Non-Verbal Communication in Greetings in Chinese: a Pedagogical Proposal

Abstract

非语言交际研究及对外汉语教学法研究 的发展，以及在汉语作为第二语言的教学实 践中遇到的某些语言交际能力之外的具体问 题，使我们开始正视非语言交际在跨文化交 流中的重要性及将非语言交际能力教学融入 对外汉语教材的必要性，希望藉此帮助学生 提高使用中文进行交流的能力，加深学生对 中国社会与文化的理解。以此为目的，我们 以问卷调查的方式为主，面谈调查为辅，并 参考现有相关研究成果，着重探讨了中文里 与“问候”这一日常交际行为相关的某些具 体语境中非语言符号的使用及其与西班牙语 相似语境中非语言符号使用的差别，并对容 易导致母语为西班牙语的对外汉语学生理解 错误的一些非语言符号进行了辨析与记录。 在此基础上，我们设计了五个具体的教学活 动，通过练习将非语言交际能力的教学有机 地导入对外汉语教学活动中，以提高学生对 中文与其母语中非语言符号使用差异性的敏 感度，避免由于对口语或书面语中非语言信 息的误解而造成学生交际阻碍。 Due to the problems detected in the practice of teaching Chinese as second Language, on the other hand with the theoretical advances both in nonverbal communication and in pedagogy, especially in that of Chinese language, we began to reflect on the importance of the nonverbal language in intercultural communications. It is found that it necessary to make a theoretical and practical proposal for the integration of nonverbal communication into the Chinese language teaching materials, for the purpose of improving our students’ communication and the comprehension on the culture and society of China. In this goal, the present work consists in the analysis of nonverbal signs used in some specific communicative contexts in Chinese related to the topic of “greetings”, and in the identification of those nonverbal signs that can more easily cause errors of interpretation in the students, mainly by questionnaire, interviews and bibliographic review. Finally, based on the results of our study, we present a concrete pedagogical proposal composed by five activities, in order to offer a complementary material that could help the students to avoid misinterpretations in spoken or written context that block and distort the transmission of messages.