Part a: introduction
I. Rationale
Touch, known as haptics or tactile communication, is often considered to be the most
basic form of communication that each of us experiences from birth. As well, it is a
fundamental aspect of nonverbal communication in general and of self-presentation in
particular. To some extent, body contact is related to proximity – one can only touch
if one is within close range of the other person. The closer we stand to one another, the
more we increase the likelihood of our touching. Touch is also a crucial aspect of most
human relationships. It plays a part in giving encouragement, expressing tenderness,
showing emotional support, and many other things. Some say it reflects a yearning for
human contact and a desire to restore some unfilled tactile needs. The act of touching
is like any other message we communicate – it may elicit negative reactions as well
as positive ones depending on the configuration of people and circumstances.
In addition, how we feel about touch usually depends on the meanings of touch we
perceived. For example, our meanings are affected by the part of the body that is
touched, the duration of the touch, the amount of pressure that is applied, and the
amount of movement after absence of another person, the importance of any other
person who is present, the situation in which the touch occurs, the mood created by the
situation, and the relationship between the people involved.
Moreover, some research reports that boys and girls get differential early experiences
with touch from parents, but most agree that early experiences with touch are crucial
for later adjustment.
In this thesis, we will discuss touching behaviours and its effects on human
communication. Additionally, we will compare and contrast the way Vietnamese and
American informants apply touching with certain subjects. Hence, we will draw out
some similarities and differences with the view to suggesting solutions to cultural
shock and communication breakdown.
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II. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
 To investigate touchable areas on human body.

the appropriate boxes, corresponding to where they applied touching, what types of
touching behaviours they employed and they also provided some personal information
to help produce a more precise result (such as age, gender, marital status, etc.) The
data was then analyzed from a cross-cultural perspective, in the light of nonverbal
communication.
The survey questionaire contained the following situation:
(1) After one week out of touch with the following people, identify who
touched you where.
(2) Identify how often you get touched by the following people.
(3) What would be your reaction if one of the following people touch you,
after one week out of touch with him/her?
(4) Identify what kind of touching behaviour you apply on different body
regions for the following people after one week out of touch with him/her.
In these situations, informants had to choose who they would apply certain type of
touching behaviour.
The informants’ communicating partners were people in family, social and business
relations:
 Mother
 Father
 Brother
 Sister
 Close same-sex friend
 Close opposite-sex friend
 Same-sex acquaintance
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 Opposite-sex acquaintance
 Same-sex colleague
 Opposite-sex colleague
 Boss
 Subordinate

VII. Design of the study
The study falls into three main parts:
PART A: INTRODUCTION: All the academic routines required for an M.A Thesis
are presented
PART B: DEVELOPMENT: This is the focus of the study and consisted of 3 chapters
Chapter 1: Background Concepts
Chapter 2: Touching behaviour as Nonverbal behaviour
Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion
PART C: CONCLUSION
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Part B: development
Chapter 1: background concepts
1.1. What culture?
The word 'culture' stems from the Latin "colere", translatable as to build on, to
cultivate, to foster. In the early stages of the philosophical debate about what is
'culture', the term often refers to the opposite of 'nature'. 'Culture' was referring to
something constructed willingly by men, while 'nature' was given in itself.
No one can say for sure how many definitions of “culture” there are, but one obvious
thing is that these definitions are all proposed in order to orient and set target for the
researches.
There are and have been many ways to approach the definitions of ‘culture’. Nguyen
Quang has defined culture by contrasting culture and nature, asociating the “being”
part of men with “nature”, the “human” part with “culture”.
- Culture is non-natural
- Nature is the extension of being and culture of human (Nature-Culture and
Human-Being)
(Nguyen Quang, 2005)
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Nature
culture

Ferrando.
G.
Language
Food
Appearance
Values
Beliefs
Attitudes
Perceptions
Communication style
Taboos
Customs
Traditions
1.2. What communication?
1.2.1. Definition of communication.
Like culture, there have been many definitions of “communication” with various
emphasis on different factors. According to Nguyen Quang (F: 27), they can be
classified with:
 Emphasis on the hearer.
Ronald. B. Alder & George Rodman (1998): Communication refers to the process of
man being responding to the face-to-face symbolic behaviour of other persons
 Emphasis on both the speaker and the hearer.
Ronald. B. Alder & George Rodman (1998): Communication refers to the process of
man being responding to the face-to-face symbolic behaviour of other persons
Levine and Adelman (1993) The process of sharing meaning through verbal and
nonverbal behaviour.
 Emphasis on the meaning of the intended message.
Zimmerman et al. (1991: 4): The process in which persons assign meanings to events
and especially to the behaviour of other persons.
Verderber (1989: 4): Communication may be defined as the transactional process of

The message is made up of the ideas and feelings that a sender-receiver wants to
share. Ideas and feelings can be communicated only if they are represented by
symbols. All our communication messages are made up of two kinds of symbols:
verbal and nonverbal.
 Channels
The channel is the route travelled by a message; the means it uses to reach the sender-
receivers. In face-to-face communication, the primary channels are sound and sight.
Other channels communicate nonverbal message.
 Feedback
Feedback is the response of the receiver-senders to each other. Feedback is vital to
communication because it lets the participants in the communication see whether
ideas and feelings have been shared in the way they were intended.
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 Noise
Noise is inteference that keeps a message from being understood or accurately
interpreted. Noise occurs betwwen the sender-receivers, and it comes in three forms:
external, internal, and semantic. External noise comes from the environment and
keeps the message from being heard or understood. Internal noise occurs in the minds
of the sender-receivers when their thoughts or feelings are focused on something other
than the communication at hand. Semantic noise is caused by people’s emotional
reactions to words.
 Setting
Setting is where the communication occurs. Settings can be a significant influence on
communication. Setting is made up of several components, which can range from the
way a place is lighted to the colours used for decoration.
1.2.3. Types of communication
Hybels, S. and Weaver, R II (1992: 14) explain that there are different kinds of
communication, among which most often used kinds are: intrapersonal, interpersonal,
interviews, small group, and public.
 Intrapersonal communication

the interview has a specific purpose, the communication setting is usually quite
formal.
 Small group communication
Small group communication occurs when a small number of people meet to solve a
problem. The group must be small enough so that each member in the group has a
chance to interact with all other members.
Because small groups are made up of several sender-receivers, the communication
process is more complicated than in interpersonal communication. With so many more
people sending messages, there are more chances for confusion. Messages are also
more structured in small group because the group is meeting together for a specific
purpose. Small groups use the same channels as interpersonal communication,
however, and there is also a good deal of opportunity for feedback, and the settings are
also more formal.
 Public communication
In public communication the sender-receiver (the speaker) sends a message (the
speech) to an audience. The speaker usually delivers a highly-structured message,
using the same channels as interpersonal communication and small-group
communication. In public communication, however, the channels are more
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exaggerated than in interpersonal communication. The voice is louder and the gestures
are more expansive because the audience is bigger. Generally, the opportunity for
verbal feedback in public communication is limited. In most public communication
the setting is formal.
1.3. What nonverbal communication?
1.3.1. Definition of nonverbal communication.
Language studies traditionally have emphasized verbal and written language, but
recently have begun to consider communication that takes place without words. In
some types of communication people express more nonverbally than verbally.
Today, many researchers are concerned with the information sent by communication
that is independent of and different from verbal information; namely, the non-verbal

Simply defined, nonverbal communication is everything that is communicated beyond
what is expressed in words. According to Levine and Adelman (1993): Nonverbal
communication is the silent language, including the use of gestures, facial‘ ’
expressions, eye-contact, and conversational distance.
Nonverbal communication can be more clarified based on the following table:
Code
Channel
Verbal nonverbal
Vocal
Spoken words
(Intralanguage)
Tone of voice, sigh, scream,
vocal quality, pitch, loudness,
and other paralinguistic factors
Nonvocal
Written words
(Intralanguage)
Gesture, movement, appearance,
facial expression, touch, and
other extralinguistic factors
Nguyen Quang
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1.3.2. The importance of nonverbal communication.
The transactional nature of communication comes through very strongly in nonverbal
communication. Without saying a word we could be communicating by our clothing,
our facial expressions, our postures, or any other number of nonverbal signals.
According to Allan Pease cited in Body Language (1984: 10): The fascinating thing
is that the human animal is rarely aware of his postures, movements and gestures that
can tell one story while his voice may be telling another.
And it seems incredible that people are hardly aware of the existence of nonverbal

angry, your verbal and nonverbal messages are contradictory. Which is to
believe? In these circumstances observers are more inclined to believe what is
expressed nonverbally because it is less subject to conscious control.
 Nonverbal behaviour may regulate the flow of verbal interaction. Eye
contact, voice pitch, gestures, and other nonverbal cues may tell people when
to talk and when to be quiet. For example, we may look directly at another
person when we want them to speak, or we may make a slight backward move
in a chair when we have finished talking.
 Nonverbal behaviour may take the place of words. At these times meaning is
generated solely through the nonverbal behaviour. When the team comes into
the dressing room after a game, the looks, posture, and tones of voice tell the
story of who won the game – no one needs to ask. And when the umpire jerks
his thumb into the air, you know the runner is out.
1.3.4. Classification of nonverbal communication.
There are many different ways to classify nonverbal communication, however, the
difference lies in the details of paralanguage and extralanguage.
Beisler et al. (1997) assume that nonverbal communication consists of the following
aspects:
+ Body language (Kinesics)
+ Physical characteristics and appearance
+ Voice (Paralanguage)
+ Space (Proxemics)
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+ Environment
+ Time
These authors also consider silence as a type of NVC.
Ekman and Fiesen (1967) paid more attention to object language in extralanguage.
Their classification is manifested as follow:
+ Paralanguage: nonverbal vocal message.
+ Action language: Action language includes all facial expressions,

are generally more conscious about this. However, each of the nonverbal cues
varies significantly for each kind of feeling and also varies between cultures.
+ Universal nonverbal communication: Universal nonverbal communication
is behaviour that is common to humankind. It shows happiness, sadness or deep-
seated feelings- for example, a smile or tears.
+ Unrelated nonverbal communication: Unrelated nonverbal
communication, such as a sneeze, is unrelated to the verbal message. It can
distract from the verbal message, but has little effect on the meaning of the verbal
part of the message.
Zimmerman, Owen and Seibert (1986: 66) classify nonverbal communication into the
following categories:
 Physical features of the human body
A perhaps regrettable trait of human beings is that we develop important meanings
from a person’s physical features. A tall man with slender waist, muscled torso, and
square shoulders may appear confident, strong and attractive. A woman with the so-
call hourglass figure may be viewed as sexier and less intelligent than one with
straighter lines.
The tendency to make nonverbal meanings from physical features can be cruel and
dangerous. Moreover, there is evidence that the meanings we associate with physical
features significantly influence our judgments of credibility, intelligence, attitudes,
dating and marriage decisions, personality, and ability. However, many of these
features are elements over which a person has very little control.
 Bodily movement and posture
Closely related to our physical features are bodily movement and posture. We use the
term kinesics to denote the broad category of obeservable physical motion that
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communicates – that is to which people give meaning. There are three types of
observable physical motion: facial, gestural, postural.
 Vocal inflection
The human voice is an instrument for uttering language symbols, or words, in the

perception and use of personal and social space for communication. One key
dimension is the distance between people. A noted researcher in nonverbal
communication, Edward Hall (1959), categories and defines four distance zones
between communicators: intimate distance, personal distance, social distance and
public distance.
 Time
The dimension of time has at least two nonverbal connotations in communication.
First, time as a specific point on the clock carries significant meaning. For example,
we may notice when someone is late for an appointment and may begin thinking of
possible reasons: “It’s 1.30 and Jane isn’t here yet”. A second way of thinking about
time is duration, or time span. Closely related to clock time, and often measured by it,
time span may suggest potent messages: “you haven’t written in three weeks”; that
means you don’t love me any more.
 Silence
As if nonverbal communication were not complex enough, merely the absence of
audible messages also may carry meaning. Silence may also be called tacit
communication. When a person who could communicate orally chooses to remain
silent, either briefly or for some time, that choice has message content we may
interpret.
Jensen (1973) suggests five communicative functions of silence. First, it may serve as
a linkage between people. Second, silence serves an affective function in that it has
impact on our emotional interaction. Third is the revelational function, which can
either reveal or keep something hidden. A fourth function is judgmental. We use
silence to suggest good or bad, agreement or dissent. Finally, silence serves an
activating function. It can move us to do or think certain things that might not occur if
we talk.
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A classification of the author’s interest is the one proposed by Nguyen Quang (F:29)
since it is quite clear and sufficient.
A classi

…
- Clothing
- Jewlery
- Accessories
- Make-up
- Artificial scents
- Gift
- Flower
…
- Setting
- Conversational
distance/ Proxemics
- Time/ Chronemics
- Lighting system
- Colour
- Heat
…
Nguyen Quang (CCC)
Chapter 2: touching behaviours as
nonverbal communication
2.1. Definition of touching behaviour.
Touch, known as haptics, is often considered to be the most basic form of
communication; as such it is a fundamental aspect of nonverbal communication in
general and of self-presentation in particular. We use our hands to pat, slap, pinch,
stroke, hold, embrace, and tickle. We employ such touching behaviours for a variety
of reasons ranging from impersonal and random to intimate and purposeful. We shake
hands to be sociable and polite, we pat a person on the back for encouragement, we
hug a person to show love.
Tactile communication is probably the most basic or primitive form of
communication. In fact, tactile sensitivity may be the first sensory process to become

person will probably back away. If we move
farther away than 4 feet, it will be difficult to
carry on conversation without having the feeling
that it can be overheard by others.
 Social zone (between 1.22 metres and 3.6 metres/ 4 to 12 feet)
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When we do not know people very well, we
are most likely to maintain a social distance
from them – that is, a distance of 4 to 12
feet. Impersonal business, social gathering,
and interviews are examples of situations
where we use social distance. Whenever we
use social distance, interaction becomes more
formal.
 Public zone (over 3.6 metres/ 12 feet)
Public distance – a distance of more than
12 feet – is typically used for public
speaking. At this distance, people usually
speak more loudly and use more
exaggerated gestures. Communication at
this distance is more formal and permits
few opportunities for people to be involved
with each other.
Of all the zone distances, intimate distance is by far the most important as this is the
zone that a person guards as if it were his own property. Only those who are
emotionally close to that person are permitted to enter it. This includes lovers, parents,
spouse, children, close friends and relatives.
2.2.2. Factors affecting personal distance.
Hall notes that different cultures maintain different standards of personal space. In
Latin cultures, for instance, those relative distances are smaller, and people tend to be

intimate interactants are, the smaller the physical distance tends to be in
communication. This can be seen very clearly in the four distance zones:
- Public distance is employed between speakers and audience.
- Social distance is used for conversations between acquaintances and
strangers
- Personal distance is for friends, family members and relatives.
- Intimate distance is reserved for lovers, couples, spouses, sometimes
for close friends and family members
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(4) Age
Generally, during childhood, people
tend to stand closer to each other:
(Photo credits: www.AutumnRiver.info)
When being teenagers and over, we
begin having awareness of social
distance and the personal space
becomes greater:
(Photo credits: www.photo.net)
Old age will lead to close distance in
communication as human are assumed
to receive the subject’s support for being
weak:
(Photo credits: www.photo.net)
(5) Population density
According to Pease (1984), the amount of personal space required by an individual is
related to the population density of the area in which he/she was brought up.
Those who were brought up in sparsely-populated areas require more space than those
raised in densely-populated area. Watching how far a person extends his arm to shake
hands can give a clue whether he is from a major city or from a remote country area.
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