Chapter Six: Non-verbal Communication: Silent Language Skills Exercise 1: Subject: Getting a sense of sign language Many people are either deaf, or have difficulty hearing. www.handspeak.com
offers a valuable resource to the deaf and hearing-impaired communities, worldwide. Write out a sentence to your significant other. You know, something important
that you would like to say to them like, "You complete me." Then,
translate it into American Sign and commit it to memory. Tell your significant
other what you want to say in SL, and explain it to them as you say it. How
did it feel to be communicating in another form of language? How important is non-verbal communication in this arena? Exercise 2: Subject: Graphic symbols are non-verbal representations, too At www.symbols.com, you can search through
an enormous database of symbols that have come to represent meanings, in and
of themselves. Browse through these symbols, and see what is available. Exercise 3: Subject: Investigating advanced resources for facial expression
analysis At the UC Santa Cruz Perceptual Science Laboratory (mambo.ucsc.edu/psl/fanl.html),
the web-server hosts a series of links to some of the more advanced research
institutes in facial expression analysis. Your final assignment for this chapter
is to pick one of these research institutes and summarize the information that
you'll find on their website. What type of work were they doing? What conclusions or products might be born
from their research? Why are these institutes studying facial expression so
intently? |