Non-Verbal Communication & Tone of Voice

So earlier today, I was trying to think of an experience I have had with communication in the past that I thought would be worth writing in my blog about. I ended up remembering an exercise that one of my english teachers in high school did with my class that I thought was pretty cool. The exercise that she was teaching us was all about non-verbal communication and tone of voice. Usually when we think of communication we either think of verbal or written communication but those aren’t the only ways a person is able to communicate with others. Other components, such as body language and tone are two elements of communication that can say a lot without actually saying or doing a whole lot.

My english teacher at my high school had the whole class do this exercise that emphasized how people can communicate with their bodies and with their tone of voice rather than actually verbally saying a whole message. She had each one of us students pair up with another student to work in groups of two. Each group was handed a note card that stated a specific situation. For example, one situation may have said something like, “Your boyfriend/girlfriend just broke up with you and has now started talking to one of your close friends.” Along with the situation, the note card stated only a word or two for each partner to say. The goal of the exercise was to act as if you were in that particular situation and could only use the couple words that were given. You could only use your body language and tone to communicate. The results were actually very surprising to me. Each pair of students would go up and do a short reenactment of the situation they were given without disclosing what the situation was to the rest of the class. The class would then have to guess what their mood was and what may have been going on between the two partners strictly off of their tone of voice and body language. The class was able to almost exactly depict what mood was being acted almost every time. This was really interesting because it’s amazing how much information you can gather just by observing a persons body language and their tone of voice of just a couple words. This just goes to show that communication can be expressed in variety of different ways and doesn’t necessarily have to be in a verbal or written form. Tone of voice and body language are two significant elements that can help improve communication and help depict how someone is feeling. Being able to fully understand a persons mood and emotions can help with communicating properly with them. If you’re able to judge a persons body language and tone, you then are able to choose the appropriate approach to communicate with them.