Chapter Overview

When we think about communication, we most often focus on how we exchange information using words. Although verbal communication is important, humans relied on nonverbal communication for thousands of years before we developed the ability to communicate with words. Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behaviour other than words.

Rather than thinking of nonverbal communication as the opposite of or as separate from verbal communication, it is more accurate to view them as operating side by side, as part of the same system. However, they still have important differences. For example, the content and composition of verbal and nonverbal communication differs. In terms of content, nonverbal communication tends to do more of the work of communicating emotions than verbal communication. In terms of composition, although there are rules of grammar that structure our verbal communication, no such official guides govern our use of nonverbal signals. These are just some of the characteristics that differentiate verbal communication from nonverbal, and in this chapter, we will discuss in more detail the principles, functions, and types of nonverbal communication and conclude with some guidance on how to improve our nonverbal communication competence.