TOEFL Experts Reading Practice 39
Throughout the world, people communicate using body language. Communicating through nonverbal, or physical, “language” occurs within and across cultures. Research has shown that gesture plays numerous roles in the effectiveness of our communication. Speech accompanied by gesture has been found to be much more engaging to the listener, and therefore greatly improves comprehension. Gesture during speech has been correlated with speakers who rise as leaders in society. Gesturing can also be beneficial to the speaker: one study found that children who were forced to gesture while talking through math problems learned better than children who were forced not to gesture. The gesturing children later scored higher on tests of similar problems.
The act of gesturing during speech is as universal as speech itself, and in fact, both vocalizing and gesturing physically involve the same area of the brain, leading scientists to surmise that they are evolutionarily linked. Even blind people gesture when speaking to other blind people. Helen Keller, the author and activist, and the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree, had learned by the age of seven to communicate with her parents by hand gestures. Soon after, she learned a manual alphabet through finger spelling.
With regard to specific physical gestures, some are universal, while others vary across cultures. Some anthropologists and psychologists believe the smile to be a universal gesture for happiness or contentment. Another gesture believed to be universal is the act of a child stroking his or her own cheek, often with the back of the palm, to call for his or her mother. It has been reported that this gesture occurs spontaneously among children across cultures who have not been taught it. Additionally, some believe that clutching at one’s throat is a universal sign for choking, and that displaying one’s hands raised high above one’s head is a universal display of triumph.
There is far more variation in gesturing across cultures than commonality, however. A gesture that varies by culture is holding up two fingers, the first and second fingers, in a skyward V-shape. In the United States, this is a gesture for “peace.” In Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, however, it is used to signify contempt for authority. Accordingly, it is regarded as hostile and potentially rude. Similarly, an upward thumb (“thumbs up” in American English) is used to express approval in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Russia. But in Latin America, West Africa, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, it is an insult. And wagging the index finger to beckon “come here” in the United States is, in the Philippines, considered insulting when directed toward another person; there, it is restricted to beckoning dogs. Therefore, to use it toward a person indicates that you see that person as inferior. Finally, in Japan, it is polite to give an object to another person using two hands, but not with only one—a behavior that is viewed as acceptable and harmless in other places.
A multicultural, transnational community that makes regular and systematic use of gesture to communicate is the deaf community. Unlike the casual gestures used sporadically within a culture to express opinion and emotion, including exaggerated gestures for effect (such as pantomime), within the deaf community there exist fully developed sign languages that correspond to spoken language. There is, however, no universal sign language used across cultures. For example, Denmark, Germany, France, and Turkey all have distinct sign languages. In the United States and the English-speaking parts of Canada, the primary sign language used in deaf communities is American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is closely related to French Sign Language (FSL), and ASL dialects are also used in other countries around the world, including in West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia.
Throughout the world, people communicate using body language. Communicating through nonverbal, or physical, “language” occurs within and across cultures. Research has shown that gesture plays numerous roles in the effectiveness of our communication. Speech accompanied by gesture has been found to be much more engaging to the listener, and therefore greatly improves comprehension. Gesture during speech has been correlated with speakers who rise as leaders in society. Gesturing can also be beneficial to the speaker: one study found that children who were forced to gesture while talking through math problems learned better than children who were forced not to gesture. The gesturing children later scored higher on tests of similar problems.
The act of gesturing during speech is as universal as speech itself, and in fact, both vocalizing and gesturing physically involve the same area of the brain, leading scientists to surmise that they are evolutionarily linked. Even blind people gesture when speaking to other blind people. Helen Keller, the author and activist, and the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree, had learned by the age of seven to communicate with her parents by hand gestures. Soon after, she learned a manual alphabet through finger spelling.
With regard to specific physical gestures, some are universal, while others vary across cultures. Some anthropologists and psychologists believe the smile to be a universal gesture for happiness or contentment. Another gesture believed to be universal is the act of a child stroking his or her own cheek, often with the back of the palm, to call for his or her mother. It has been reported that this gesture occurs spontaneously among children across cultures who have not been taught it. Additionally, some believe that clutching at one’s throat is a universal sign for choking, and that displaying one’s hands raised high above one’s head is a universal display of triumph.
There is far more variation in gesturing across cultures than commonality, however. A gesture that varies by culture is holding up two fingers, the first and second fingers, in a skyward V-shape. In the United States, this is a gesture for “peace.” In Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, however, it is used to signify contempt for authority. Accordingly, it is regarded as hostile and potentially rude. Similarly, an upward thumb (“thumbs up” in American English) is used to express approval in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Russia. But in Latin America, West Africa, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, it is an insult. And wagging the index finger to beckon “come here” in the United States is, in the Philippines, considered insulting when directed toward another person; there, it is restricted to beckoning dogs. Therefore, to use it toward a person indicates that you see that person as inferior. Finally, in Japan, it is polite to give an object to another person using two hands, but not with only one—a behavior that is viewed as acceptable and harmless in other places.
A multicultural, transnational community that makes regular and systematic use of gesture to communicate is the deaf community. Unlike the casual gestures used sporadically within a culture to express opinion and emotion, including exaggerated gestures for effect (such as pantomime), within the deaf community there exist fully developed sign languages that correspond to spoken language. There is, however, no universal sign language used across cultures. For example, Denmark, Germany, France, and Turkey all have distinct sign languages. In the United States and the English-speaking parts of Canada, the primary sign language used in deaf communities is American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is closely related to French Sign Language (FSL), and ASL dialects are also used in other countries around the world, including in West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia.
- People in all cultures across the world communicate through gesture.