2 A Review of Body Language

As a kind of non-verbal communication, body language includes thoughts, intentions, or feelings which are expressed by physical behaviors just like facial expressions, body posture, gestures and eye movement as well as touch. In other words, it can be considered as a kind of reflexive actions to communicate with the outside world and even be the whole or part of the emotions. It can pass a strong feeling of one person and show his intense emotional reaction. In daily life, body language is widely employed. As a main non-verbal communication, body language plays a complementary role in helping people convey information to improve their quality of communication. People can find that body language is used in many scopes and many circumstances, such as intercommunication, teaching, and speech and so forth. Certainly, body language usually accompanies with language as an assistant tool. When people communicate with other persons who are from other cultures, body language sometimes helps them make the communication easy and effective. To a large extent, emotions and ideas not only depend upon language to pass, but also depend upon body language. For instance, when you talk with someone, if there are some exciting topics between you, it is possible to use body language to show how you really feel like using laughing and nodding and so forth.

2.1 The Definition of Body Language

Considering the endless stream of body language theory, it has been evolved and defined by many experts. Samovar and Porter’s defined that body language was the technically, biologically, psychologically or culturally framed exchange of significant messages which are not conveyed by verbally speaking out but passed by the body, gesture, symbol or relevant context and surroundings and so on. (Samovar, L. & Porter, R, 1995: 14) The definition in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary is that the process of communicating what you are feeling or thinking by way of you placing or moving your body instead of by words. (Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, 1997: 175) Zhao Tao shows another famous definition of body language. He indicates that body language is a term of communication for using body movements or gestures rather than, or in addition to, sounds, verbal language or other communications. It can form a part of category of para-language, which describes all kinds of human communications that are not verbal language. That is to say, it includes the slightest of movements that many people can  not be aware of, including winking and subtle movement of the eyebrows. Moreover, body language can also containing the use of facial expression (Zhao Tao, 2000). Body language is an essential medium that can help people communicate with each other. It is Richard Nordquist, a grammar and composition expert, defines that nonverbal communications depend on body movements to transfer messages, just like gestures, posture, and facial expressions. Generally speaking, body language can be adopted consciously or unconsciously. It may go with a verbal message or act as a substitute for speech (Richard Nordquist, 2015). No matter how specific or abstract the definitions are, the value of body language is integral and the use and functions are inevitable.