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2009934667 group’s operation. If, for example, people are seated in a tight circle, they will probably feel more comfortable and interact more than they would if they were sitting in straight rows. They will be able to see each other’s nonverbal reactions, and because there is no inhibiting physical distance, they will lose their selfconsciousness as they become members of the group. Business organizations make considerable use of such nonverbal strategies in small-scale conferences. One technique is to seat key members of the group in prominent positions to stimulate discussion or even direct it. Paravocalics: Vocal Communication Chapter 3 Nonverbal Communication 77 The vocal effects that accompany words, such as tone of voice—but not the words themselves—are called paravocalics. 85 Vocal quality communicates nonverbally to the listening ear. The rate (speed), volume (power), pitch (such as soprano or bass), pause (stopping), and stress (intensity) of sounds all have particular meanings. These paravocal tools are often referred to as vocal cues. Vocal cues offer clues to determine the sex, age, and status of a speaker. We also can make some pretty accurate judgments about the emotions and feelings of the people with whom we communicate by their paralinguistic presentation. If you are very angry, the pitch of your voice may go up. And when you are very, very angry, you sometimes say words slowly and distinctly, pausing after each word for special effect. Research indicates that the voice also may be important in some aspects of persuasion. 86 A faster rate of speech, more intonation, greater volume, and a less halting manner seem to be related to successful attempts at persuasion. If a person sounds assured, the receiver credits him or her with a higher degree of credibility. Network television anchors, for example, work to cultivate an assured broadcast voice. Vocal cues can provide much information about a speaker, and our overall reaction to another person is colored at least somewhat by our reactions to these cues. Perceptions of vocal cues, combined with other verbal and nonverbal stimuli, mold the conceptions we use as bases for communicating. 87 Formal time is the way in which a culture defines its time and the role it plays in regulating our lives. Communicating: A Social and Career Focus, Tenth Edition, by Roy M. Berko, Andrew D. Wolvin, and Darlyn R. Wolvin. Published by Allyn & Bacon. Copyright © 2007 by <strong>Pearson</strong> Education, Inc.
78 Part One Foundations of Communication Chronemics: Time as Communication You communicate to yourself and others by the way you use time. The way people handle and structure their time is known as chronemics. “Each of us is born into and raised in a particular time world—an environment with its own rhythm to which we entrain ourselves.” 88 Time, as a communication tool, is sometimes greatly misunderstood. Only within certain societies, for example, is precise time of great significance. Some cultures relate to time as a circular phenomenon in which there is no pressure or anxiety about the future. Existence follows the cycle of the seasons of planting and harvesting, the daily rising and setting of the sun, birth and death. In circular time, there is no pressing need to achieve or create newness, or to produce more than is needed to survive. Nor is there fear of death. Such societies have successfully integrated the past and future into a peaceful sense of the present. 89 Many Native Americans have been raised with this cultural attitude toward time. Other societies operate on linear time, centered primarily on the future. These societies focus on the factual and technical information needed to fulfill impending demands. In most of Western Europe, North America, and Japan, punctuality is considered good manners. Another way of viewing time is to understand its technical, formal, and informal uses. Technical time is precise time, as in the way some scientists look at how things happen in milliseconds. Few of us come in direct contact with this usage. Formal time is the way in which a culture defines its time, and it plays a daily role in most of our lives. It refers to centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes. As a student, you may think in the formal-time terms of semesters or terms. Informal time refers to a rather flexible use of time, such as “soon” or “right away.” These terms often cause communicative difficulty because they are arbitrary and mean different things to different people. For example, how long is “pretty soon”? Time has become a critical factor in the U.S. workplace. Throughout a person’s career, punctuality is often used as a measure of effectiveness. A person who arrives late for a job interview probably will have difficulty overcoming such a negative first impression, and employees who arrive late or leave early may be reprimanded and even dismissed. Time is culture based. European Americans, Euro-Canadians, and Western Europeans, in general, are clock bound; African, Latin American, and some Asian Pacific cultures are not clock bound. Time is based on personal systems. 90 European Americans traveling abroad often are irritated by the seeming lack of concern for time commitments among residents of some countries. In Mexico and Central America, tours may be late; guides may fail to indicate exact arrival and departure times. Yet in other places, such as Switzerland, travelers can set their watch by the promptness of the trains. Businesspeople may get confused over what “on time” means as they meet those from other cultures. “In Britain and North America one may be 5 minutes late for a business appointment, but not 15 minutes and certainly not 30 minutes late, which is perfectly normal in Arab countries.” 91 In Latin America one is expected to arrive late to an appointment. This same tardiness for Germans or European Americans would be perceived as rudeness. 92 The differences in the use of time have been noted in regard to college students and when they arrive for classes and turn in assignments. For instance, one European American professor notes, “Brazilian students showed few signs of concern for lateness, arriving as much as an hour late for a two-hour class, but also feeling comfortable about asking questions long after the class had officially ended.” 93 Some cultures, such as gays and Hispanics, often are amused by their use of time and even have names that refer to habitual lateness such as gay-late and mañana time. Communicating: A Social and Career Focus, Tenth Edition, by Roy M. Berko, Andrew D. Wolvin, and Darlyn R. Wolvin. Published by Allyn & Bacon. Copyright © 2007 by <strong>Pearson</strong> Education, Inc. 2009934667
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