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Unit 1: Speaking Skills

notes
Example: A few examples in this regard are as follows:
Patting the stomach – “I’m full of food”.
Nodding the head up and down – “Yes” or “I agree”.

Patting the adjacent seat – “Sit besides me”
Shaking fist – “I’m angry”
Yawning – “I’m bored” or “I’m angry”
Cupping hand behind ear – “I can’t hear you”
Clapping hands – “I approve”
Placing first finger on lips – “Be silent”

Circling the first finger parallel with the side of the head – “that person’s crazy” or “that
person’s stupid”
Forming the first and second finger in the shape of a “V” – “Peace” or “Victory”

Shrugging shoulders and raising palms of hand upward – “I don’t know”
Scratching the head – “frustration”.
Tapping finger against skull – “I’m thinking”
Taping finger on own chest – “Me”

Standing at side of road and pointing thumb in direction of traffic – “I’d like a ride”
(hitchhiking)
Waving –“Hello,” “Good bye,” Come here,” “Here I am.”
2. Illustrators: They are directly tied to verbal language. These gestures illustrate the words,
which a speaker is saying. When a speaker says, “My third and final point is…” and holds
up three fingers, this gesture is an illustrator.
3. Regulators: Regulators control oral communication by alerting the sender to the need to
hurry up, slow down, or repeat something.

Example: Frequent glances at the watch or drumming finger on the table when someone
is talking with other.
When someone is delivering a long speech and the other person wants to restrict him, the
other person may show his watch to regulate the other person.
4. Displays: These indicate emotional states, such as anger or embarrassment, and usually
occur in facial expressions. Display differs from the three previous types in that people
have for less control over them. Many people, for example, have felt their faces turning
red because they were angry or embarrassed. However, there is little, which they can do to
control this effect display.
5. Adaptors: They are the gestures over which people have little control. Frequently people
are not conscious of performing such gestures. Stifling a yawn or clasping the hands to the
face in fear are adaptor gestures. They are automatic and are not planned.
It is important to note that gestures are not used individually but in relation to another person,
and acquire meaning at particular times. Speech and gestures go together, and, therefore, have

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