Students’ Perception of Nonverbal Elements in Intercultural Communication
Students’ Perception of Nonverbal Elements in Intercultural Communication

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, people communicate in an intercultural environment on daily bases using not just language but nonverbal elements as well. Sometimes nonverbal elements, consciously and unconsciously, convey stronger meaning than the verbal part. For this reason, it is necessary to apprehend that this behaviour differs significantly from culture to culture and therefore its meaning and the message that it transmits must be studied. In this paper, research conducted among members of different cultures is presented and discussed. Starting from the idea that the understanding and the awareness of body language are important in intercultural communication, this research aimed at identifying and highlighting some of the differences in the interpretation and use of these elements. The categories of proxemics, paralanguage showed a great diversity of their perception, while oculesics, gestures, facial expressions and mimicry indicated the differences in the frequency of their use. Since most of the participants belong to contact cultures, in the category of haptics and posture there are no significant deviations. The research also revealed that female and male participants understand differently certain nonverbal elements, which could be a good starting point for further research. In addition, it proved that nonverbal elements are as important as language knowledge to achieve effective intercultural communication.

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