What is the importance of facial expressions and body movement in communication

IMPORTANCE OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS & BODY MOVEMENT

(i) Language :
Language is the basic device to express our thoughts, expressions and feelings. In mass communication, language is being considered the most important source of communication through which we share our knowledge, information and ideas with others.
1. According to the author of “The History of Language”, Henry Sweet : “Language may be defined as the expression of thoughts by means of speech sounds.”
2. Dictionary of Linguistics defines Language as :
“A system of communication by sound that is through the organs of speech and hearing among human beings of a Certain group or community, using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meaning.”
3. Webster’s New International Dictionary defines Language as :
“Language is audible, articulate human speech as produced by the action of the tongue and adjacent vocal organs. The body of words and methods of combining words used and understood by a considerable
community, especially when fixed and elaborated by long usage, a tongue.”

(ii) Gesture :
Gesture is another important source of communication. Language is useful only for normal people but it is useless for deaf and dumbs who cannot speak and hear; so We find these gestures the most effective source to communicate with them. Although it is not necessary that gestures are used only for deaf & dumbs, but they are also used for communication with general people. Sometimes only gestures are used for communication, for example, the gestures of traffic sergeant standing on the road for traffic control. He controls traffic not with language but only with his gestures.
In some cases, when our sound can’t reach to others due to the long distance we use gestures for communication and find it more useful than language.
There are four types of gestures :
(a) Gestures of body   (b) Lines and sketches
(c) Gestures of colour (d) Gestures of sound

(a) Gestures of body : Gestures of the body are the gestures which are done by different movements of our body. Body movements show specific meaning of our action, for example, when we want to stop any person we raise our hand for showing him to stop there. Gesture of eye is another example of body gestures. We move our neck to reply in “yes” or “no”. These are all body gestures which show our“ expressions, feelings and thoughts to others.
(b) Lines and sketches : It means that gestures are presented in the form of lines sketches, for example, sign of “x” is used for the word of “not”, as, the “x” on cigarette case shows the message of “No smoking”.
(c) Gestures of colour : In this form of gestures, we relate specific meaning to different colours, for example, “red colour” means “danger” in traffic signal; red means “stop here” and “green” means “to continue drive”, on the other-side “white” means “peace”.
(d) Gestures of sound : Sometimes, we use meaningless words. They express our feelings and expressions, for example, Hurrah, Oops, Waoo are used for showing
happiness.

(iii) Facial Expressions :
Face is the index of mind, while a person is speaking to another or a group of people his inner thoughts and feelings are reflecting by his facial expressions. The feelings of sadness, fear, liking, disliking or happiness can be exposed without using any word.
Facial expression is an important source of communication because whatever we believe and whatever we speak is all exposed. Use of facial expression helps us to convey our message without using language. Smile can convey the message of happiness and friendship. If someone says something which we don’t like facial expressions reveal inner feelings of disliking because facial expressions change gradually according to our
temperament. So we can say that facial expressions are an important source of communication.

(iv) Signs and Symbols :
It is another source of communication. Signs and symbols are also work like language without words. The sign language is made for use of the people who do not understand each other’s language. For instance, most of the people living in Britain do not understand the language spoken by Arabs. If a British wants to say something to an Arab, he would make use of a sign language. In fact, primitive man used signs, symbols
and pictures as mode of communication before the evolution of language. But now when the language is fully developed, still signs, gestures are used as effective medium for conveying the message of friendship like red light in traffic signals means to stop.

(v) Written Communication :
Through this type of communication we convey our message to the receiver in written form. Its effects are more lasting than Radio & television because through this mean of communication we can keep record of information easily and read again again.
Written information is considered the most credible and prestigious source of communication.