Course Title: Communication Skills

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
ARAB VERSUS WESTERN CULTURE

Prepared by:
.
ID.

Submitted to:

10th February 2014

INTRODUCTION
Communication is the process of interacting between two persons or more. They send
and receive messages with each other in both verbal and nonverbal ways. Verbal means
expressing one's self with words. Nonverbal means expressing one's self with gestures
and movements. As a matter of fact, while the verbal communication is different in means
of language, the nonverbal communication is less different as there are universal signs
acknowledged by all humanity. For example, a smile is a symbol of happiness; a tear is a
symbol of pain; a frown is a symbol of discomfort. However, still there are differences in
nonverbal communication between one culture and another.
To begin with, nonverbal communication is the process of sending and receiving data
whether intentionally or unintentionally and without using verbal language. It is rather
extremely difficult to communicate only with words. The nonverbal communication
signals actually play three important roles in the communication process. These are as
follows:
The first is to complete the verbal message. Nonverbal signals can strengthen a verbal
message when nonverbal signals match words, or weaken a verbal message when
nonverbal signals contradict words. For example, it is more likely for a person who
shouts to waive his hands in a stressful way.
The second role for nonverbal signals is revealing truth. However, not all people can read
such signs. For example, an employee might tell his boss that he finished the required job
but his uncertain voice and the avoidance of eye contact with the boss would reveal that
he has not actually performed the job. The verbal communication might deceive a person
but it is much harder to be deceived by the nonverbal signals.
The third role for the nonverbal signals is transmitting communication efficiently.
Nonverbal signals can transmit both trivial and rich volume of information in a single
moment. A child would immediately know that he did something wrong from the look on
his father / mother's eyes.
Having clarified the communication process with its two types of verbal and nonverbal,
and having focused more on the nonverbal side, the objective of this paper is to shed
some light on the differences between Arab and Western cultures regarding the nonverbal
communication. This topic is of a much importance because understanding other cultures
help us encode and decode messages effectively. One allowed gesture in a culture might
be taboo in another. I believe at the end of this paper we would have better understanding
of the nonverbal communication in both cultures the Arab and the Western one. This
could facilitate business, tourism, communicating for medical purposes and other areas of
communication skills.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Most intercultural scholars tend to view the Arab and American cultures as cultural
opposites. Intercultural scholars have proposed several theoretical frameworks for
distinguishing the two cultures.
Perhaps the most well-known cultural continuum is Hall's discussion of high-context and
low-context cultures (Hall, 1976). Hall views meaning and context as "inextricably
bound up with each other." (Hall, 1982). The difference between high and low context
cultures depends on how much meaning is found in the context versus in the code. Lowcontext cultures, such as the American culture, tend to place more meaning in the
language code and very little meaning in the context. For this reason, communication
tends to be specific, explicit, and analytical (Ting-Toomey, 1985).
In high-context cultures, meaning is embedded more in the context rather than the code.
As Hall states, "most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in
the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message."
(Hall, 1982). Thus the listener must understand the contextual cues in order to grasp the
full meaning of the message. Scholars have also distinguished the Arabic and American
cultures in terms of direct versus indirect communication styles. Levine introduced the
cultural variations of directness versus indirectness, and clarity (univocal) versus
ambiguity in communication patterns (Levine, 1985). Levine said that the American
cultural preference is for clear and direct communication as evidence by many common
American expressions: "Say what your mean," "Get to the point.
In contrast, ambiguous communication is more indirect and emotionally rich. Whereas
univocal stresses openness, ambiguous styles would be more likely to conceal or bury the
message. Additionally, the desire for precision is not as important as creating emotional
resonance. The ambiguous style would likely omit specific factual and even technical
aspects of a message.
The American (linear) cultural pattern stresses beginnings and ends of events, is objectoriented rather than people or event-oriented, and is empirical in its use of evidence.
Linearity also stresses presentation of singular themes; i.e., one point followed by second
point, followed by third, etc. Points or facts are presented sequentially, in a linear
progression. One "builds an argument" in a "step by step fashion" instead of "throwing
things in all at once."
In contrast, the communication message of Arab (non-linear) cultures normally has
multiple themes, is expressed in oral terms and heightened by nonverbal communication.
The non-linear thought framework, according to Dodd (1992), involves the "simultaneous
bombardment and processing of a variety of stimuli" so these people would think in
images, not just words. Time orientation is less important than people and events, and
frequently, time is not segmented.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
For the methodology of this research I have used my observation of the Arabic culture of
nonverbal communication since I am born and living in an Arabic country. In addition, I
have also depended on my observations of the western culture of the nonverbal
communication as I have some experiences from dealing with westerners during my
travel abroad.
Moreover, in order to get high accurate results for my research, I visited Saudi Arabian
Airlines as they surely have business relations with other airlines working at the airport,
among which are western airlines like British Airways and Lufthansa for example. This
has proven to be a good step as I have met with various nationalities including for
example British, German and Swedish. I have conducted interviews with them regarding
my subject of the difference between Arab culture and Western culture as regards to
nonverbal communication.
I actually met with ten people (5 Arabs and 5 Westerners) and asked them the following
questions:
Please take the time to answer the following questions based on your use of nonverbal
communication on a daily basis.
1. Use of hand gestures
Never / Sometimes / Always
2. Tone of voice
Never / Sometimes / Always
3. Use of eye contact
Never / Sometimes / Always
4. Use of facial expressions
Never / Sometimes / Always
5. How often do you rely on non-verbal to communicate?
Never / Sometimes / Always
6. You are effective in using non-verbal communication.
Never / Sometimes / Always
7. You are effective in interpreting non-verbal communication.
Never / Sometimes / Always

RESULTS
The results of the interviews I have conducted gave the following results based on the
interviewed people's use of nonverbal communication on a daily basis:
Never
Arabs Westerners
1 Use of hand or
head gestures
and nods
2 Tone and
sharpness of
voice
3 Use of eye
contact
4 Use of facial
expressions like
smiling,
frowning, using
the tongue, the
eyebrows
5 How often do
you rely on
nonverbal to
communicate
your message?
6 You are
effective in
using nonverbal
communication
7 You are
effective in
interpreting
nonverbal
communication

Sometimes
Arabs
Westerners

Always
Arabs Westerners

The above results reveal that Arabs use hand or head gestures and nods more than the
westerners. However, there are no big differences in using the tone and sharpness of
voice. As for using eye contact, westerners are more than Arabs in using it. Regarding
facial expressions, both Arabs and westerners are equal. The results also reveal that Arabs
rely on nonverbal signals to communicate their message more than westerners. Finally,
the results reveal that Arabs are more effective than westerners in interpreting the
nonverbal communication.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

Recommendations:
It is difficult to change the communication culture of a nation. However, the
recommendations of this paper revolves around getting the Arab culture to be more direct
and less depending on the nonverbal communication. The reason for this recommendation
is that direct communication gives less chance to the rise of misunderstandings or
conflicts in conversations.
It is also recommended to minimize the nonverbal communication in business
environments where more than one culture is present. This I have seen while making
interviews with Arabs and westerners for the purpose of this paper. The nonverbal
communication could be wrongly misinterpreted from either of the parties involved in a
business communication.
Conclusion:
For the western culture, verbal language is a medium of communication used to convey
information than in Arabic culture. Westerners use clear and direct communication as
evidence by many common expressions such as "Don't beat around the bush," "Say what
your mean," or "Get to the point". The use of nonverbal communication is not that much
important in communication as it is the case with Arab culture. The emphasis in the
western culture is on the meaning and its accuracy. A message may tend to be valued
more for its verbal content rather than nonverbal gestures. On the other hand, for the Arab
culture, language is rather a social tool and more emphasis is attributed to nonverbal
communication. These differences are normal to exist between cultures as the
environment is different, the thinking approach is different and consequently the
communication way is similarly different.
.

REFERENCES

Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (New York: Doubleday, 1976).

Edward T. Hall, "Context and Meaning," in L. Samovar and R. Porter (eds.), Intercultural
Communication: A Reader (Belmont: Wadsworth, 1982), p. 18
Stella Ting-Toomey, "Toward a Theory of Conflict and Culture," in W. Gudykunst, L.
Stewart and S. Ting-Toomey (eds.), Communication, Culture and Organizational
Processes (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1985).
David Levine, The Flight from Ambiguity. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1985).
Carley Dodd, Dynamics of Intercultural Communication (Dubuque: Wm. C. Brown,
1992).