Unit 3 Verbaland Non-verbal CommunicationUnit overview Both Units 1 and 2 mention a key word “communication”.As Thomas Payne points out in Text B of Unit 2, most of us, linguists or non-linguists, have the common-sense notion that “the main purpose of human language is communication”. Thus to develop a deeper understanding of the nature and function of language, we need to take a close at human communication. This unit examines this topic from a cross-cultural perspective, illustrating the similarities and differences in verbal and non-verbal communication between different cultures, which lays a foundation for further exploration into the interface between language and culture in the following units. Text A People in different communities demonstrate different perceptions and rules of both verbal and non-verbal communication. The way they interact is culturally relative in almost every aspect, including when to talk, what to say, pacing and pausing, listenership, intonation and prosody, formulaicity, indirectness, and coherence and cohesion. Text B Some non-verbal behaviors are practically universal and have the same meaning wherever you are (e.g., smiling and facial expressions of anger, surprise, fear, sadness, and so on). But for cultural and historical reasons, there have also developed great differences and variations in such aspects as eye contact, touch, gestures, and territorial space, etc. Without an awareness of respect and accommodation for people from a different background, these differences are likely to cause misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication.The two texts supplement each other in that Text A illustrates cross-cultural differences in both verbal and non-verbal communication while Text B focuses on non-verbal behaviors and addressesboth differences and similarities. Teaching objectives This unit is designed to help students develop their reading skills, communicative competence, critical thinking, intercultural reflection and abilities of autonomous learning in the following aspects.Reading skills: Use context to understand a new wordIdentify cohesive devices Predict the content of an upcoming sentence/paragraphCommunicative competence: Develop a coherent and cohesive oral/written discourseUse topic sentences, supporting sentences and concluding sentences in presentations/essaysCommunicate constructively in team workCritical thinking:Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of personal experience as evidence in argumentationOrganize the arguments using an outlineNote and reflect on the differences between academic writing and everyday writingIntercultural reflectionIdentify similarities and differences in non-verbal communication across culturesBe aware of multiple levels of differences on which cross-cultural communication can falterInterpret communication behaviors from cultural and historical perspectivesTeaching strategies Non-verbal communication and cross-cultural communication are both interesting topics in linguistics. The teacher can introduce the two texts by quoting anecdotes or relating to studentsown experiences (question 5 in Preparatory work, p. 59). For students who lack experience of cross-cultural communication, the topic can be led in by discussions about inter-subcultural communication. Text A is a research articlefrom an academic journaland its structure and writing style are quite clear. It is recommended to draw students attention to the authors logic (i.e., ways of arguing) and use of evidence in class. If well-planned, all the questions in Preparatory Work and Critical reading can be dealt with in some detail in class. The teacher can follow all the questions in Understanding the text to check students comprehension of the text, while the tasks in Evaluation and exploration can be divided and assigned to groups. For example, in Making an outline (p. 62), the teacher can divide the students into three groups, each responsible for one topic. For classical works in intercultural communication, please refer to: Hall, Edward T. (1955). The Anthropology of Manners.Scientific American,192: 85-89.Hall, Edward T. (1959). The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday. For more updated information, please find the following journals:Cross-Cultural Communication published by Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture (CAOOC)Across Languages and Cultures published byAkadmiaiKiadLanguage and Intercultural Communication published byRoutledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd.Preparatory work (1) Academic interests: gender and language, interactional sociolinguistics, conversational interaction, cross-cultural communication, frames theory, conversational vs. literary discourse, and new media discourse.Main publications: You Just Dont Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York: Morrow, 1990.Thats Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes