The Evolution of Language 2

PART: 1

Thoroughly describe your own experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment.Did you find this assignment easy or difficult and why? Did your partners alter the way they Communicated with you because of your absence of communication? Describe. (5 pts)

            This biggest issue revolved around, getting your point across to a group of individuals when your communication skills are being suppressed or unable to be utilized. The most prevalent issue was the absence of verbal expression and being able to express and participate using detailed and precise words or expressions of concepts and ideas. In the experiment the group majority of individuals involved within the experiment interpreted my non-verbal gestures rather successfully. During this experiment I have found that non-verbal communication was not as difficult to be interpreted. However, one thing that was kept into consideration was the cultural similarities that we share. It is very simple as people of the same culture to understand specific gestures or signals which are constantly being circulated socially. My partners of the experiment did not change to accommodate the experiment, let alone my lack of ability to fully communicate.  However, on the contrary I felt that I was the individual who felt obliged to accommodate or forcefully over express my opinions or emotions to better accommodate the majority. This portion of the experiment certainly appeared to be more difficult in my experience opposed to verbal expression.

Who was in control of the conversation, you or your partner? Who initiated or changed topics?

Who asked and who answered questions? If you conducted this experiment with more than one

person, were you ever excluded from the conversation? If you think of a conversation as a balance of power between two (or more) individuals, who had the power in this conversation, you or your partner? Explain your answer. (5 pts)

        

   The individual’s involved in the language experiment consisted of eight people. My colleagues of eight were in charge of and initiated as well as changed the topics in the non-verbal application of the experiment. During the questioning, mostly regarding opinions and feedback on the given topic, I would say I felt rather un-included. Based on the experiment I have concluded that many minority individuals who are not well adapted fell excluded are unable to express their needs, both physically and emotionally. Based on observation of the language experiment, many individuals of the majority to notice or understand the individual who is unable to successfully express oneself; for they are unable to express or contribute to common conversation. For example, feelings, emotions, needs, attitudes, and opinions are mutually suppressed when neither individual can communicate effectively. In my study it appears that this may culturally have a lot to do with power balance, majority trends or social construction, as well as holding the standard of the given society as interpreted in a macro-comparative terms, results in the inability to survive for those who are unable to adapt. Over all my partners held the largest amount of control during the experiment.

Imagine that you and your partners in the conversation represent two different cultures, one that uses spoken language and one that doesn’t. Which culture has the advantage in communicating complex ideas within their population? What attitudes might the speaking culture have toward the culture that does not use symbolic language? Can you identify any modern situations that mirror or Resemble this relationship between a culture that can speak and culture that can’t? (10 pts)

            Based on the experiment conducted it appeared as though the group expressing vocally appeared to have the advantage. Based on observation, although nonverbal communication was easily readable by my partners, the non-verbal gestures did not contain detail or specific expressive desires in regards to survival and satisfaction. The attitudes of speaking culture may think the non-speaking culture is strange or feel frustration. I have additionally found that ignoring the minority isn’t always intentional. At times it is socially coerced and even others participating do not notice the absence of minority input. Modern society focuses more on psychological and empathetic impact opposed to survival needs of post societal historical contextual needs. Today in modern American western culture we additionally have different needs and priorities regarding survival needs as well as what we connotatively consider means of survival.

      

PART: 2   

      

Thoroughly describe your own experiences and the responses of your partners to the experiment.Did you find this assignment easy or difficult and why? How did your partner(s) respond to yourlack of body language? Did they have any difficulty understanding you? Describe. (5 pts)

     In my experience through  this project I found that nonverbal communication is just as important as verbal communication and it was difficult to get the full accurate message being put out there when you don’t have both verbal and nonverbal understanding together. My partners during the experiment did not respond very much, I almost think they may have forgotten which I felt helped make the experiment more realistic. They did have a difficult time understanding me and after some time eventually just stopped noticing or attempting to interpret my part of the conversation. I understand this because in group settings it is priority to accommodate and settle for the best of the given majority of society. This is additionally noted in the difficulty to accommodate or even isolate one’s self to accommodate one who is not a part of the majority.

What does this experiment say about our use of “signs” in our language, i.e., how important is nonspeech language techniques in our ability to communicate effectively? What type of informationdo humans receive about the words a person is speaking when they “read” a person’s bodylanguage?

           

   Non-verbal communication is highly significant in regards to connotations about universally dynamic denotative terms and references. Learning to read gestures allows us to understand the emotions and needs of others as well as their state of mind. The type of communicative expectations are based on the given society and familiarized interpretation of body language and terms which may be denotatively universal but cross-culturally diverse in terms of connotations.

Describe the adaptive benefit to possessing the ability to read body language. How might the

Ability to read body language help a person survive, obtain resources, and reproduce successfully?

         

        The acquisition of skill regarding learning to read body language nonverbal gestures are highly significant in successfully expressing ones needs socially, institutionally, as well as physically. Based on this study I feel it is important to understand someone’s emotional state and how they are responding to what you’re saying. Learning to express what you need is something necessary to survive in multiple aspects of our lives.

Are there people who have difficulty reading body language and can you identify them? Can youDescribe a situation where there might be a benefit to not reading someone’s body language, i.e., aSituation where perhaps body language does not give you reliable information?

          

           Some individuals do not appear to be comprehensive of body language. It was the entire group who became unengaged when it became too difficult understand me. In a majority I do not feel this is something intentional. I feel as though it is natural to adapt to what is the majority or acceptable; in other words a sense of social coercion. A benefit of reading someone’s body language is you are able to efficiently get your message across as well as receive it making obtaining what you need and how you feel easier and more accurate. Additionally it is almost natural to experience one individual reacting to the most common or expected language or gesture in which is familiarized. Body language may be deceiving when others may be either trying to create a facade of emotions or they are from a different culture in which their connotations differ from our own.