Verbal and nonverbal communication in medicine: a study of teaching English for medical purposes
Verbal and nonverbal communication in medicine: a study of teaching English for medical purposes

Summary/Abstract: Nonverbal communication, including gestures, is inherently linked to the use of language in oral communication. Except to verbal communication, the role of gestures has been connected to thinking and culture. Gesturing helps speakers communicate more efficiently, and if people are prevented from gesturing that would hinder the transfer of meaning. The integral relationship speech – gestures is revealed in different ways in specific social contexts. The essential relationship of speech and gestures in oral communication was analysed along Kendon‘s (1982) points and according to McNeill‘s (1992) classification of gestures. McKneill‘s characteristics of gestures and their relation to speech, to linguistic properties, to conventions and to semiosis emphasize the different manners of structuring meaning through gesticulation and speech. Gesticulation expresses meaning synthetically and thus, connects as a whole to the meaning of the speech utterance.

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