Reporting on body language

Task

Try to find out some behavioural differences between Chinese and westerners

Skills building 1Skills building 1

Anticipating a responseAnticipating a response

Understand how to predict the answers to the question while listening.QuestionWhere do they live?

When did this take place?

How long have they been in this country?

Which hand do Arabs eat with?

Why would you like to write a book about customs?

Information you expect to have

name of a place

a specific time

a time period

left or right hand

A reason or reasons

Decide if the statements below are true or false.1. In China a person who invites you to dinner might be upset if

you do not try all of the dishes.2. It is polite to eat with your left hand in Arab countries.3. In Japan you can use lots of soap in the bath.4. Making a slurping noise while eating spaghetti in Italy is

Okay.5. When eating noodles in Japan, making a slurping noise is

okay.6. It is better to wear your shoes in a Chinese, Japanese or

Korean house.7. When you are late for a meeting, there is no need to say

sorry.8. In England it is usual to talk about the weather when you

start a conversation.9. In the West, when you are complaining, it is usual to say

sorry first.

1. In China a person who invites you to dinner might be upset if you do not try all of the dishes.

2. It is polite to eat with your left hand in Arab countries.3. In Japan you can use lots of soap in the bath.4. Making a slurping noise while eating spaghetti in Italy is

Okay.5. When eating noodles in Japan, making a slurping noise is

okay.6. It is better to wear your shoes in a Chinese, Japanese or

Korean house.7. When you are late for a meeting, there is no need to say

sorry.8. In England it is usual to talk about the weather when you

start a conversation.9. In the West, when you are complaining, it is usual to say

sorry first.

Listen to the interview to check your answers.

TF

F

F

T

FF

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Step 1: filling in a chat

Learn about what several common gestures mean

in America

Listen to the recording and fill in the chart.

Common gestures American meaning

A strong, firm handshake.

A confident person, someone you can trust, a ______ leader.

Direct eye contact. You are __________________. You are interested in what you are listening to.

Nodding head up and down

______________________.

Shaking head right to left (from side to side)

______________________.

Waving( palm faces out; hand moves left t right).

______________________. Also used (with a smile ) to get someone’s attention.

good

Telling the truth

Yes

No

Hello or goodbye

Common gestures American meaning

First finger pointing to head or ear, making circles in air

Someone or something is ___________________.

Palm faces up with fingers curled in. first finger curls in and out.

To call someone over to _____________________

Closed hand with thumb pointing up.

Called ‘ thumbs up’ means _____________.

Shaking head right to left (from side to side)

______or yes. Agreement.

crazy

where you are / your place

good job

OK

Listen to the recording and fill in the chart.

Skills building 2: formulating written questions

Remember the following points when writing questions

•Get to the point!

•Give all the necessary information.

•Use simple language

Sample answers

2.Last night, we watched a television show on CCTV8. Did you see it ? If so, did you like it?

3.I finished a book last night. How about you? What happened in the last book You read?

Step 2: surveying your classmates

1. You meet someone for the first time. You offer your hand and they take it with a light, gentle handshake.a.This person is polite and pleased to meet you.b.This person is shy and not a strong leader.Others: ____________________________________.

2. Your teacher tells you that she does not think you have been working hard in class. When she talks to you, she smiles and looks directly into your eyes.a.She is making fun of you and trying to embarrass you into trying harder.b.She is trying not to scare you. She wants to make you relax.Others: ____________________________________.

3. You see a friend studying in an empty classroom. You tap on the window to get his attention. He looks up and waves a hand side to side at you with the palm facing out and then looks back down at his books.a.He is saying he is busy and you should not disturb himb.He is saying hello and you should go into the room to greet him.Others: ____________________________________.4. A man in a restaurant wants the attention of the waiter. He looks at the waiter and raises his hand. His palm faces up and his first finger moves back and forth. The waiter willa.Feel offended that the man did this.b.Smile and come right over.Others: ____________________________________.

5. Hand held up, with fingers pointing up and palm facing out. First finger and thumb make an ‘O’

You and your friend are taking photos in a park. You are posing and your friend is holding a camera.

After a flash, your friend holds up his hand with fingers pointing up and palm facing out. Index

finger and thumb make an ‘O’.

a. He is saying ‘OK’.b. He is asking you to pose again.Others: ____________________________________.

6. Head nodding up and down. Head shaking from side to side.

You and your mother are going shopping. Your mother wants to buy a new skirt for you. She picks up a blue one and shows it to you. You shake your head from side to side. Then she picks up a green one. You

nod your head up and down. You:

a. like the blue skirt.b. are satisfied with the green one she chose.Others: ____________________________________.

7. After a meal, leaning back and patting stomach with palm of hand.

All of your family are enjoying a big dinner on Mid-Autumn Day. After the meal, you lean back and pat

your stomach with the palm of your hand. You mean:

a. Oh, I am full. It’s quite delicious.b. I have got a stomach-ache.Others: ____________________________________.

Skills building 3:Organizing a report

1. Introduction---what the report is about.

2. Procedures/ Method---what you did to find the information

3. Results/ Findings---what you found out or proved in your report.

4. Conclusion---a summary of the report. It sometimes includes recommendations.

Avoid using the first person in report

The passive in the past tense can be used to describe what you did.

Organizing the sentences below into the appropriate sections. Write the correct numbers in the boxes.

It looks at how we can make our language more polite and what we need to know about culture to make sure we don not upset someone from another culture.

The information was found on the Internet.

2

3

This report is about politeness and impoliteness. 1

It was found that modals can be used to help us to be polite.

4

Finally, we need to know the customs of a country so that we do not upset anyone, 8

6

It was also suggested that it is useful to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

5

In addition, we should be polite to people older than us

Saying ‘sorry’ if we do something wrong or refuse to accept an idea also helps us to be polite. 7

In a word, it seems likely that if people think about other cultures before they visit a new country, they will be less likely to upset anyone.

9

•Introduction

•Procedures/Method

•Results/Findings

•Conclusion

Step 3:Writing a report on body language

Sample answers

This report is about body language used in both China and the United States. It looks at how the same gesture is used in two different countries and how the gesture expresses different meanings in the two countries. It also states the similarities and differences of body language in these two countries.

The information was collected from my

classmates through a survey. In order to conduct

the survey, I created some situation sand answers

for some common gestures for my classmates to

respond to.

After collecting their answers, I recorded

their answers and analyzed the statistics.

From the outcome of my survey, we can see that for most of the gestures, people in both countries share the same meaning, as with the gestures of the head nodding up and down, the head shaking from side to side and thumbs up.There are also some differences in the meaningof some gestures. For example, there are differences in the meaning of the gesture of waving, when the palm faces out and the hand moves left and right.

In the USA it means ‘Hello’, but in China it

means 'N0.', a negative answer. Nowadays,

some young Chinese also use this gesture to

greet others. So with the increase in cultural,

educational and economic exchange between

the two countries, the differences in body

language between the two nations will become

smaller and smaller.

These results suggest that people from

different cultures more or less can understand

each other by using these gestures. It seems

that in the future we can make full use of body

language to help us convey our ideas or feelings

when we talk with foreign friends.