View Content #1804
| Contentid | 1804 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | Extralingual communication |
| Body | Editor's Note: Here are some ideas on the subject of how gestures, appearances, and clothing communicate in cross-cultural settings. These remarks occur in a French context, but are more widely applicable. I suggested to my student that she take a walk through the streets, visiting the shopping and business sections, not the tourist spots, and carefully observe people. Then she should go buy some local clothes that look like what people are wearing, making sure they are cut the way people are wearing them (not too tight, not too lose) rather than the way she might be used to wearing clothes. I suggested that she watch how people walk and then imitate them, pretending she is an actor preparing for a role; watch length of stride, speed, sway. How do they stand when they are not walking? Observe posture, how straight are their backs, how far back are their shoulders? What do people do with their arms? their elbows? their hands? How do they hold their heads? What facial expressions do you see? How do they smile? how often? for what reasons? Where do they look? How do they look at other people? how closely? how long? Do they make eye contact? When they do, what happens? If they are trying to meet other people (let's say in a bar) how do they do it? French teachers in the US don't need to become French to teach French, but learning how to fit in teaches us a lot about a people. Indeed, the wrong facial expression, posture or even clothing can get in the way of communication. Being able to take on the role ourselves can make us more credible when we tell our students that there's a lot more to communication than vocabulary and grammar. You've got to walk the walk. Ponterio, B. Walk like an American ;-). Foreign Language Teaching Forum listserv. FLTEACH@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (14 Jul. 2004). |
| Source | FLTEACH |
| Inputdate | 2004-07-14 19:34:00 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2004-07-14 19:34:00 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | Not set |
| Displaydate | Not set |
| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
