Body language
Body language is an essential part of communication. Human beings pass most of their communication through body language. The human mind is wired to decipher the non-verbal cues passed by the body before the mind interprets the audio signals produced by the mouth. People can communicate through nonverbal cues without uttering a single word. Body language entails facial expressions, gestures and body posture. The three non- verbal cues make an integral part of the body language. Body language is the most common means of communication; however, body language is understood by few people in the society. There some common nonverbal cues that can easily be understood by every human being. Such cues include a smiling face. It usually signifies that the person is happy. A frowning face would usually denote that the person is sad. However the literal interpretation of the non-verbal cues is a characteristic of an ignorant mind.
Gestures and facial expressions can only be wholly understood id they are interoperated together the environmental conditions and the circumstances that the communicator has to deal with. Body language has proved to be a challenge to many people because people are economical with the truth and would rather tell a lie than tell the truth and cause embarrassment to the listeners. A person who is conversant with body language will avoid falling victim of the tricks played out by fraudsters and conmen. A person would only believe a speaker if the body language of the speaker corresponds to the message that the speaker is conveying. Fraudster and unscrupulous people in the society take advantage of the naivety of the people to convey messages that are not true, but with the corresponding body language.
Lying
Lying is a topic that has been discussed by academician and philosophers for eons of time. Scientist believes that lying is a survival skill that humans have acquired in order to avoid pain and advance their interest in the terrestrial environment. Scientific research has shown that animals such as dogs and cats would lie to escape the pain. Lying is a moral and ethical paradox for many philosophers and thinkers. It is a vice that is condemned by all mainstream religion. In Christianity and Islam, lying is considered as a moral anathema, an attribute that is closely attributed to the devil. With all the moral and ethical condemnation from the religions, human beings lie to each other almost every day.
Lying should not be confused with fabrication that is telling a false statement with the belief that the facts that you are presenting are true. Because of the moral and the ethical concerns that surround the issue, people elect to intertwine both lies and the truth. They end up giving information with some element of the truth and lies, as well. This social phenomenon is referred to as the half-truth. In the same trajectory of thought, some people inaccurately describe, people, history or a background. The speaker is told that he has told an honest lie. Lying on the wider scale is prohibited by both domestic and international law. There is no sovereign country in the globe that has legalized lying and redefined as an acceptable social norm. Lying under oath in a court of law is referred to as perjury. It is punishable with imprisonment or a heavy penalty.
Speaking
Speaking is the art of conveying information from one person to another through the use of verbal cues. Speaking is the most important social skill that enables the survival of human beings on this planet. It is a skill that is developed with age. Children are usually born without the ability to communicate. As they grow the listen to the adults as they communicate and copy the language, they use. The acquisition of language is very important in the development of a child. It is the skill that separates a fully grown child and infancy. The failure to develop the skill places the child at a disadvantage and subsequently, the society considers that as a disability.
Public speaking is a skill that is adored and coveted by all those in pursuit of leadership positions in the world. A person with the skill of communicating with the crowd has a competitive advantage in the job market. Potential employers gauge the speaking skills of the employees. Those with the best communications skills get employment opportunities. Careers such as journalism and teaching entirely depend on the ability to communicate. Few people ever reach the apex of these careers without well-established communication skills. In the employment sector, employers have agreed that the majority of the employees are retrenched because of the inability to communicate.
During the Stone Age people communicated through sounds and whistling. The ability to communicate fluently to each other came at a later stage of evolution. The ability to communicate revolutionized social interactions in the jungle. It integrated the human family together and helped human beings to fight off predators in the jungle.
Tone
Verbal communication depends on the tone of voice the speaker. Tone defines the speaker’s attitude towards the subject or the audience. Authors set tone by conveying feelings and emotions through words. In his speech, I Have a Dream, Civil rights activist Martin Luther used a tone that produced the emotions of hope in his audience. The demonstrators were motivated to continue fighting for the rights and freedoms that they sought. The adept use of tone produces the effect that the speaker desires to elicit in a crowd. A monotonous tone by the speaker will make minds of the speakers to shift focus from the subject that the speaker is addressing. Tone that is used by the narrator is very different from the one used by an author. Using a monotonous tone is synonymous with breaking a cardinal rule of communication. The results produced are disastrous. The audience fails to comprehend the message and in the event that the speaker is a tutor, the students do not comprehend the subject.
Listening
Listening is an involving process and should not be confused with hearing. Hearing involves the reception of information by the auditory nerves. The information is not consciously integrated by the receiver. In listening, the receiver actives process the information that the speaker gives to the audience. Listening is not an automatic process as the listener has to struggle not to lose concentrate and avoid distractions that will deter the full understanding of the message. In listening the speaker has to speaker has to convey the message that the audience has to understand fully. Mindless listening reduces the chances of retaining the information conveyed by the speaker.
Works Cited
Cook, Norman. Tone of Voice and Mind: The Connections Between Intonation, Emotion, Cognition, and Consciousness. New York: ohn Benjamins Publishingohn Benjamins Publishing, 2009.
Demmers, Joana. Listening through the Noise. london: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Knapp, Mark. Lying and Deception in Human Interaction. New York: Allyn & Bacon, Incorporated, 2007.
Pease , Allan. The Definitive Book of Body Language. New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2008.
Peters, John. Speaking Into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
