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Running head: BODY LANGUAGE AND CONFLICT

BODY LANGUAGE AND CONFLICT 20

The Relationship Between Misunderstanding of Body Language and Conflict Among College Students in Intercultural Communication

Abstract

Nonverbal communication or body language is a significant factor in human communication. Researchers have described the harmonization of the body language by emphasizing on the changes on the breadth of body movements. Consequently, there is literature about the nonverbal communication as important tools. However, there is no clear research that discussed the relationship between body language and conflict. Therefore, there is a need to examine if the misunderstanding of body language may cause conflict or not. This study investigates the relationship between misunderstanding of body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communications. The paper will also examine the role of communication in the relationships of college students with diverse religious, cultural, ethnic, or social backgrounds by using non-verbal messages. It looks at the misunderstanding of non-verbal communication and the conflicts among students from different cultural backgrounds. The study uses experimental test method based on two groups of college students who come from different countries including, USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Korea, China, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.

Introduction

Communication is one of the most significant aspects among college students and lecturers. It is important to understand that most powerful methods of communication do not include words at all. Body language communication comprises all unspoken messages sent to people every day. In the past decades, the part of nonverbal communication has experienced substantial reorientation, supplemented by aggregating interest within social psychology (Hsu, (2007). Body language is a very important form of communication because it can be applied to people from different races, geographical locations or cultural backgrounds. This topic of study is very significance in communication because it shades light on how body language can be used in communication among college students in intercultural communication (Kwon, et.al 2015). The study of body language communication has been examined with the help of numerous fields such as ethology, linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, and psychiatry.

Body language communication plays a far bigger part in intercultural communication simply because it requires fewer interpretations and translations, and success depends on the success of the nonverbal communication at hand. Communicating effectively in this contemporary world is very crucial. Therefore, appreciating intercultural communication is a fundamental aspect to avoid ethnic and racial tensions. For instance, the multinational college students, which are increasing population in countries such as USA and UK, developing abilities to communicate inter-culturally has a positive impact on their relationship with others and their academic performance (Burton & Furr, 2014). Misunderstanding of factors such as body language, cultural ambiguity, language barrier, and unfamiliar environment among multinational college students has caused “intercultural communication anxiety.” This phenomenon causes conflicts among the students in the colleges hence they need interaction with members of both the host community and other cultures.

The research question around this study is: R1: “What is the relationship between misunderstanding of body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communication?” building from the research question, the method of research exploited in this study included an objectively broad investigation of the published literature. Consequently, the study reviews literature in the general realm of communication, particular nonverbal communication journals, body language, and connection of these specific topics. This study investigates the relationship between misunderstanding of body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communications.

Definition of terms

Intercultural communication. Is defined as the process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating an individual’s cultural diversities through body language, space relationships, language and gestures.

Culture. Is defined as a society’s shared morals, attitudes, actions and acts of communicating that are distributed from one generation to another.

Communication . Is defined as a goal-focused and context-bound interchange of meaning between two or more people.

Intercultural communication apprehension. Is the fear connected with either real or anticipated interaction with people of diverse groups, more so cultural and ethnic or social groups.

Nonverbal communication. Is a form of communication which only uses gestures and facial expression and lacks a word.

Literature Review

According to some psychologists, non-verbal communication varies based on a person’s cultural background, more so in the individualism-collectivism dimension. Additionally, studies have indicated that intercultural diversities in how verbal communications are observed can be traced to differences in facial signs that individuals from West and East look for when detecting emotions (Serlin, Berger & Bar-Sinai, 2007). Therefore, people from distinctive cultures are expected to be taught to express their feeling via clear indications, although those from collective cultures are trained to subdue individual feeling, assigning them ultimately via indirect signs.

Jui-Pi (2014), offers a relatively simple-minded view of nonverbal communication as communication without using words. On the other hand, other scholars argue that nonverbal communication does not include the use of words, but it includes all expressive signs, signals and prompts. It also comprises of tomes, speed, loudness and timing of the words used to communicate. People learn nonverbal communication, as a child they start the process of verbal communication. The major obligation of nonverbal communication is to help in the communication procedure in means that unpretentious verbalization cannot. Verbal communication has limitation more when communicating with an individual from different racial and ethnic background (Hsu, (2007). However, nonverbal communication helps to bridge this gap due to the usage of body language.

Consequently, scholars have continuously determined numerous unhealthy communicative behaviours applied by people in violent relationships, including the use of verbal antagonism as well as negative touch, rage, or demeaning behaviour during the solving conflict. Numerous destructive dyadic methods of relationship conflict management have also been prominent (Burton & Furr, 2014). For instance, demand-withdraw and negative forms of interactive control. These studies have contributed greatly to the understanding of communication in vicious relationships by demonstrating that solving conflicts in intercultural communication require a comprehensive analysis of the anatomy of conflicts.

Nonverbal communication tools

Neuropsychological studies have continuously sustained the importance of body language over verbal expression for the encouragement and communication of demonstrative feelings (Kwon, Ogawa, Ono& Miyake, 2015). Research requesting participants to evaluate the eminence of the message conveyed by individuals depicting contradictory nonverbal message facial or voice expressions critic the quality of the message regarding the nonverbal message. According to evidence from research based on social behaviour and brain, there is a direct link and interaction between body communication and emotional feeling (Kwon, et.al 2015).

Subsequently, some studies have discussed nonverbal communication tools to examine sensation recognition in intercultural communication. Some scholars developed a tool which is a set of six postured photos of Caucasian grownups’ facial expressions displaying happiness, anger, disgust, sadness and fear. Then a computer using the Facial Expressions of Emotion-Stimuli Tests examined these photos (Yang, 2010). Also, the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy tool is an important tool developed to test sentiment recognition of body languages such as facial expressions and tone of voice.

In the recent past, some researchers have argued that since feelings are naturally nonverbal, nonverbal communication tools are more direct means of expression and interaction (Park, Baek & Cha, 2014). Body language expression is displayed both deliberately and unintentionally. Some nonverbal behaviours are learned such as wink; while others are innate such as blush. However, in most cases some of the nonverbal communication is misunderstood because of the intercultural communication. People are different depending on the background, ethnic group, or race they come from therefore some forms of body language communication are not universal hence causing misunderstanding. Vandenabeele (2002), argues that it is significant to comprehend that insensible actions and reactions are always the appearances of a college students feels uncomfortable else articulating.

According to Olson and Braithwaite (2004), a person’s culture plays an important role in developing his or her nonverbal behaviours. Some body language expressions are considered universal, whereas others convey particular cultural meaning. For instance, some facial expression such as a smile is a mutual communication of preference among all cultures. While some aspects of body language have shared meaning, the easiness with which they are unveiled is also a cultural variable. For example, it has been discovered that body language expressions including, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness are mutual between the Americans and Japanese; however, Japanese citizens believe that it is unacceptable to demonstrate such adverse feelings in public (Batty & Taylor, 2006). Consequently, some researchers have discovered that people from the United States are extremely open in their expression of positive sensations than other cultures.

The nonverbal practice of staring directly at a person, gazing, had been argued to be a

cultural variable. A survey conducted in the recent years shows that while listening to another person speaking, white Americans maintain an eye contact for eighty percent of the time (Marilly, Gonguet, Martinot, & Pain, (2013). Supplementary, while speaking, White Americans take fifty percent of their time making eye contact. On the other hand, African-Americans take most of their time making eye contact while speaking than when listening. As per most of the cultures globally, a gaze is connected with supremacy, antagonism, or authority. However, the Asian cultures prohibit a young person from making even a brief eye contact with a person of higher social status, as it is considered to be rude. Conversely, in the Arab cultures, people tend to stare extremely directly and for longer periods than other cultures from other parts of the world (Marilly, Gonguet, Martinot, & Pain, (2013).

Nonverbal Communication Theories

Numerous theoretical philosophies to nonverbal communication have been developed in the past decades. The external adaptable and organizational approaches, established by some psychologists, can be appropriately assigned to psychology and ecology correspondingly. There are several common theories of communication which are appropriate to nonverbal communication. Despite the fact that there are differences, the majority of the philosophies showcases some common features, specifically in about the function of behaviour. Nowadays, the most all-inclusive overview of conventional theories of expression has been documented in the various literature.

Following Fichten, Tagalakis, Wright and Amsel (1992), standard of conversational, he argues that an expression shows the effect of minor of two partialities on the effectors, the aptitude of the impression can also be outlined phylogenetically and can be precisely depicted by the innate releasing mechanism. Experience and learning can increase both impression and expression processes. Additionally, the anticipated message ought to be differentiated from the impressive behaviour in both its origin and function.

Psycho-biologically and biologically oriented philosophies are concerned, above all, with the phylogenetic and ontogenesis of nonverbal behaviour that is vital to the survival of the species (Mindess, 2014). The psychological theories of nonverbal communication also distinguish between impression and expression, however, here the words encoding and decoding of behaviour are applied, or the sender or the receiver function is specified. The models and terminology of telecommunication can be importantly used where the focus in place for the exchange of messages such as a communication channel, signal, sender, and receiver. Communication syndromes can, therefore, be described regarding encoding and decoding errors.

Some theorists argue that the function of nonverbal communicative behaviour in closer relationship to language (Mindess, 2014). For that reason, they differentiate the function of the messages about the personality of the sender, the ‘speech-supporting’ function and the ‘speech-equivalent’ function. For instance, the speech-supporting role can be demonstrated through sender-associated gestures, or illustrators, which focus or illuminate the verbal content. Consequently, those interactive patterns that standardise the communication process are termed as regulators

Most of the probable functions of nonverbal behaviour during conversations have been characterized by Mindess (2014). Due to the semiotic classification, he differentiates parasemantic, parasyntactic, and parapragmatic dimensions, and brings forth additional

‘dialogic’ functions of nonverbal behaviours. The most significant functions that are understood as parapragmatic are response ad manifestation to the partner’s utterances. Also, Scherer proposed a differentiated a theory of the encoding and decoding of social signals. It states that personality features and psychological personality are expressed in distal displays such as facial behaviour, voice quality, the manner of speaking and gestural behaviour (Nowicki & Duke, 1994).

Meaning of body gestures in different cultures

Some studies conducted recently, argue that interactive three-dimensional margin prospects also vary between cultures. For instance, Latin Americans communicate differently, they interrelate in closer vicinity that the Europeans do. Additionally, the Italians communicate and interrelate in the close vicinity that both the Americans and Germans do. Body language expressions such as physical gestures, using arms and hands, are another widespread variation between people from different cultures than can cause misunderstanding in nonverbal communication. A research conducted by So, Lui, Wong, and Sit (2015), recognizes numerous gestures that are conventional and socially tolerable in one culture but then are deliberated indecent in another culture. For instance, the “OK” sign that most people in some countries are more so English speaking, means insignificant or zero in France, while in Japanese it means money and is a deprecating proclamation or offensiveness in Arab, Latin American and Mediterranean nations.

Consequently, two fingers in a V formation has diverse meanings in different cultures. For instance, it may mean as victory, peace, two, five, or rudeness. People who come from Germany and UK., gesture with their hands held low as compared to people with Latin or

Mediterranean backgrounds. Some studies have indicated that cultural customs impact behaviour at various stages: including the body language expressions that people show and the way many individuals understand nonverbal cues made by others. Also, scholars have discussed the impact of culture on the encoding (send out) and decoding (understanding) of nonverbal behaviour. For that reason, individuals must be aware that their cultural backgrounds are what they use to deduce the meaning of behaviour in colleges.

According to Rashotte (2002), Nonverbal communication can be expressed through gestures, which are subdivided into five subcategories including, regulators, emblems, adapters, affect displays, and illustrators. The illustrators and emblems are the calmest to communicate because emblems refer to sign language such as the “Thumbs Up” which is among the top recognized body language used globally. On the other hand, illustrators imitate what we speak, for instance, showing somebody how much time is left by holding a specific among of fingers. A regulator is an approach that depicts meaning via gestures. For instance, when a student raises one hand in class implies that he or she has a question. However, the same regulator means something else across diverse cultures. Subsequently, Adaptors and Affect Displays, cannot be controlled over by an individual (Ishikawa, Hashimoto, Kinoshita & Yano, 2010). Affect Displays demonstrates emotions such as happiness by smiling, or sadness by trembling the mouth. Adapters are understated including yawn or tightening fists in anger.

Intercultural Psychology

In intercultural psychology, both macro-level culture and micro level distinct psychology are equally instituted, and socialization is deliberating the critical instrument to

explain the mutual relationship between culture and people’s psychological development. Works available in the communication by Ishikawa, et.al, (2010), show a model of cultural inconsistency in interaction. They argue that the national culture is influencing communication. The culture customs that are in different regions determine the ways people are socialized in their cultures. Ishikawa and others continue by arguing that a person is accentuated in individualistic cultures, and his or her verbal or non-verbal communication actions are required to depict their views or feelings with unambiguous signs or secret language precisely.

Subsequently, research done about how facial expressions and emotions across multicultural are consistent with those embracing Ishikawa and his team’s framework. Individuals within distinctive cultures are comparatively permitted to depict their feelings, and for that reason, body languages of sensation are more unswerving and less guarded. Also, individual within collectivistic cultures are extremely attentive to understanding the other’s state of mind so as to maintain their face-work; therefore, facial expressions of feeling are more unforeseen and less categorical.

Some researchers have reported that persons from individualistic cultures read a conversation partner’s feelings by emphasizing on muscles around the mouth, whereas those from collectivistic cultures infer their partner’s feelings by detecting movement of the muscles around the eyes (Hsu, (2007). Psychologists have proved these perceptions by arguing that the mouth occupies a larger part of the face than the eyes, meaning that a change in the mouth shape is more easily noticeable than the change in eye shape. These are very crucial facts in enlightening the cultural inconsistency in facial expressions of feelings.

Studies about nonverbal communication indicate that body language can also be represented via technological devices to indicate textual representations of facial expression (Samfira and Faragau-Dragos, 2014). For instance, Twitter can be used to send messages containing facial expressions conveying the sender’s emotive state, such as sad, angry, and happy. Scholars researching on cross-cultural topics have not yet reached an agreement on whether body languages are universal or culture-specific. Also, the scholars have argued that nonverbal communication as a significant tool (Fuller, 2007). However, there is no any research that has discussed the relationship between body language and conflict.

Recently, there has been an amassed pressure for colleges and universities worldwide to integrate intercultural and international understanding and awareness into the education of their students (Sussman & Rosenfeld, 1982). The reason behind this is that there has been a great misunderstanding and conflict among college students in intercultural communication. College students ought to have a definite level of global proficiency to appreciate the world they live in and how they fit into this world. This level of worldwide proficiency begins with the college and its faculties, the way they produce and communicate intercultural awareness and information to students (Ting-Toomey, Gao, Trubisky, Yang, Soo Kim, Lin & Nishida, 1991).

Segrin and Abramson (1994), describes another form of a non-verbal type of communication which concerns interaction through space around us. Or simply termed as “Proxemics.” The scholar also explains three types of space: Featured-Fixed space, Semi-fixed Feature space and informal space. Featured-Fixed space is the way different cultures arrange their space on a large scale such as structures and parks. Semi-fixed. Feature space means how space is arranged inside said buildings, such as the way desks are placed. On the

other hand, Informal space is the space that people place significance on.

The aptitude to apply gestures to determine non-present referents is significance for communication of concepts during a conversation. Previous research on signs has determined that when a person narrates a story he or she develops coherent discourse by using linguistic devices as well as speech accompanying motions (Cambridge, 2012). The studies have also shown verbal, and special memories are connected with language body occurrence among characteristic individuals. Other studies indicate that students who possess poorer visual and spatial working memory use body language more often than those who have stronger visual and spatial working memory (Ishikawa, et.al, 2010). However, there is no evidence that suggest the relationship between language and cognitive ability to show signs in children who are going to school.

Additionally, there is numerous literature indicating that movement experiences using body language were offered that discovered to the participants’ discrete movement configurations and the way in which through their cultural backgrounds, participants could tune into the movement of the others and establish trust and communication on the nonverbal level (Yang, Zhijun, Beck, Junsong & Thalmann, (2014). Students in colleges experience personal body languages that provide a profounder understanding of the roots of cultural diversities and indicated concepts on how the appreciative of the nonverbal stages may be applied to help resolve conflicts in the verbal and cultural levels of communication.

On the same note, previous research shows that people must be aware of the body language and intercultural communication. This awareness is mostly not part of people’s normal human interaction and continuously leads to unconscious misinterpretation of every conflict. Knowledge of the meaning of movement also aids people to see constantly others as individuals and not just as members of another culture. The survey that was conducted by Irvine (2012), indicated that students claimed that body language does not offer a comprehensive message and hence may add to more misunderstanding that eventually might lead to solemn conflicts. For that reason, it is important for people to understand the power of body language as communication, how it may unintentionally take them on an unfortunate path, and how it might be applied in the development of trust.

Nonverbal communication and the familiarity of moving either in congruence or disharmony with others is an influential tool for understanding the most basic element of conflict and resolution (Shiao-Yun, (2009). People from a certain culture and background face numerous challenges of understanding individuals from a different culture with an appropriate margin of sympathy. Preceding studies of college students surveyed the influence of cross-cultural sympathy in intercultural communication competence. After surveying students from two different colleges, Stone, Markham, & Wilhelm (2013), realised greater levels of intercultural sensitivity demonstrated a fundamental to successful communication across cultures.

Imagery and emotions

In the past decades, Visual Imagery and communication have been applied to communicate a person’s feelings toward communication to predictable communication with another individual (Bruder, Dosmukhambetova, Nerb, & Manstead, 2012). The capability of people to express their feelings and nonverbal behaviours in an image assists to coagulate predictable behaviours when communicating with others. Imagery is a very significant aspect of communication, and it has played a crucial role in the development of human beings regarding the origin and development of an individual when he or she is a child to adulthood.

Also, it had been argued that human beings used to communicate using images before languages came up. Thought and concepts of a person are encoded in images and language was established in response to the human necessitate to create those thoughts and concepts known to others (Cambridge, 2012). Words are just taken to be symbols, and they lack intrinsic meaning while imagery itself is abstract expressions, patterns, which are the basis of the brain. Scholars also argue that when individuals experience emotions, they are retained somewhere within the system and that the aptitude to remember and practise the situation and its connected emotions is available to everybody.

Consequently, the literature indicates that people glimpse drawings easily that spoken texts because they can express what cannot be put into words. Images can be used to link the gap between the deceptively individual, independent, social, collective and political. Therefore, drawing provides a means of non-verbal communication while supporting the personality.

Posture

Despite the imagery and facial expressions, it has been theorized that posture can aid in describing and expressing emotions in nonverbal communication. There are numerous literatures that show that variations in body posture replicate changes in an individual's emotional state. Studies indicate that there is a reciprocal relationship between the bodily expression of sentiment and the way in which emotional information is attended to and interpreted. The complete body postures are depicted to be relatively significant for conveying emotion; fifty-five percent of non-verbal communication is indicated to be articulated through body language.

Moreover, the function of posture in touch recognition, and the significance of emotion in the growth and support of intellectual and social behaviour has been acknowledged and researched within several fields such as biology, psychology, and neurology (Hichang, & Jae-Shin, (2008). Recognition of the sensation depicted by face is methodically predisposed by the feeling articulated by the body. When people make verdicts about facial expression, their awareness is influenced towards expressive expression carried by the body. However, facial expressions alone cannot be sufficient verdict in finding out a person’s emotional situation, but when taken in combination with stance and body language, the precise emotive response of nonverbal communication is articulated.

Summary

The advancement of a theory of nonverbal communication is in the prosperous situation of being fresh, flexible and capable of benefiting from numerous influences; there has been great interest that has been depicted from fields such as sociology, linguistics, and semiotics. The psychological theories are apprehensive with psychology, cultural, and social factors in human communication. They possess in collective the distinct orientation to the interchange of social information, sender and receiver role, procedures of expression and impression, and gesture roles (Fuller, 2007). These numerous methodologies remain essential for a satisfactory treatment of the sensations in nonverbal communication.

Subsequently, nonverbal communication is directly linked with sensations including gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, body posture, and interactive distance. It is essential to include voice quality and speech activity so as to cover nonverbal communication extensively (Hichang, & Jae-Shin, (2008). Also, the differences between sender and receiver within communication system should be differentiated. Consequently, it is appropriate for the communication philosophical aspects of social interaction to consider sender and receiver of social signals as one complete system.

The most important and prominent aspect of effective intercultural communication is knowledge. It is vital that individuals should know and detect the potential difficulties of intercultural communication among people from different parts of the globe, and also create a conscious effort to overcome these difficulties. For that reason, research indicates that people must be prepared to change how they perceive people from different cultures.

On the other hand, many people believe that the major cause of communication troubles among multi-international people is the cultural diversities. However, they are correct to some extent; this is because operative communication with individuals from diverse cultures is a big challenge (Fuller, 2007). Cultures offer individuals with methods of thinking, ways of seeing, hearing, and understanding the world. This indicates that some gestures have a different meaning in various cultures. When the body languages are different, and translation has to be applied to communicate, the prospective for misunderstandings upsurges.

Applying Reflective Listening can minimize relationship conflicts among multinational individuals, which is the most critical ingredient in intercultural communication. Reflective Listening is important because it helps in checking the meaning of what a person says- by repeating back what you think you have heard. Some scholars have described ways in which culture interferes with effective intercultural understanding (Fuller, 2007). The ways can be categorized into three, the first one being “cognitive constraints.” These are explained as structures of orientation that offers an environment that all new information is associated to or inserted.

The second way in which culture affect appropriate intercultural understanding is “behaviour constraints.” Every culture has its specific rules about proper behaviour that influences verbal and nonverbal communication. It may be the way people stare or gaze at each other or how close people stand to each other when talking. The third factor that influences intercultural communication is the “emotional constraints”. This describes how diverse cultures control the show of feeling different. When some cultures deliberate on an issue, they become very emotional (Kwon, et.al 2015). For instance, some cultures allow yelling, crying, exhibit anger, fear, obstructions and other feelings openly. On the other hand, other cultures keep their feelings concealed, showcasing or sharing only the “rational” or factual aspects of the situation.

Rationale

With the rapid growth of students pursuing an education in different countries with different cultural backgrounds, it is vital to understand how nonverbal communication would influence intercultural communication. Particularly for international students, where there is a great misunderstanding of body language, it is significant to determine whether there will be conflicts or not. For that reason, there are numerous items that can be tested to decide whether misunderstanding of the body language among multinational college students will lead to relationship conflict.

First, the use of social media platforms in communication such as emails. Texting, IM, and other forms of electronic communication increase fascinating questions about the interpersonal process and how these processes can cause individuals to change or familiarize their communication behaviours. So as to determine whether these processes affect the quality and performance of intercultural communication, the fundamental differences among diverse cultures must be determined and how they relate to each other.

Secondly, as everyone knows that online media including emails, social media, and text messaging have some lack in nonverbal communication, so there may be difficulties for a receiver trying to understand the message. These difficulties may lead to a misunderstanding of the message and loss of consistent communication between both parties. Thus, it is significant to distinguish whether the loss of body language expressions essentially makes a conspicuous difference if any among students from different cultural backgrounds, or whether misunderstanding of this expression will lead to a relationship conflict.

Lastly, when students go to colleges for studying, they are often called upon to complete complex assignments or projects as a group. These assignments need students with diverse skill sets to communicate and work commendably together in an efficient way. Finding out how active groups can complete complex and intricate assignments is a noble indicator about how well organized and intercultural communication method is being used. This makes us ask whether body language communication of students from different cultures will be effective in completing complex assignments.

Hypotheses

Additional to the proposed research questions, a hypothesis will also be used to draw conclusions about the participants who will be involved in the study. The hypothesis used in this study is H1: Misunderstanding of the body language among multinational college students will lead to relationship conflict.

Method

The study will be conducted on two groups of college students; each group has eight members. Sampling will target each member of the eight college students from diverse countries, including "Japan, China, USA, Saudi Arabia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Korea". With the first group, each one of the eight members needs to send a standard set of ambiguous messages to the whole group. Then an electronic and hard copies of the questionnaire will be distributed to the rest of the students in the first group, so as they can fill them regarding how they will interpret the ambiguous messages. All the verbal content of the ambiguous messages that will be sent to the group could have a positive, natural or negative meaning depending on the nonverbal communication that will describe the messages.

The questionnaires will be given to every member of the group and will be required to write what he or she understands from the student’s body language. All the questionnaires that contain the written interpretations by the members should be rated by a group of judges who will classify each error as it is related to encoding or decoding. After that, we will survey the second group of students who will be in a different room, in this time we need to show them a video that has all different meanings of different gestures in different countries. The video will last for 20 minutes, and it will be allowed for students to take notes while they are watching the video. After the students are shown the video, we will do the same test ” ambiguous messages”, we will give them the same questionnaires to fill, they will write how they interpreted and understood each gesture that each one of the eight students will represents. When the students fill in all the required information, the questionnaires will then be taken to groups of judges. The judges will help in assessing and categorizing each error for the second group and then compare the results of each group.

Participants

The participants of the study will be two groups of college students; each group will comprise all eight members. Each member of the eight college students will come from different countries including "Japan, China, USA, Saudi Arabia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Korea". There will be questions presented by every group to collect significant background information regarding the students.

Study type

We will use both exploratory and descriptive methods to conduct our research.

Exploratory Research

The chief purpose of our research will be to determine the relationship between misunderstanding of the body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communication. The research we will use takes the form of open-ended questions whereby the correspondents have the choice of leaving responses. Therefore, frequently the outcome of quality data is significant to determine our aim of the research and to comprehend of particular target interviewers of opinions and behavior (Bock & Diday, 2012).

Descriptive Research

We employed this research methodology to suggest guideline, which describe the individuals, and circumstances based on our research question. Additionally, this kind of research may be quantitative or qualitative on a particular group of individuals to assess the study and explain the circumstances and offer the statistically conclusive of data (Gable, 1994). For instance, knowing the statistic result about how the relationship between misunderstanding of the body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communication.

Data Collection Procedures

In this research, I will use both quantitative and qualitative methods of collecting information and data to look for data from the respondents on intercultural communication and body language communication in different cultures (van Tilburg & de Leeuw, 1991). Quantitative data for this research will be collected through an electronic survey sent via email to the accidental sample or “convenience sample”. Consequently, Qualitative data will be collected through an open-ended question on the survey instruments and also via semi-structured interviews with selected participants who will be their consent on the survey to be collected for an interview. The goal of the interviews is to find in-depth data about how a group of students from different countries interprets ambiguous messages.

The Quantitative data that will be obtained from the research will be analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics (Gibbs, 2002). The results will be evaluated using statistical software and tables and graphs that indicate responses on every question and every factor will be produced. The software will also be used to produce tables that depict the comparison of responses among students. On the other hand, qualitative information will be collected to investigate further the results of the research as well as to allow for other probable models or deeper models to emerge that will not be captured by quantitative questions on the survey instrument (Wallenstein, Zucker, & Fleiss, 1980).

Data Analysis

The data that will be collected from the two groups of students will be entered in the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). All the responses from every student will be individually scored, and sums or averages of the responses to each member of the group will be compiled and then as a collective audience. After that comparison is drawn between different groups depending on the type of ambiguous messages, they were sent with no video or which they sent after the students watched the video.

The results that will be obtained from the two the groups of students’ responses will be compiled and analysed using Excel and SPSS. The findings will be analysed about the research questions and hypothesis in mind, so as to determine the results that will answer the research question (Leech, & Onwuegbuzie, 2007). Consequently, the descriptive statistics will be first run to evaluate the results that will be obtained. To explore the relationship between independent variables; T-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) will be used. The T-test will be used in this research, so as to compare the means of the two different groups.

The analysis of the quantitative data will determine the study results. The survey questionnaire will offer the quantitative data required to perform the study of the relationship between misunderstanding of the body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communication. Subsequently, the study will explore whether a statistically significant relationship exists between students from different cultural backgrounds. The results of the study help understand nonverbal communication among multinational college students.

Result

The paper deals with the relationship between misunderstanding of the body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communication. The results that will be obtained from the study are very significant in answering the research question as well as the hypothesis of the study that is: Misunderstanding of the body language among multinational college students will lead to relationship conflict. Before testing the research hypothesis, we will first describe the characterizes of the ambiguous messages that were sent to students by each one of the both group (Kwon, et.al 2015). All the verbal content of the ambiguous messages could have a positive, natural or negative meaning depending on the nonverbal communication that will describe the messages.

To test the hypothesis of the research, the results of the two groups on how they interpret the ambiguous message will be used to predict the outcome of the relationship conflict among the students from different countries. The results of this study will be very significant because the contribute to the body language of nonverbal communication in intercultural communication research. While the results of this study may not be universal of the students who will not participate in this study, the information that will be obtained from this research will offer a snapshot of a small population, and how a misunderstanding of the body language among many multinational students will lead to relationship conflict. This study is also exceptional, as it will look specifically whether misunderstanding of body language causes conflicts or not while original results were looking for a general sense of nonverbal communication, as opposed to particular things body language brings in conflict relationship.

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper is to support the hypothesis that: Misunderstanding of the body language among multinational college students will lead to relationship conflict. The students will have different views on the meaning of the ambiguous messages depending on their cultural backgrounds. If this hypothesis was to be supported by survey data, then it means there will be relationship conflict among students from diverse countries when body language is misunderstood. Body language communication and the experience of understanding what gestures and facial expressions different communities use is an influential tool for understanding the basic element of conflict and resolution.

The detailed discussions of how each student interprets the body language of other students from different countries may reveal the causes of intercultural communication misunderstanding among multinational students from different cultures. The relationship conflict among the students may be caused my misinterpretation of the body language expressions. This is because different cultures or countries have different meanings for different types of body language. Therefore, when a student from a specific country tries to communicate with another student from a different country through the use of body language, the message may be distorted because of its diverse meaning hence cause a friendship conflict. The statistical significance to support the hypothesis will be performed using T-tests. Therefore, it the survey will produce statistical significant hence the hypothesis of this study will be supported.

On the other hand, if the hypothesis was not to be supported then it means that the relationship between misunderstanding of the body language and conflict among college students in intercultural communication would not be clear. Therefore, I will add more hypotheses to discuss clearly the relationship between body language and conflict. That is why the support of the hypothesis will help to assess whether the misunderstanding of body language may cause conflict or not. Also, If the hypothesis will not be supported it means it will have no statistical significance will be found in the answers that will be provided by the students from the two groups and thus the hypothesis will be rejected.

Discussion of Future Research

One recommendation for future research would be to focus on a broad variety of majors of college students within the university setting, and compare their findings of body language in intercultural communication. Consequently, future research should not be limited to college students but should include different groups of people such as employees and even lecturers. It will be interesting to assess students at the secondary level as well as college tutors or lecturers. Employees in the different areas may have diverse levels of body language about their cultural backgrounds, depending on whether they interact with culturally distinct workmates.

Additionally, future research should focus on the long-term effects of the relationship conflicts on the student’s performance due to a misunderstanding of nonverbal communication. In that, there is no information that indicates the long-term effects on the students’ performance in academies. This is because the relationship conflicts among multinational students with different cultures may lead to poor performance in some students. It will be fascinating to determine the effects of nonverbal communication on students’ performance in colleges as well as secondary students.

Subsequently, future studies should conduct comprehensive interviews by increasing the number of the participants or organizing focus groups. Nevertheless, if the study were to be replicated using qualitative research tools once again, then it is recommended a bigger sample of students. It is also recommend that future research should experiment with other variables such as emotional intelligence

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Appendix

Questionnaire

Please check the one that best describes you:

-How old are you?

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect 18-20

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( ) 21-29

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect 30-39

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( ) 40-49

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( )50-59

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( )60-64

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect 65 or older

-Your gender?

( ) Male

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Female

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( ) Other

-What is the highest level of school have you completed or the highest degree you have received?

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect High school degree or equivalent (e.g., GED)

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( ) Some college but no degree

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Associate degree

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Bachelor degree

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect Graduate degree

( ) Other

-What is your yearly household income?

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( ) $20,000 to $34,999

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( ) $35,000 to $49,999

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( )$50,000 to $74,999

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect $75,000 to $99,999

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect $100,000 to $149,999

( ) MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect $150,000 to $199,999

MACROBUTTON HTMLDirect ( )$200,000 or more

-What is your study major? If you have ______________________

-What is your ethnicity?

( )White

( )Hispanic or Latino

( )Black or African American

( )Native American or American Indian

( )Asian / Pacific Islander

( )Arabic

( )Other

-Do you have any friend from different countries?

( )Yes

( ) No

-If yes, do you face any problem to understand his or her body language?

( )Yes

( )No

-Reading nonverbal cues and body language is important