Dissertation anglais sur la communication non verbale

AMC

Oral de spécialité

Introduction

This is a copy of my folder for you with the documents I have chosen.

Non-verbal communication: silences, gestures, postures, facial expressions... completes the auditory message and can even replace it. Sometimes, non-verbal communication has more impact, gains in efficiency, but on one condition: master it!

Today, we are therefore going to approach the notion of Relation to the World through four documents. Firstly, a press article from the British newspaper The Guardian published in September 2016, which explains the protest gesture of the famous footballer Colin Kaepernick. The second one, published in October 2020, is an article from the American magazine Forbes which explains the findings of researchers about "Power posing". The next document is also an article from the cbsnew newspaper published in September 2018, in order to explain to Internet users the argument created by an american coast guard on a TV chanel. Finally, the last is a picture of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton during their first presidential debate in 2016.

Therefore the question is : Why is non-verbal communication so powerful?

In a first time, we will see that it can help us accomplish great things, but in a second time, we will see that non-verbal communication can do us just as much harm.

First part

We all know the proverb "speech is silver, silence is gold", and yes, talking or shouting is not always the best way to be heard .The first document illustrates this idea well. Indeed the article relates the action of the famous American Footballer Kaepernick in 2016. This one refused to sing the National Anthem before the kick-off of his match, the young man preferred to kneel on the ground in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Colin Kaepernick has chosen non-verbal language to best convey his message and his claim. Thus, the discreet gesture of the athlete has become a symbol in the United States and has also been enormously taken up by other personalities. This helped to highlight racial inequalities. At the end of the article, the journalist even describes the Footballer as having become a « nationally polarizing figure ».

Beyond its protesting benefits, non-verbal communication has an essential impact to accompany our voice. It helps to improve the image we send back, our credibility and also our self-confidence. Document 2 helps us learn more about power posing. At a TED talk, an expert on the subject Amy Cuddy shares the results of her research, I quote (ligne 19-23 : « After adopting an expansive pose, study participants felt more powerful, took more risk in a gambling task and performed better in a mock interview than those who had adopted contracted poses. » In reality, before others can believe in us, we must first believe in ourselves. So, standing up straight or putting on something you feel good in can have a bigger effect on your self-confidence than you might think.So, let's put all the chances on our side to convince ourselves and convince others!

Transition

Non-verbal communication

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