Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Paralanguage, Communication, and Education

This article examines the importance of paralanguage (kinesics, proxemics, and paraverbal features) in communication. Gestures, facial expressions, interfactional synchrony, eye contact, use of space, touching, aspects of voice modification, and silence are shown to play a crucial role in human interaction and to be highly culture‐specific. The implications of this broad paradigm of communication are discussed with respect to language development, and it is suggested that paralanguage be included as a primary facet of communicative competence. Finally, the importance of awareness of paralanguage in the classroom is discussed, and a number of suggestions are made to facilitate students' acquisition of paralanguage.