The Importance of Nonverbal Behaviors in Intercultural Communication

This paper adresses the issue of nonverbal behaviors in intercultural communication. The notion "intercultural communication" refers to a sort of communication in which people from different cultural backgrounds get together and communicate with each other using a common language. Nonverbal behavior is concerned with types of body language which accompany oral speech and from which the meanings of messages are partly derived. Elaborating three examples of nonverbal behaviors, namely gesture, gaze, and facial expression in different cultural contexts, this paper comes to a conclusion that although some features of nonverbal behaviors tend to be universal in nature, there are quite a lot of them which are culturally structured and can only be understood in that particular context. In term of intercultural communication, having adequate knowledge of nonverbal behaviors and their implied meanings in various contexts is of particular importance in pursuing effective intercultural communication