Non- Verbal CommunicationA cross Cultures

MAX S. KIRCH, University ofDelaware

C ULT URE is a complex of communica­tion systems, according to the anthropol­

ogist E. T. Hall. Man communicates in "the wayhe works, plays, makes love, and defends him­self. "1 The purpose of this essay is to compareand contrast American non-verbal communica­tion with those of several other West Europeancultures.

American non-verbal communication differssignificantly from that of other cultures. Just astransferring the phonological habits of one's ownlanguage to another language produces a "for­eign accent," so using the habits of the nativenon-verbal system in another culture gives one'sbehavior a "foreign accent." There is a differ­ence, however, in the reaction of the nativespeaker perceiving the two kinds of "foreignaccent." Upon hearing the phonetic andphonemic errors of the foreign speaker the nativelistener becomes immediately aware of the factthat the speaker is a foreigner and is not sur­prised if the latter makes other linguistic errors,such as grammatical or syntactic mistakes,choice of the wrong word, etc. On the otherhand, non-verbal communication occurs to agreater extent beneath the level of awareness andthough mistakes often arouse feelings of uneasi­ness in the recipient he does not usually under­stand why he feels uneasy. For this reason Hayesnoted the importance of non-verbal communica­tion for the teaching of foreign languages. "Thespeaker is free to choose his message. He is notfree to choose the code of the message - this isstrictly imposed by the language, and it is properthat much time and effort be expended in theefficient learning and teaching of this code. Thespeaker is, however, free to color his message incertain ways, and these ways are predominantly

MAX S. KIRCH (Ph.D., Pennsylvania) is Professor of Mod­ern Languages at the University of Delaware. An Officier del'Ordre des Palmes A cademiques, he has taught not onlyFrench, but also German, Italian, Spanish, and Swahili.

416

paralinguistic and kinesic. If these signals, dif­ferently conditioned by every cultural system,are not properly received and sent, communica­tion is impeded.'? The foreign language teacherneeds insights into the differences betweenAmerican non-verbal communication and thatof the target culture in order that he may bemore aware of them himself and that he may in­troduce them where appropriate in his teaching.

Language and culture form, according to thelate Henry Lee Smith, Jr., a "seamless web."?This means that they are in real life inseparable.Only the linguist or the anthropologist attemptsto separate them for purposes of analysis. Tothese two indissoluble elements, language andculture, must be added a third: non-verbal com­munication. Interaction is a complex processwhich involves verbal and non-verbal elements;both are inextricably bound up with culture.Poyatos suggests what he calls the Basic TripleStructure, consisting of language, paralanguage,and kinesics, i.e., non-verbal communication bybody movement." In describing an interaction hesuggests that not only the verbal interchange benoted, but also that paralinguistic and kinesicbehavior be recorded. Confirmation of the indis­solubility of verbal and non-verbal behavior isprovided by Birdwhistell who noted that when atypist works with a film, "she will often typewords which were never spoken. "5 This means

'Hall, Edward T., Beyond Culture, Garden City, NewYork: Doubleday (Anchor), 1977, p. 42.

2Hayes, Alfred S., "Paralinguistics and Kinesics: Peda­gogical Perspectives," in Approaches to Semiotics, ed. bySebeok, Thomas A. et al., The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1972,pp.145-172.

3Smith, Henry Lee, Jr., Language and Linguistics, a seriesof films made for National Educational Television. distri­buted by the University of Indiana, 1957.

4Poyatos, Fernando, "Cross-Cultural Study of Paralin­guistic 'Alternants' in Face-to-Face Interaction," in The Or­ganization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction, TheHague: Mouton, 1975, pp. 285-314.

'BirdwhisteIl, Ray L., in Approaches to Semiotics (cf. note2 above), p. 174.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES 417

that she provides words for body movements be­cause such movements are an integral part of thetotal communication. Other discussants cor­roborated Birdwhistell's statement and NormanMcQuown noted that even linguists made "errorscomparable to those made by the typist.... It'shard to believe, when one plays over a tapeagain, that one could possibly have heard in thegreatest phonetic detail something which is notthere. "6

There are many facets to non-verbal com­munication in different cultures. Societies varyin their clothing and the special kinds which areused for activities such as school, church, hiking,etc. People indicate their occupations by wear­ing badges or uniforms. There are differences inrituals and ceremonies, the kinds of gifts, theoccasions on which they are given, and themanner of presentation. 1

The most obvious form of non-verbal com­munication is by gesture. Since gestures arelargely produced and received consciously, wequickly become aware of foreign gestures andthe "foreign accent" they produce. Darwin be­lieved that gestures developed along biologicallines; a century later many still share this view.Others, however, point out that the same gesturemay have different meanings in different cul­tures. Sticking out the tongue may be a form ofmockery in the West, but in Polynesia it serves asa greeting and a sign of reverence. Clapping isour way of applauding, but in Spain and theOrient it is a means of summoning the waiter. 8

Northern Europeans usually indicate agreementby nodding their heads up and down, and shak­ing the head from side to side to indicate dis­agreement. The Greeks have for at least threethousand years used the upward nod for dis­agreement and the downward nod for agree­ment. Accordingly, a tourist from the UnitedStates or Europe who nods up and down appearsto the Greeks to be saying, "No, yes," frequentlycausing confusion in communication. The Nea­politan upward toss of the head for disagreementis obviously in keeping with the old Greek tradi­tion. Americans point with the forefinger, but inmany parts of the world such pointing is taboo.The Kiowa Indian, for example, points with thelips." We consider laughter a sign of amusement,but in Africa the blacks use it to "express sur­prise, wonder, embarrassment and even discom­fiture. "10 "The Japanese child is taught to smileas a social duty.... he must always show an ap-

pearance of happiness to avoid inflicting his sor­row upon his friends. "II In the United States andEngland hissing is an indication of rude andpublic disapproval. In Japan it is a sign of politedeference to one's superiors while the Basuto hissto applaud. 12

A large number of European gestures seem tohave originated with the Ancient Greeks and tohave been brought first by their colonists toMagna Graecia, as Sicily and Southern Italywere once called. From Italy they seem to havespread northward and westward, so that theyeventually turn up in France, Germany, andSpain. We can date their advent in France, be­cause "French courtiers, before the arrival of theItalian Catherine de Medici, made few gesturesand thought them vulgar." 13 The Germans andthe other Germanic peoples are somewhat lessreceptive to the use of gestures than the Ro­mance peoples. One of the earliest cross-culturaldiscussions of gestures in literature is the famouseighteenth chapter of Rabelais' Pantagruelwhich describes the contest between the Englishscholar Thaumastos and Panurge, whom Panta­gruel selects as his champion. The Anglo-Saxonis obviously no match for his Gallic opponentsand goes down to ignominious defeat in thebattle of the gestures. The most recent notableuse of a gesture by an Anglo-Saxon was the use ofthe digitus impudicus by the late Nelson Rocke­feller a few years ago. Our former Vice- Presidentwas only following a long and ancient tradition,because the first recorded use of the "finger" wasby Diogenes against Demosthenes over two thou­sand years ago.

Like linguistic morphemes gestures are mean­ingful, but the meaning may vary in differentcontexts. We are all aware that the English mor­pheme "well" may be (1) the adverb correspond-

"Ibid."Argyle, Michael, ed., Bodily Communication, London:

Methuen, 1975, pp. 82ff."Rohrich, Lutz, Gebarde-Metapher-Parodie (Wirkendes

Wort, Brochure 4), Dusseldorf: Schwann, 1967, p. 13.'La Barre, Weston. "The Cultural Basis of Emotions and

Gestures," inJournal ofPersonality 16 (1947-48), p. 51.wGorer, Geoffrey, Africa Dances, New York, 1935, p. 10."Hearn, Lafcadio, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, New

York,1894.12LaBarre, op. cit., p. 56.13La Barre, Weston, "Paralinguistics, Kinesics and Cul­

ture Anthropology," Approaches to Semiotics, ed. bySebeok, Thomas, et al., The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1964,

p.204.

418 THE MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL

ing to "good," (2) a noun denoting a source ofwater, or (3) an interjection. We have no diffi­culty ascertaining the function and meaning ofthe word in a specific context. Similarly themeaning of gestures may vary. Some can be used(1) to ward off the evil eye, or (2) to expresssomething derogatory, frequently of sexual im­port. For example, the "fig" (Fr. la figue, Ger.die Feige, It. la mana fica), which is made by in­serting the thumb between the index and middlefingers, is used to ward off the evil eye, or to indi­cate contempt of the other interactor. In someareas of the world it is used to effect an assigna­tion. The "horns" (Fr. les cornes, Ger. dieHorner, It. le corna, Sp. los cuernos) can also beused apotropaically, i.e., to ward off the evil eye,or to mock a cuckold. Rohrich believes that therelationship between signs of mockery and ofmagic goes back into early times. 14 The relation­ship between sexual symbols and magic may pos­sibly be traced back to the fertility rites of oldercults.

A similarity between gestures and language isthe existence of different keys, levels, registers orstyles of gestures. Joos ascertained five differentlevels of speech in English, from frozen to inti­mate. The use of gestures is conspicuouslylimited or absent in more formal levels of com­munication, and most common in casual or inti­mate interaction. Gestures are least used by themost polished and-educated, more by men thanby women. In general, they are less used by adultsthan by children and, in many cases, gestureslive on mainly because they are transmitted fromone generation of children to another. A few ges­tures which have been restricted to the children'sworld, at least in Germanic lands, are stickingout one's tongue and "making a long nose. "15

Another childish gesture is what the Germanscall Finger wetzen or Riibchen schaben. It ismade by stroking the first phalanx of the rightindex finger on the left index finger, starting atthe knuckle and going down to the tip. Ameri­cans accompany this with the words "pissma­shame," "sissmashame" or "shame on you."Kriss-Rettenback tells of a resident of theBavarian hinterland who knew an amazingvariety of gestures which were understood by hiscomrades but not used by them.!" When ques­tioned, he could not account for his acquisitionof the gestures. Probably he learned them inchildhood, as did also his comrades, but, like

Saint Paul, they put childish things aside whenthey reached man's estate.

Gestures also go through historical changeswhich create different "dialects," differentforms, obviously related, which express the sameidea. Americans wave good-by by holding thehand, palm out and fingers up, in front of theface and moving it from side to side. The Italianshold the palm toward the face and move thefingers toward the other party, a movementwhich seems to indicate to us "Come back." TheFrench and the Germans hold the hand hori­zontally, palm down, and move the fingerstoward the departing person as if to speed himon his way. When we knock on a door, we clenchthe fist, turn the palm toward the door andknock with one or more fingers on the door. TheFrench and the Germans also clench the fist, butkeep the palm toward the person knocking andfrequently knock only one finger. Another ges­ture used in slightly varied form in differentcountries is the digitus impudicus, mentionedabove. The common feature is clenching all thefingers on one hand except the middle finger.However, the Italians and the Americans holdthe finger up vertically, whereas the French holdthe finger out horizontally.

Gestures are not ordinarily used in a vacuum.They usually are produced in conjunction withother forms of communication. Very often theaccompaniment is the verbalization of the mean­ing of the gesture. In many cases the gesture it­self has disappeared from active use, but itsverbal description persists in the language to ex­press the same thought as the gesture itself. Forexample, the gesture of Daumen halten ("hold­ing one's thumb") is rarely seen in Germany, butthe utterance ich halte den Daumen ("I'll holdmy thumb for you") occurs very often. 17 Thesame is true in the United States for "I'll keep myfingers crossed for you." The utterance is muchmore common than the gesture. Other verbal

14Rohrich, Lutz, ap. cit., p. 22."The latter, produced by putting the thumb to the nose

with the five fingers spread out toward the interactor, is alsodescribed as "thumbing one's nose," "the Japanese fan,""coffee-grinding," Fr.Jaire un pied de nez, jouer de la clari­nette sur Ie bout de san nez, Ger. eine lange Nase machen.

"Krlss-Rettenbeck, Lenz "Probleme der volkstiimlichenGebardenforschung," BayerischesJahrbuch [iir Volkskunde,1964~65, p. 31.

"Rohrich, Lutz, op. cit., p. 34.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES 419

substitutes for gestures mentioned by Rohrichare durch die Finger sehen ("to look throughone's fingers") and ein Auge zutun ("to close oneeye") to express leniency. Other German verbaldescriptions of gestures are den Kop] hiingenlassen ("to hang one's head"), Horner tragen ("towear horns"), eine lange Nase machen ("tothumb one's nose"), die Ziihne fletschen ("tobare one's teeth"), die Faust in der Tasche ballen("to clench one's fist in one's pocket"). ForFrench we find aller la tete levee ("to carry one'shead high"), s'arracher les cheveux ("to tearone's hair out"), [aire la fz'gue ("to make thefig"), faire un pied de nez ("to thumb one'snose"), montrer les dents ("to show one's teeth");for Italianfar le fiche ("to make the fig"),Jar lecoma ("to make the horns"), ristringerse nellespalle ("to shrug one's shoulders"); for Spanisharrancarse los cabellos ("to tear one's hair"),mostrar los dientes ("to show one's teeth"),encogerse de hombros ("to shrug one's shoul­ders").

English surrogates for gestures are "turn upone's nose," "hold one's head high," "tear one'shair," "pull a long face," "prick up one's ears,""keep a stiff upper lip," "bare one's teeth," "keepone's chin up," and "grasp at the wind. "18 Ina United Press International dispatch of January6, 1979 then Deputy Attorney General BenjaminCiviletti was quoted in reference to PattyHearst's plea for parole. He said neither hisagency nor the FBI "has any idea of kind ofshrugging its shoulders and closing the file"(italics mine, M.S.K.). When a speaker finds itdifficult to use the gesture itself because of thesocial level in which he is interacting, he mayverbally describe the gesture as an acceptablesubstitute for the gesture. On the other hand,many people use the verbal surrogate as a purelylinguistic device in total ignorance of the gestureit describes, having learned the phrase and themeaning it expresses without ever having seenthe gesture.

Some authorities include gestures underkinesics, but here I use kinesics to describe thosecorporal communications which are producedfor the most part unconsciously, beneath thelevel of awareness. Moreover, these body move­ments are more deeply imbedded in the contextof the communicational situation. Gestures arequite often holophrastic, i.e., complete messagesin themselves, especially those expressing

mockery or contempt, such as thumbing one'snose, the fig, the finger, the horns, etc. Bodylanguage is more subtle, whereas gestures areblatant and unavoidable: the message istrumpeted forth loudly and clearly. The gesturemay make verbal communication superfluous. Ifthere is verbal communication, the gesture willemphasize and reinforce it. Kinesic messages areless obvious. They may reinforce the verbalmessage or contradict it. That is why we prefer atete-a-tete to a telephone call. We want to seeour partner to verify whether his body languageconfirms his verbal utterances. I am reminded ofa song popular in my youth, part of the lyricsbeing: "Your lips tell me 'No, no,' but there's'Yes, yes' in your eyes." Kinesics includes gait,posture-sitting and standing, gaze, facialmovements, etc. White Americans usuallybounce when they walk with swinging arms anda rolling pelvis. 19 Norman Mailer says that whiteAmerican males walk like bears from the shoul­ders, whereas blacks walk from the hips like cats.To the Spanish, the Anglo has an uptight,authoritative walk unless he is just ambling. Tothe Anglo, the Spanish American male walklooks more like a swagger than a purposefulwalk.f" Almost fifty years ago Bogen and Lipp­man pointed out that one's walk is determinedby his culture. They compared the springy stepof the negro with the comfortable saunter of theEnglishman. 21 In addition to differences be­tween cultures there are also differences betweenthe sexes in the same culture. American females,for example, do not swing their arms as men do.American women also distinguish themselvesfrom American males in their posture. "TheAmerican male tends to carry his pelvis rolledslightly back as contrasted with the female ante­rior roll. "22

There are differences in the way members ofdifferent cultures sit. American males usually sitwith legs crossed at the knees when they are in

'·Hayes. Francis C., "Gesture." in Encyclopedia A meri­cana, 1947. vol. XII. pp. 627ff.

"Wylie. Laurence and Rick Stafford, Beaux Gestes, Cam­bridge. Massachusetts: Undergraduate Press. 1977. p. xii.

2·Hall. op. cit., p. 248.21 Bogen. Hellmuth and Otto Lippman. "Gang und

Charakter." Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur angewandtePsycho logie, Beiheft 58,1931. p. 32.

22Birdwhistell. Ray L.. Kinesics and Context. Philadel­phia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970. p. 44.

420 THE MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL

the presence of a superior. Hispanic males siterect on the base of the spine with legs together.Relaxed, the latter sprawl, whereas the Ameri­cans put their feet up on a table.

Gaze varies with culture. An American pass­ing another, male or female, on the street or inpublic transportation, looks at him or her onlyfleetingly, just long enough to determinewhether he or she is an acquaintance who mustbe recognized, or a stranger. According to Fast,"In Paris women are closely examined visually onthe streets. In fact many American women re­turning from Paris feel suddenly unappre­ciated. "23 Americans claim that one should lookan interactional partner right in the eye, butpsychologists have determined that the time ofeye contact varies from 75 percent to 25 percentin a typical tete-a-tete. On the other hand,"Arabs look each other in the eye when talkingwith an intensity that makes most Americanshighly uncomfortable. "24 This is only one indica­tion that Arabs tend to be much more involvedwith one another than Americans are. WhileAmericans gaze at each other less than Arabs,they maintain much more eye contact thanmany Africans, who consider averting the gaze amark of respect to superiors. This behavior cropsup in other parts of the world, too. Fast tells ofan incident in a New York City public school. 25

The Vice-Principal summoned a Puerto Ricangirl to his office and, because she averted hergaze during the entire conversation, he assumedthat she was not telling the truth. Only later didhe learn from an Hispanic colleague that her un­willingness to look him in the eye was a mark ofdeference rather than falsehood.

Ray L. Birdwhistell has probably investigatedbody movement more than any other kinesiolo­gist. He has determined that facial movements,nods, and other body movements have a struc­ture similar to that of verbal language. ForAmericans he has been able to isolate fifty tosixty kinemes, which roughly approximate lin­guistic phonemes, and "these kinemes combineto form kinemorphs, which are further analyz­able into kinemorphemic classes which behavelike linguistic morphemes. "26 That these kinesicmovements are tied to culture is illustrated byfilms of the late Fiorello La Guardia. LaGuardia was trilingual, speaking English, Italianand Yiddish with equal fluency. What is evenmore remarkable, he was equally fluent in the

three body languages. Anyone familiar with thethree cultures viewing a film of La Guardia withthe sound turned off can tell by his body lan­guage which tongue he was using. 27

Another facet of non-verbal communication isproxemics, the use of space. Hall has ascertainedthe various acceptable distances for personal in­teraction in our American culture.P" The inti­mate distance extends to one-and-one half feetand is restricted to the spouse or lover. The per­sonal distance (one-and-one half to four feet) isused by relatives and friends. The social distance(four to twelve feet) is used by strangers. Thepublic distance (over twelve feet) is used by largegroups. The distances at which Latins feel com­fortable are much smaller. Hall tells about thetypical behavior of an American businessman inLatin America, who will usually barricade him­self behind a large desk to keep strangers at thesocial distance. The Latin American feels un­comfortably far away and ends up climbing overthe desk, with the North American retreating toa safer distance. 29

Watson reports on empirical research on theproxemic behavior of 122 subjects: 20 from Arabcountries, 20 Latin Americans, 10 SouthernEuropeans, 32 Northern Europeans, 12 Indiansand Pakistanis, 12 other Asians, and 16 from theUnited States. The experiments investigated di­rectness, closeness, touching, visual contact andloudness of voice in personal interaction.P" TheNorthern Europeans, among whom were in­cluded the British and Germans, and the Ameri­cans lined up with the Far Easterners as the"non-contact group," receiving, in general, lowscores in facing the partner in interaction di­rectly, in closeness, in touching, in maintainingvisual contact, and in loudness. The SouthernEuropeans, among whom were included theFrench and the Italians, lined up with the Latin

23Fast. Julius. Body Language, New York: Pocket Books.1971, p. 33.

"Hall, Edward T .• The Hidden Dimension, Garden City.New York: Doubleday (Anchor). 1969, p. 161.

2'Fast. Julius. op. cit., pp. 136ff.26Birdwhistell. Ray L.. op. cit., p. 101.27Birdwhistell. Ray L.. op. cit., p. 102.28Hall, Edward T., op. cit., pp. 116ff.29Hall, Edward T., The Silent Language, Garden City.

New York: Doubleday. 1959. p. 209.30Watson. O. Michael. Proxernic Behavior: A Cross-Cul­

tural Study, The Hague/Paris: Mouton. 1970, pp. 74ff.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES 421

Americans and the Arabs as the "contactgroup," receiving, in general, high scores in thevarious categories. The Americans were the mostconsistent low scorers. The British differed onlyin maintaining high eye contact. The Germansmaintained less eye contact than the British, butmore than the Americans. The French receivedhigh scores on four counts, but the lowest scoreof all in loudness. The Italians were in themiddle on loudness, about at the same level asthe Northern Europeans.

Interesting comments were made by membersof the two groups, "contact" and "non-contact,"about the effect of different proxemic behavioron their feelings. Southern Europeans felt that,if you do not face your partner in interaction di­rectly, you indicate indifference. "More distancemeans, as one French subject put it, a 'lack ofharmony.' Another Frenchman commented thatAmericans always backed up when he talked tothem. Southern Europeans felt they touch eachother more than Americans did, and not to do sowould be unfriendly. . . . Raising the level of thevoice means excitement or the expression ofemotion...."31 The Northern Europeans, onthe other hand, felt nervous when approachedtoo closely and tried to back away. "An Englishsubject said that not to touch other people 'isbred in you.' ... Raising the voice seems char­acteristically to convey anger among NorthernEuropeans. "32 Both groups agreed that less eyecontact conveys a feeling of insincerity.

Proxemic behavior in public places differs sig­nificantly from culture to culture, too. Frenchculture is characterized by centralization. To getby train from the eastern part of SouthernFrance to the western part, or vice versa, onemust usually travel first to Paris, which issituated in the North and change trains there.The streets of Paris all radiate out from thecenter like the spokes of a wheel. The onlyAmerican city laid out this way is Washington,because the city plan was designed by a French­man. Most American cities are laid out in theform of a grid with north-south streets perpen­dicular to east-west streets. The educational sys­tem is centrally controlled from Paris. It used tobe said that at a given hour every class in Ele­mentary German throughout France would bereciting the same paradigm. Centralization isalso found in business enterprises. The boss sitsat a large desk in the center of the room and his

immediate subordinates sit near him. A new em­ployee gets a desk in the comer facing the wall. 33

An American boss has his desk in the corner neara window. If the enterprise is large enough foreach executive to have his own office, the bigboss has his office on the top floor in the comerwith the best view. The French use public spaceto socialize in to a much greater extent thanAmericans. Frenchmen love to congregate inpublic squares and parks. They enjoy eating inopen air restaurants. Even the French small caris designed not simply to save money, but also toprovide for closer contact with the other occu­pants of the car. "The American behemoths givebulk to the ego and prevent overlapping of per­sonal spheres inside the car so that eachpassenger is only marginally involved with theother. "34

The Germans stand at the opposite end of thespectrum from the French, being even morealoof than the Americans. The American busi­nessman usually keeps his door open; theGerman keeps it closed. Germans appear to bemore jealous of their spatial privacy than Ameri­cans. Even opening the door and poking one'shead in is considered an intrusion. 35 Property ismore often fenced off than in the United States,but even when not fenced off, each German con­siders his property sacred.

Although Latins in general enjoy close per­sonal contact with one another, they strive forvisual privacy in their homes. The Latin Ameri­can house is often built around a courtyardwhich is concealed from the outside by the walls.Even though Americans appear more aloof andreserved in the distances they maintain fromothers in personal interaction, they are more re­ceptive to strangers than most Europeans andLatin Americans. Propinquity does not conferspecial status on neighbors in other countries,but in the United States being a neighbor in­volves both rights and responsibilities.P" We feelthat we may call on our neighbors for help andborrow food or tools, and we are ready to recip-

"WalSon, O. Michael, op. cit., p. 108."Ibid.33Hall, Edward T., The Silent Language, Garden City,

New York: Doubleday, 1959, p. 200.34Hall, Edward T., The Hidden Dimension, p. 145.35Hall, Edward T., op. cit., p. 133.36Hall, Edward T., op. cit., P- 141.

422 THE MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL

rocate. In England, on the other hand, socialstatus means more than propinquity. Americanchildren automatically play with the neighbor'schildren. In other countries they may have to goall the way across town to find playmates.

Yet another aspect of non-verbal communica­tion is chronemics: the way one handles time.The American attitude towards time is reflectedin the saying, "Time is money." We share withthe Germans, the Swiss and the Scandinaviansgreat subservience to the clock. The promptnessof trains in Germany and Switzerland islegendary. A few years ago I had to travel fromHamburg in North Germany to Strasbourg inFrance, just across the Rhine from Germany.Checking at the information window in theHamburg railroad station, I learned that I hadto make one change of trains for which theschedule provided only four minutes. When I ex­pressed my doubts, the clerk reassured me "Siewerden es schaffen." ("You'll make it.") When Igot out of the first train, I found out that I hadto walk with two heavy suitcases about one hun­dred yards along the platform, down one flightof stairs, up another, and then along anotherplatform about one hundred yards more to geton the second train. I succeeded because the firsttrain arrived exactly on time and some efficiencyexpert must have calculated with a stopwatchthat it takes the average tourist a little less thanfour minutes to negotiate the distance.

Hall has ascertained the meaningful time in­tervals of lateness for an appointment in theU.S.A. 3 7 When one arrives four minutes late,one begins to mutter something. When five min­utes late, an apology is in order. To arrive fiftyminutes late is an insult. The Latin American,on the other hand, does not arrive until forty-fiveminutes after the appointed time. He begins tomutter at fifty minutes and apologizes only whenhe is a whole hour late. When an American busi­nessman in Mexico City invites a native todinner, the latter usually asks "~Hora americanao hora mexicana?" to make sure which "clock"he should observe. Hall relates all kinds of diffi­culties American businessmen and governmentofficials encounter in Latin American countrieson account of different temporal attitudes. An­other chronemic difference involves the numberof activities carried on by one individual at aparticular time. Americans believe one shoulddo one thing at a time. Therefore an American

will have one client in his office at a time. TheLatin, on the other hand, may have severalpeople in the office simultaneously and go roundand round from one to the other. The LatinAmerican businessman prefers therefore thesettee to a desk as a place of transacting business.The Italian piazza and the Spanish plaza aremeans of involving large numbers of people withone another at the same time.P"

The last aspect of non-verbal communicationto be discussed here is paralanguage. Of all thenon-verbal facets of communication paralan­guage is the closest to language because it too in­volves sounds. The sounds of paralanguage,however, differ from those of language in thatthey are not phonemes. Phonemes do not as arule have meaning in and of themselves. Thesmallest meaningful units of language are mor­phemes which are usually combinations ofphonemes. The morphemes in turn combine toform larger units, such as words, phrases, clausesand sentences. Paralinguistic signals are usuallyholophrastic, that is, they usually have a mean­ing equivalent to a whole sentence. For example,the English dental click we write down as tsh.often means "That's a shame." Americans ex­press affirmation with "Uhhtih" and negationwith "Uh-uh." We use a palatal click to get ahorse in motion or else say "Giddyap." To stop ahorse in motion we say "Ho-o-o," the Frenchmansays "0-0-0," the Spaniard "So-o-o," the Ger­man "Hii-ii-ii." Clapping the hands is used forapplause in the United States, but it may beutilized to summon a waiter in Spain. Germanstudents traditionally scuffle their feet to ap­plaud a professor. Poyatos has made some com­parisons of American and Spanish paralan­guage, but few other cross-cultural studies havebeen carried out.:" Some of the items which needto be investigated from a cross-cultural view­point are pauses, silence, signals such as "hmm,""rnmm," "phew," etc.

The various aspects of non-verbal communi­cation share certain characteristics with lan­guage. Non-verbal communication demon­strates variation of different kinds just as verbalcommunication does. Language shows historical

"Hall, Edward T., The Silent Language, pp. 175ff.'"Hall, Edward T., The Hidden Dimension, p. 174.39Poyatos, Fernando, op. cit.

TEACHING HEBREW AS A SECOND LANGUAGE 423

change in pronunciation, grammar, andvocabulary. Sounds change over the centuriesand grammatical paradigms are altered. Newwords appear, old words change their meaningsor disappear altogether. Words are borrowed byone language from another. Similar things areobserved with respect to gestures. Many of thegestures have changed their forms and/or theirmeanings over the centuries. Gestures whichwere primarily apotropaic assume meanings ofmockery and contempt. Just as Latin broke upinto various dialects which eventually becameseparate languages through geographic varia­tion, just so the same gestures appear in slightlyaltered form in France, Italy, and Spain.

Sociological variation is also apparent in non­verbal communications. Just as there are dif­ferent keys, levels, registers or styles of language,similar differences are apparent in gestures, too.Most gestures are restricted to intimate or casuallevels rather than more formal ones. In kinesicscertain postures are used in consultative interac­tion, and others in intimate or casual relation­ships. In proxemics the various distances for per­sonal interaction are closely linked to the levelsof the relationships. Moreover, non-verbal sig­nals in general may have multiple meanings justas linguistic homonyms do. In both cases we de­pend on the context to resolve the ambiguity anddetermine which meaning is appropriate.

Not only does non-verbal communicationshare various characteristics with language, butthe two are complementary constituents of thewhole process of interaction. Culture is a net­work of verbal and non-verbal communicationprocesses and, according to Birdwhistell, "prob­ably no more than 30 to 35 percent of the socialmeaning of a conversation or an interaction iscarried by the words. "40 If our objective is toteach communication in a foreign language, wecannot restrict ourselves to the verbal systemalone, but we must also pay attention to the non­verbal systems of the foreign culture, too.

Knowledge of non-verbal signals can be usedin the foreign language classroom to help thestudents reach a fuller stage of communicationin the target language. In presenting dialoguesand in guiding conversation the teacher canbring out the gestures, the body movements, theparalanguage and the proximities which are ap­propriate to the situation in the foreign culture.It may be too much to expect that our studentswill be able to function just as native speakersdo, but at least we can sensitize them to the factthat interaction may differ in the foreign cultureso that, when they are abroad, they will maketheir own observations and try to modify theirown behavior accordingly. "When in Rome, doas the Romans do."

4°Birdwhistell, Ray L., op. cit., p. 158.

Teaching Hebrew as a Second Language:The State of the Art*

MOSHE NAHIR, University ofManitoba

Introduction

T HREE CONSECUTIVE though somewhatoverlapping trends in the field of second

language instruction since World War II may be

MOSHE NAHIR (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is Asso­ciate Professor of Hebrew and Linguistics at the University ofManitoba. His publications include a Hebrew textbook andarticles in The InternationalJournal of the Sociology of Lan­guage, Language Problems and Language Planning, TheCanadian Modern Language Review, and Hebrew Abstracts.

roughly delineated, although a close observationmay reveal in the literature the beginnings ofnew, future movements. These trends- the post­World War II audiolingualism, the mentalisti­cally oriented cognitivism, and the most recentcompromise labeled as eclecticism - have beenreflected in the way Hebrew has been taught inNorth American Hebrew schools and universi-

*1 wish to thank my wife, Tsipora Haya Nahir, for her in­valuable critical comments.