speaking culture can have a multitude of views on the non-speaking culture but I cannot see them having a hateful view towards the other. I have tried to communicate with those of the non-speaking culture and I feel intimidated and confused. They would most likely feel the same way but there is no need to exhibit hatred towards the other just because the way they communicate. As for modern situations, there are many people who are clinically deaf and cannot hear at all. Sometimes a speaking person will unknowingly spark a conversation with someone who is deaf which can lead to some confusion for both parties.
Part 2: You were asked to spend 15 minutes communicating without any physical embellishments, i.e., no hand signals, not vocal intonation, not head, facial, or body movements.
1. Thoroughly describe your own experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment. Did you find this assignment easy or difficult and why? How did your partner(s) respond to your lack of body language? Did they have any difficulty understanding you?
- My roommates and I kept the same format for part 2 of this experiment except for one minor change. Whenever I broke character: conveying tone, subconsciously using my hands, or moving any other body parts, I would have to drink and so on. This rule applied to those who wanted to try it out as well. This assignment was much easier to converse for me than the first part because I was actually able to say everything I wanted to but only it was limited due to many factors. In response to me not using body language, my partners found it slightly more awkward and different to speak to me since I am more of tonal speaker as well as I use my hands a lot. They never really had a problem understanding what I was trying to say, but they felt it was more difficult to understand my mood about some topics.
2. What does this experiment say about our use of “signs” in our language, i.e., how important is nonspeech language techniques in our ability to communicate effectively? What type of information do humans receive about the words a person is speaking when they “read” a person’s body language?
- This experiment has definitely shown some light upon how much we subconsciously use hand motions to help our verbal communication. I would say that non-speech language techniques play a much bigger role than we think. Without using body language, facial expressions, or hand motions, our conversations would be very bland and difficult to understand one's mood. Humans receive a person's tone or mood towards something when they "read" body language. It is easy to decipher if someone is angry or more elated about a topic. If someone if hunched over, face crinkled, arms wrapped together in front, it is usually a good assumption that they are unsatisfied with what is happening. But if someone is jumping for joy, hands in the air with a big smile on their face, clearly they are more satisfied than angry about what is happening to them.
3. Describe the adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language. How might the ability to read body language help a person survive, obtain resources, and reproduce successfully?
- Being able to read body language can help an individual work their way around foreign situations when needed. If one individual is unable to understand the other because of a language barrier, simply reading body language can give lots of information to both parties. An example being one of the experiences I just had while visiting the Philippines. While going around the food vendors, I was craving many of the different types of food. Unfortunately, I can only speak broken Tagalog which is the native language. I point to the foods I want and try to convey my purchase through smiles and nods. This goes a long way because although I cannot fully speak the language, I am still able to purchase food whenever I desire.
4. Are there people who have difficulty reading body language and can you identify them? Can you describe a situation where there might be a benefit to not reading someone’s body language, i.e., a situation where perhaps body language does not give you reliable information?
- Of course there are people who prefer not reading body language as it can give them the wrong message. People with bad eyesight tend to rely mostly on hearing as their primary form of receiving information. I have a great grandfather in the Philippines that I got to visit in the last few weeks and he is 100% blind in both eyes. With this being said, body language is useless when conversing with him so we make sure to only use verbal language and hand touches with him.
1. Thoroughly describe your own experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment. Did you find this assignment easy or difficult and why? Did your partners alter the way they communicated with you because of your absence of communication?
- For this portion of this assignment, I gathered my four roommates and we conducted random conversations. We spiced it up slightly by creating a drinking game with whoever guessed wrong with what I was trying to say. It wasn't long until the drinks began to flow but eventually my roommates began to pick up the topics I was trying to "speak" about. We are all golfers and we had previously played a round just earlier in the day. I tried to explain my way around one of the holes I played today but this proved difficult for the first few minutes. I found this assignment much more difficult then I thought it would be, mostly because there were times that I had something to say but I simply couldn't through non-verbal communication or people were just talking over me. Public speaking or speaking in general, takes much effort in both hand movements as well as verbal communication. Not being able to do either, it was difficult to convey what I wanted to explain. My partners in the experiment did end up altering the way they communicated but not entirely. They would sometimes try to make other hand motions rather than words in order to mimic what I was trying to say.
2. Who was in control of the conversation, you or your partner? Who initiated or changed topics? Who asked and who answered questions? If you conducted this experiment with more than one person, were you ever excluded from the conversation? If you think of a conversation as a balance of power between two (or more) individuals, who had the power in this conversation, you or your partner.
- I found that my partners were more in control of the conversation. I would do my best to say what I had in mind but eventually one of the others would give their input which would then lead to another one saying something else, leaving me quiet and unable to continue. As for changing topics, everyone would have their own chance to change up the topic or explain one of their best shots of the day. I never felt that there was an imbalance with my roommates changing up the subjects. I answered most of the questions, it was more difficult for me to ask a question of my own without verbal communication. At some points, I did find that I was excluded from the conversation but mostly because I couldn't blurt out my input like everyone else was. As for the balance in power in the conversation, my roommates definitely had more over me. This is simply because they had the ability to speak their minds as they pleased versus me, having to wait for my turn by eye gazes.
3. Imagine that you and your partners in the conversation represent two different cultures, one that uses spoken language and one that doesn’t. Which culture has the advantage in communicating complex ideas within their population? What attitudes might the speaking culture have toward the culture that does not use symbolic language? Can you identify any modern situations that mirror or resemble this relationship between a culture that can speak and culture that can’t?
- The culture that would have more of an advantage with communicating their ideas would definitely have to be the one with spoken language. I believe this because people can be very intricate with their word choices when it comes to the complex language that English is. I've only taken one class of ASL but from what I have learned, it's that sign language is mostly general and can be hard for some to depict. The speaking culture can have a multitude of views on the non-speaking culture but I cannot see them having a hateful view towards the other. I have tried to communicate with those of the non-speaking culture and I feel intimidated and confused. They would most likely feel the same way but there is no need to exhibit hatred towards the other just because the way they communicate. As for modern situations, there are many people who are clinically deaf and cannot hear at all. Sometimes a speaking person will unknowingly spark a conversation with someone who is deaf which can lead to some confusion for both parties.
Part 2: You were asked to spend 15 minutes communicating without any physical embellishments, i.e., no hand signals, not vocal intonation, not head, facial, or body movements.
1. Thoroughly describe your own experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment. Did you find this assignment easy or difficult and why? How did your partner(s) respond to your lack of body language? Did they have any difficulty understanding you?
- My roommates and I kept the same format for part 2 of this experiment except for one minor change. Whenever I broke character: conveying tone, subconsciously using my hands, or moving any other body parts, I would have to drink and so on. This rule applied to those who wanted to try it out as well. This assignment was much easier to converse for me than the first part because I was actually able to say everything I wanted to but only it was limited due to many factors. In response to me not using body language, my partners found it slightly more awkward and different to speak to me since I am more of tonal speaker as well as I use my hands a lot. They never really had a problem understanding what I was trying to say, but they felt it was more difficult to understand my mood about some topics.
2. What does this experiment say about our use of “signs” in our language, i.e., how important is nonspeech language techniques in our ability to communicate effectively? What type of information do humans receive about the words a person is speaking when they “read” a person’s body language?
- This experiment has definitely shown some light upon how much we subconsciously use hand motions to help our verbal communication. I would say that non-speech language techniques play a much bigger role than we think. Without using body language, facial expressions, or hand motions, our conversations would be very bland and difficult to understand one's mood. Humans receive a person's tone or mood towards something when they "read" body language. It is easy to decipher if someone is angry or more elated about a topic. If someone if hunched over, face crinkled, arms wrapped together in front, it is usually a good assumption that they are unsatisfied with what is happening. But if someone is jumping for joy, hands in the air with a big smile on their face, clearly they are more satisfied than angry about what is happening to them.
3. Describe the adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language. How might the ability to read body language help a person survive, obtain resources, and reproduce successfully?
- Being able to read body language can help an individual work their way around foreign situations when needed. If one individual is unable to understand the other because of a language barrier, simply reading body language can give lots of information to both parties. An example being one of the experiences I just had while visiting the Philippines. While going around the food vendors, I was craving many of the different types of food. Unfortunately, I can only speak broken Tagalog which is the native language. I point to the foods I want and try to convey my purchase through smiles and nods. This goes a long way because although I cannot fully speak the language, I am still able to purchase food whenever I desire.
4. Are there people who have difficulty reading body language and can you identify them? Can you describe a situation where there might be a benefit to not reading someone’s body language, i.e., a situation where perhaps body language does not give you reliable information?
- Of course there are people who prefer not reading body language as it can give them the wrong message. People with bad eyesight tend to rely mostly on hearing as their primary form of receiving information. I have a great grandfather in the Philippines that I got to visit in the last few weeks and he is 100% blind in both eyes. With this being said, body language is useless when conversing with him so we make sure to only use verbal language and hand touches with him.
Part 1:
ReplyDeleteGood opening description of your first experiment and good discussion on the issue of power and control in the conversation.
Good conclusion on which culture would have the advantage, but a caution on this comment:
" I've only taken one class of ASL but from what I have learned, it's that sign language is mostly general and can be hard for some to depict. "
Don't let the name "sign language" fool you... ASL is *symbolic* language, just as complex and capable of expressing nuance as spoken language. That is why you were not allowed to use ASL for this experiment.
"They would most likely feel the same way but there is no need to exhibit hatred towards the other just because the way they communicate."
Absolutely correct, and yet we humans seem to apply so much significance to being able to communicate easily, to the extent where we too often attribute a lack of intelligence to those who can't communicate in our own language. We see this in the horrific treatment of immigrant populations in this country and in the drive for English as a 'national language'. Why do we associate intelligence and even a person's value with their ability to communicate?
Yes, those in the deaf community would be a good real-life example that mirrors the conditions you experienced here, but we see that in the interaction between English speakers and non-English speaking immigrant populations.
Part 2:
"I would have to drink and so on."
LOL! I can see that making it difficult to improve your control over your body language. Kind of self-defeating.
In general, good description. I do wonder if you might have gotten a stronger negative response if you had conducted this with just one person instead of multiple. Often, the most interesting part of this experiment is the response of the partner. Some have actually gotten angry and stormed out.
I don't disagree with your conclusions regarding the information we receive from body language, but you are only considering the situation where body language matches and supports the information you receive from spoken language. What does it tell you when the body language doesn't match the spoken language? Humans tend to use body language as a type of lie detector. If spoken words don't match with the body language, we are more inclined to believe the body language and doubt the words. Think about how being able to detect liars might help an individual's ability to survive and reproduce (which applies to the next section).
Okay on the benefits of body language, but what type of benefits do you get by being able to detect liars? One other point that actually applies to the last section... do all cultures use the same system of body language? If you speak some Tagalog, it is likely that you are also reasonably experienced with Filipino body language (my husband is Filipino... never got use to his family pointing with their lips!), but what if someone came in completely unversed with the unique body language there? Might they have difficulty using and reading body language?
"People with bad eyesight tend to rely mostly on hearing as their primary form of receiving information."
Okay, and those who are blind can have more difficulty reading body language, though they can use vocal intonation and spatial indicators. What about those in the autism spectrum? One of the defining characteristics of autism is the inability to read body cues, which is why they have so much difficult in social situations, particularly with sarcasm and jokes.
I think you may use body language more with your grandfather than you realize.
Missing the last point: Is there a situation where it might be good to ignore body language? See my comments above regarding whether all cultures use the same system of body language.
I appreciate you using your own personal experiences in these posts. It helps to better understand and communicate the key concepts when you can make connections with your actual experiences.