Nonverbal Communication

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nervous and has a lack of confidence. Speakers who don’t use any type of gesturing seem insecure and uncertain (Morreale, Spitzberg, and Barge, Human Communication: Motivation, Knowledge, & Skills, 125).
Sign language is any type of hand gesture that replaces specific words or numbers. It can range from a single hand gesture, such as a peace sign, to the language system of the deaf (Burgoon and Saine, The Unspoken Dialogue: An Introduction to Nonverbal Communication, 53). Sign language was developed in the sixteenth century when Geronimo Cardano said that deaf people could learn and understand sign communication. Sign language is used throughout the world, not only by deaf people, but also by people that want to interact with them.
Familiar hand gestures that we give specific meanings to may have different meanings for different people. For example, in the 1950s, Vice President Richard Nixon went on a tour of Latin America. When he stepped off his airplane he flashed the OK sign. The crowd booed him because in their culture, it meant, “Screw you” (Burgoon and Saine, The Unspoken Dialogue: An Introduction to Nonverbal Communication, 29-55).

Researchers have found differences of body language between gender and race. When men communicate power they often have an open body posture, using both the arms and legs. By comparison, women don’t expand as much. When women feel less powerful, they tend to lessen the amount of space their body takes up and tilt their head (Morreale, Spitzberg, and Barge, Human Communication: Motivation, Knowledge, & Skills, 124). Young blacks have developed movements that are quite different than whites. Kenneth Johnson, a researcher in ethnic studies at the University of California at Berkeley, has described distinctive manners of black youths. According to Kenneth Johnson:
“There is a style of black male walking behavior, called in street jargon
the pimp strut, which functions as an attention-g...