Almost 50 years ago, a Scottish academic named David Abercrombie1 told the world that while we speak with our vocal organs, we converse with our entire bodies. The study of what we now refer to as paralanguage soon made its way out of peer-reviewed journals and into the mainstream world of motivational speakers and self-help coaches. What is paralanguage? And is it true that our bodies give away our secrets even though we have thoroughly researched and prepared our presentations? Linguistic scholars in the last half century have concluded that communication goes far beyond the words we speak and into the realm of inferred messages and vocal qualifiers. In this post, we go over the definition of paralanguage, according to scholars, and look at how you can apply this knowledge to deliver more effective and convincing presentations. Read more at https://visme.co/blog/what-is-paralanguage/#xQbKSamVc6zrGAJ6.99

1. Paralanguage?Paralanguage?
What is
And How Can You Use It to Give
Better Presentations?

2. we gasp, sigh, clear our throats, change our tone, whisper or
shout, emphasize certain words, wave our hands, frown or
smile, laugh or cry, string vocal identifiers like uh-huh and ah-
hah between our words, or speak faster or slower.
We speak paralanguage whenWe speak paralanguage when

3. Whenpeople speaktous,
we derive 55 percent of the meaning
from their body gestures and posture and
physical clues, and 38 percent from the tone
and inflections of the words they present.
55% 38%
we absorb a mere 7%
of what they are saying
through the words they use.
7%7%
Tone & InflectionsBody LanguageWords

4. We cannot trust our bodies to speak as
one with our words. They will betray us,
with breathless gasps, with hurried
words that depict our nervousness, with
incredulous
expressions even
while we nod agreement.

5. most use shortcuts to delivering messages. We ask
people to come closer by beckoning with our finger,
we hold our hands up to tell others to back off, and we
shrug to indicate we don’t know the answer.
In our everyday communications,In our everyday communications,

6. In speeches,
by altering our tone and
using gestures, we can
enforce what we are
saying and emphasize
what we want our
audiences to remember.

7. The one thing that paralanguage does not do effectively is cross
cultural barriers. Gestures that may mean one thing in
Western cultures, for example, may mean something completely
different in Far East or Middle Eastern cultures.
Beware the culture caveatBeware the culture caveat

8. BAD
But in the culture of Maasai
in Kenya, spitting on
newborns and brides is
considered a blessing.
Spitting on a person is considered a
sign of disrespect and insult in the
North American and European
cultures.
GOOD

9. Practice your paralanguage
If you make presentations, you need
to be aware of the impact of your
paralanguage. It’s a good idea to
practice your remarks in front of a
mirror, discerning your natural
gestures and facial expressions and
determining if they are augmenting
your message, or detracting from it.

10. Created With Visme
What Is Paralanguage? And HowCan You Use It to
Give Better Presentations?
By Ashish Arora
http://blog.visme.co/what-is-paralanguage/