The Types Of Gestures

As we all probably know, gestures are the motion of hands or body that is used to help emphasize or express a thought or feeling. Gestures are usually used together with verbal communication.

1st picture on the right. We can easily tell that the lady's angry and seem to be arguing about something by looking at her pointing finger and facial expression.

2nd picture. This was taken during a political argument. We can see that the man on the right seems to accusing the other man on the left by the tensed pointing finger. Whereas the man on the left seems to be trying to tell him to calm down or probably to get his facts straight with the open palm of his hands.

3rd picture. That's the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding. Usually the gesture of the fist is portrayed as aggression and anger. However, in this picture it portrays strength, determination, and power.

Here are some commonly used gestures.

1. Emblems. Emblems are specific gestures with specific meaning that are consciously used and consciously understood. They are used as substitutes for words and are close to sign language. A common example would be the 'V' sign portrayed with only the index and middle finger up, facing away from the body would mean 'victory' or 'peace'. If the palm is towards the body then it'd be considered rude.
2. Iconic gestures. Iconic gestures are often used when someone is trying to portray concrete and physical items. This gesture is especially useful when we're is trying to give others a clearer mental image of the item.
   
3. Regulators. Regulators are used to control turn-taking in conversation. For example, when a person has finished speaking, he'd drop his arms whilst the other person who wants to speak would raise an arm as if to grasp the way forward.
4. Affect displays. Affect displays are used to display emotions. For example, if a person uses his hands to cover his ears or the shaking of the hand vigorously probably shows that he doesn't want to hear anymore of what is being said.

Gestures are rather complicating as there are so many types of gestures made up all over the world and are commonly used. It'd be difficult to know all of it. The list above could go on and on. Understanding the way gestures work is very important as it can unintentionally cause misunderstanding between parties such as when the 'V' sign is wrongly portrayed.


Sources:
"Types Of Gestures" 2006. Wikipedia. Web. June 6th 2009.
"Gesture Types" 2003. Changing Minds. Web. June 6th 2009.

By,
Yang Su Ying

The Importance Of Our Daily Use Of Informative Listening

Much of our learning comes from informative listening. For example, we listen to lectures or instructions from teachers - and what we learn depends on how well we listen. Careful informative listening is a necessity because sometimes, careless listening can cause misunderstanding among people.

There are 3 important things included in informative listening which can improve our skills.

1. Vocabulary. It has been proven that inreasing your vocabulary will increase your potential for better understanding and it's never too late to improve your vocabulary. You can always start by increasing your reading activities whether it involves picking up a new book or reading the morning paper.
2. Concentration. Concentration is difficult. You can remember times when another person was not concentrating on what you were saying - and you probably can remember times when you were not concentrating on something that someone was asying to you. Whether you are occupied at the moment the speaker is talking, the lacck of curiosity and itnerest or lack of motivation to accept responsibility for good listening, try to push those distractions aside because you might just miss out on important information.
3. Memory. Meomory plays an important part of our daily lives. It could be either remembering the road home or to work, where this particular store is located in the shopping mall. Overall, memory helps your informative listening in 2 ways.

• It allows you to recall experiences and information necessary to function in the world around you. In other words, without memory you would have no knowledge bank.
• It allows you to understand what others say. Without simple memory of the meaning of words, you caould not communicate with anyone else. Without memory concepts and ideas, you ccould not understand the meaning of messages.
  

As we all know, we probably will still be studying for another year or so. Therefore being fully equipped with these informative listening skills is important as it can help us learn and absorb information easier.


Source:
Kline, John A 1996. "Types Of Listening". Listening Effectively. Web. May 31st 2009.

By,
Yang Su Ying

The Whats Of Phonological Rules In English

In the complicating world of languages, phonetic environment influences how a sound is pronounced. In most times, non-native speakers of English can be rather sensitive to such deviations from the expected pronunciation.

Phonological rules can be divided into 4 groups

1. Assimilation. Rules of this kind describe processes where a sound becomes more similar to a neighboring sound. This is the kind of rule that occurs in the English plural rule described above - the -s becomes voiced or voiceless depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is voiced.
2. Dissimilation. When a sound changes one of its features to become less similar to an adjacent sound, usually to make the two sounds more distinguishable. This type of rule is often seen among people speaking a language that is not their native language, where the sound contrasts may be difficult.
3. Insertion. When an extra sound is added between two other. For example, when we pronounce the word 'hamster' at a regular speed, most of us will say and hear 'hampster' with a 'p'. This also occurs in the English plural rule: when the plural morpheme -s is added to "bus", "bus-s" would be unpronounceable, so a short vowel is inserted between the two 's's.
4. Deletion. When a sound, such as a stressless syllable or a weak consonant, is not pronounced. For example, most American English speakers do not pronounce the 'd' in 'handbag'. Also, when pronouncing the word 'police', the word often sounds like 'pleace' and may be confused with please if one is not used to hearing voiced 's'.

Phonological rules are very versatile. Speakers apply these rules without being aware of it and they acquire the rules early in life without any explicit teaching. The rules give speakers intuitions about what words are 'well-formed' or 'acceptable'. If a speaker hears a word that does not conform to the language's phonological rules, the word will sound foreign or ill-formed.


Sources:
"Phonological Rules Introduction To Linguistics" 2001. Andreas Schramm and Hamline University. Web. May 31st 2009.
"Phonological Rule" 2009. Wikipedia. Web. May 31st 2009.

By,
Yang Su Ying

Who first?

Friends are the closest people around me, it's cause I'm the only child. They are the ones whom I share my joy, problems and so on. They are the ones I turn to whenever I need advice or just lend me their ears. Same goes to me, when friends need me to listen to their problems, I'll give them my 100% attention. I may not be able to give good advice, but I believe that if you tell someone about your problems, you'll feel much better. At least that's how I feel. 

When you talk to someone, for sure you'll want them to listen. How would you feel if you talk, and your friend is texting on her phone. The sound tap tap tap tap annoys you in a way, aint it? You'll begin to wonder, are you listening to me? Perhaps you'll think that the person is not interested in what you have to say and you'll stop talking. In the end, you'll still have that problem stucked in you. Most of the time, we're interrupted by others when we're talking. It may not because we want to, but maybe something related to the topic strucked our mind. This had occured many times to me, it goes like..

A: "... I was having dinner the other day there and..."

B: " Oh ya, that reminded me, I was eating at Nando's the other day and the family beside me was.. (and the story goes on)" 

She goes on and on and person A actually forgot what she wanted to say in the end.

B: " So that was the story, what were you saying just now?"

A: "I forgot. It's okay."

When we're talking, we should also think about what the other person will feel when being interrupted. What if it was something that might affect his/her life that he/she wanted to advice for? Are we able to bare the consequences if anything happens? Listen to others like how you want others to listen to you. 

By,

Chew Seok Yeng

Questioning and Prompting

I heard someone crying from a corner in the school. I followed the sound of crying and found out that's one of my best friend. She was crying sorely and she was unwillingly to talking to anyone. I went nearer and try to speak to her using low tone. At first, she does not seems want to talk to me, she even ignore my presence. After awhile, she trying to speak to me softly.

I started to ask her questions,

"What happened ?" I asked.
"My family is going to break, my parents wanted to divorce and they don't want to live together. And I can't help in anyway..." She spoke softly.
"Do they quarrel everyday?"I asked again.
"Yes, and sometimes they even throwing things to each other. Then, my brother cried everyday when they have a fight. But they don't even bother of my brother. I was so sad." She cried.
"Is OK if they fell unhappy living with each other and divorce. If they live together everyday but not happy, it is no point to live together right? and they might even fell happier after they divorce." I told her.

After have a conversation with her, she started to calm down and not crying anymore. The bell rang and we went to class together.

By,
Choi Hui Lei

How good am I as a listener

Often, I consider myself as a poor listener. I always looked like I'm listening to someone's taking, actually, I often daydreaming and did not pay any attention when people is taking to me. I don't know why. Where there is people taking to me for too long period, I will lose my attention to it. For me, I think that I am too lazy enough to listen to people's talking.

Nevertheless, even if someone tell me that something that is very important, I will also think of another thing in the middle of the conversation. It is hardly for me to pay attention in listening for more than one hour. Therefore, I often fell boring when people is talking. By the time when the person finished talking, my mind was empty and I cannot accept too many information at one time. That makes me headache and turning out for everything.

I was trying to improve myself so that I can listen to people's talking but not only hearing. During my lecture, I try not to daydream, focus and put more effort to take down importance note. In order to listening effectively, staying focus is not enough. Listening carefully and understand the speech is also play an important role to improve my listening skill. From now on, I will train myself and try to become a good listener.


By,
Choi Hui Lei

The Different Ways Of How Men And Women Communicate

Men and women have such different ways of communicating that at some point it may seem as though they might come from different planets. There are several facts that point out the general differences between how they communicate with each other.

Firstly, men and women communicate for different reasons. According to Deborah Tannen, men communicate to maintain independence, while women talk to maintain intimacy. In often situations, men talk to build status from others. Women talk to express emotions, feelings, or build rapport.

Secondly, research has shown that men tend to talk more in public than compared to women who talk more in private. Once the different communication styles of men and women is understood, it can be clearly seen that men talk in public to, again, establish their status while women talk in private to establish intimacy.

Thirdly, the body language portrayed by men and women are different as well. Often in conversations, women tend to use nonverbal communication directly, men use it indirectly. Women tend to maintain eye contact, stand in close proximity, and gesture more frequently. Men, however, are the exact opposite.

Fourthly, when conflicts are brought to women's faces, they tend to avoid them in order to insure closeness of relationships. As for men, they use conflicts to gain status.

Fifthly, men and women also express themselves differently in means of the content, style, and structure of their conversation. Men often talk about sports, money, and business. On the other hand, women discuss about their feelings, people, and relationships. Men mostly communicate to solve problems and converse for competition. Women most often communicate to understand, converse to support, and talk to connect. As they talk, men tend to use precise words, to the point, without descriptive details, while women are more detailed, apologetic, and vague.

After reading this, it seems like it's pretty tough for men and women to truly communicate. However, if one is properly equipped with the knowledge of understanding these 2 different communication styles, he or she can improve their communications in means of content, connecting with each other, and many more.

Source:
Kelley, Rhonda H. "Communication Between Men And Women In The Context Of The Christian Community". The Council On Biblical Manhood And Womanhood. N.d. Web. May 24th 2009.

By,
Yang Su Ying