The Role of Gestures in Communication

Abstract

Because it plays such a very significant role in the life of every human being, it is difficult to imagine a world without communication. After all, communication, both verbally and nonverbally, has occurred and evolved between people since the dawn of humankind. As it is, during communicative interaction, verbal contact is supplemented with non-verbal information, laying the foundation for full-fledged communication. That means that nonverbal communication is an essential aspect of speech communication because it can either greatly increase the semantic meaning of a word or significantly weaken it. Moreover, non-verbal means of communication are typically expressive and laconic and greatly increase the possibilities of communication between people. That being said, one of the most commonly used non-verbal communications is gestures. In communication, gestures accompany speech or replace it. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other body parts, and each person uses various motions in communication to convey his thoughts. The gestures we use in daily communication add to a language’s vocabulary and syntax. Furthermore, a gesture is more expressive than a unit of verbal language. With this in mind, this article discusses the various aspects of nonverbal communication and provides examples of typical gestures a person uses in everyday communication. This study consisted of 50 students ranging in age from 17 to 25 years old and aimed to reveal what types of gestures are used much more frequently by young people in everyday life.