Научно-исследовательские работы моих учеников

Формы  невербального общения в различных культурах

Nonverbal communication forms across cultures

Авторы работы: Гордеев Артур, Домолазов Тимофей

МБОУ «СОШ №23» Ново-Савиновского района г.Казани, 7Б класс

Научный руководитель: Тарасова Е.В.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction. The actuality, the aim and the tasks of the research project
2. Theory

1. The concept “nonverbal communication”. Functions of nonverbal communication
2. Types of nonverbal communication
3. Nonverbal communication across cultures

3. Practice.

1.              The  test and  experiment results
2.              Nonverbal communication at school

4. Conclusion. The importance of nonverbal communication
5. List of reference
6. Appendices

1. INTRODUCTION

Nowadays educated people should be creative, communicative and sociable to survive in the modern world.  The process of communication between individuals is the exchange of information by means of a generalized system of symbols. Effective communication makes the interaction between people easier. Every day we socialize using words. Nevertheless, verbal messages make up only 7 %. The rest of information, that is of 93 %, is expressed through nonverbal messages. The English proverb holds true: “Actions speak louder than words”.

One should be familiar with the main means of nonverbal communication to make speech more expressive. If you want to be a better communicator, it is necessary to become more sensitive not only to the nonverbal cues of others, but also to your own ones.

     THE ACTUALITY OF THE RESEARCH THEME

The theme of our research project is actual nowadays because it helps to extend the knowledge of nonverbal communication forms between people of different cultures. Besides, it results in learning the main ways of effective communication in the modern world. The research made considers the proper nonverbal communication as the basis of successful personal and professional relationships formation in the modern world.

     THE AIM AND THE TASKS OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT

The aim of our project is to learn,  to compare the meanings of nonverbal communication cues and to realize their importance and their proper usage in the process of socializing within the same cultural group as well as between representatives of different cultures.

The tasks are as follows:

• to point out the essence of nonverbal communication process;
• to analyze and explain the meaning of the main forms of nonverbal communication;
• to compare different elements of nonverbal communication in various cultures;
• to underline the practical significance of nonverbal communication cues.

2. THEORY

1. THE CONCEPT “NONVERBAL COMMNICATION”

Nonverbal communication is the process of communication by means of sending and receiving visual cues between people. It comprises body language, facial expressions, eye contact, touch, distance and physical appearance.

Children learn nonverbal communication from social-emotional communication. Later they begin to look at nonverbal elements more subconsciously. Nonverbal communication is an unconscious process. We are unable to control all the signals we are sending off. Otherwise they become unnatural and may result in discomfort, confusion and disrespect. When your nonverbal signals match up with the words you are saying, they increase trust, clarity and rapport. When they do not, they generate tension and  mistrust.

We give and receive wordless signals while interacting with other people. Our nonverbal behavior including the gestures we make, the way we sit or stand, talk or listen send meaningful messages. Even when we are silent we are still communicating nonverbally.

Nonverbal communication cues have five functions:

1. repetition: they can repeat the message made verbally;
2. contradiction: they can sometimes contradict the message the individual is conveying;
3. substitution: they can substitute for a verbal message (for example, a person’s eyes often give more information than words do);
4. complementing: they can add to a verbal message (for instance, a teacher who pats a student on the back along with giving words of praise);
5. accenting: pounding the table, for example, can underline a message.

2. TYPES OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

There is a number of different types of nonverbal communication. It is well known that the ability to understand and distinguish them helps to establish better relationships with other people.

Facial expressions

The human face is able to express a great variety of emotions without any words. Unlike some forms of nonverbal communication such facial expressions as for happiness, sadness, anger, fear are universal across cultures.

Body movements and posture

Our perception of people is influenced by the way they sit, walk, stand. At the same time the way we move and carry ourselves communicates much information about us to the world. People change their posture depending on the situation they are in.

     Gestures

A gesture is a movement of the part of your body, especially your hands or head, to show what you mean or how you feel. We often express ourselves with gestures without thinking. However, gestures can be differently interpreted across cultures. Gestures can be divided into three groups:

1. adapters – these are hand movements that are not considered to be gestures. They consist of manipulations of the person or some object (e.g. clothing, pencils, spectacles). As a rule, adapters accompany speech and show the speaker’s being nervous, uncomfortable or bored.
2. symbolic gestures – they are hand movements with specific meaning. The most familiar ones include ‘raised fist’, ‘bye-bye’, and ‘thumbs up’. In contrast to adapters, symbolic gestures are used intentionally and have a clear communicative function. They are mostly used in the absence of speech but can accompany verbal messages. Similar symbolic gestures can have different meaning in various cultures. That’s why one should be careful about them.
3. conversational gestures – they do not refer to actions or words, but do accompany speech. Moreover, these hand movements are connected with speech and are only made by the person who is speaking.

Eye contact

Eye contact is the most important type of nonverbal communication due to its dominance for most people. The way you look at someone shows interest and affection, or hostility and indifference to the topic of conversation. According to Dr. Paul  Eckman, an American psychologist who studied emotions and their relation to facial expressions, eye contact is also called mutual gaze. Its most meaningful aspect is its duration. “The longer there is established eye contact between two people, the greater the intimacy levels.”

Direct eye contact generally means interest, attentiveness and attraction to the person. Nevertheless, consistent eye contact can also mean the lack of trust to the speaker.

Widening eyes indicate appeal, interest, invitation or a positive response.

Eye shrug/roll usually expresses frustration or annoyance.

Pupils dilated are the sign of interest and appeal.

However, eye contact is understood differently throughout the world, so it can be a secondary gesture due to various cultural norms.

Clothing

Clothing is one of the most common forms of nonverbal communication. The types of clothing characterizes an individual’s personality, background, financial status. Business people and politicians usually wear expensive suits in order to appear serious. People in the entertainment industry wear glamorous outfits. Besides, clothing can communicate information about nationality of a person or a group. For example, Scottish men often wear kilts to specify their culture.

     Space/distance/proximity

     A need  for physical space differs depending on the culture, situation or the closeness of the relationship. Proximity range conveys signals of intimacy and affection, aggression or dominance.

Intimate distance varies from touching to  46 cm and is suitable for close family members, friends and pet animals.

Personal distance begins about an arm’s length away. This space is used in informal conversations with friends and in group discussions.

Social distance ranges from 1.2 m to 2.4 m from the person and is more appropriate for strangers, newly formed groups and new acquaintances.

Public distance is more than 2.4 m away and is used for speeches and lectures for larger audiences.

     Voice

When we speak, the way how we do it really matters. Our partners listen to our words perceiving our voices. They pay attention to our timing, pace, tone and sounds such as “ahh”, “uh-huh”. Someone’s tone of voice can indicate sarcasm, anger, confidence or affection.

Tips for understanding nonverbal communication cues

• Pay attention to inconsistencies. Nonverbal communication should reinforce what is being said. If a person’s words say one thing and nonverbal communication says another, the latter is usually the correct decision.
• Look at nonverbal cues as a group. Take into consideration all signals you are receiving – from eye contact to tone of voice.
• Trust your instincts. Listen to your gut feelings that will help you to make the right decision along with your life experience, training and beliefs.

3. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION ACROSS CULTURES

There are certain differences in the forms of nonverbal communication across cultures. We learn much of our own culture’s body language before we learn to speak, usually without being aware of it. Varieties in nonverbal communication from culture to culture should be regarded in the process of foreign language teaching.

Sometimes cultural differences in body language can cause discomfort or misunderstanding too. That’s why let’s consider some nonverbal communication cues from unfamiliar cultures.

The USA

• The Americans are considered more open and outgoing in their nonverbal communication.
• Students raise a finger if they want to answer.
• A direct eye contact in the social and business meetings is very important. Avoiding eye contact is interpreted very negatively.
• To greet each other women briefly hug other women while men kiss a woman’s cheek.

England

• The British are said to be more reserved and formal in their body language.
• Proximity issues arise when waiting in line. The Englishmen tend to be offended by others cutting in line
• The gesture with a palm facing inward is a rude one.
• Keeping your hands in your pockets when talking to someone seems a relaxed and casual gesture.

Canada

• Men greet with a handshake while women with a slight nod.
• Eating while walking in the street is considered to be a bad manner.
• Men rise if a woman enters the room.

    Asia

• A smile can show embarrassment, frivolity or apology.

• It is not acceptable to show emotions openly. In fact, Chinese people prefer silence to verbal communication.
• Pointing with a finger is an obscene gesture.
• The polite form of greeting is to bow. The lower you bow, the deeper respect you have for a person.

 Africa

• People look down when they are listening, and look up when they are talking.
• People express grief openly.
• Laughter is a sign of wonder or embarrassment.

     There is no “international language” of gestures. Instead, cultures have developed systems of unique gestures. It is quite difficult to guess their meaning intuitively. So, it is advisable to learn as much as possible about nonverbal communication across cultures. Here is a list of the three most common  gestures that have different cultural interpretations.

     The ring

     It is obvious that the ring itself represents the letter “O” in the “OK” signal. The meaning of the “OK” signal is common to English-speaking countries and is spreading due to American TV and movies. However, the gesture is differently interpreted all over the world. In France and Belgium it means “zero, nothing, worthless” while in Japan it is understood as “money”.

   A thumb up

   A closed fist with a thumb held upward `Aq        1C Iran, Iraq and Thailand. Besides, in Italy people start to count things with a thumb while in the USA they finish counting with it.

   A “V” sign

  In America holding your index and middle fingers out in the shape of a “V” is a sign of peace and friendliness or victory. It was introduced by Winston Churchill during the Second World War, but his two-fingered version was done with the palm facing out. In such countries as Australia, New Zealand this gesture is an insult if your palm is inward.

3. PRACTICE.

1. THE TEST AND THE EXPERIMENT RESULTS

To find out if nonverbal communication really matters in everyday life we asked a group of students to do a quiz on gestures (see Appendix 1). According to the results, 72 % of the respondents know the meaning of the most common and widely spread gestures. It proves that body language can be interpreted unconsciously and due to our life experience.

The most difficult questions of the quiz referred to the cultural differences of nonverbal communication means. That’s why we made the conclusion that it is quite important to regard body language across cultures to be understood properly. The significance of learning the main aspects of different cultural gestures is increasing because nowadays people regularly travel internationally. So, we should be attentive to gestures, polite and well-mannered.

Moreover, we made an experiment to see how well we can communicate messages nonverbally. The participants of the experiment were offered to express some famous proverbs using only gestures and mimics (see Appendix 2). Here are the proverbs:

• Measure twice and cut once.
• Love is blind.
• Ill news travels fast.
• You must break eggs to make an omelet.
• So many men, so many minds.

     The students responsible for expressing the sayings nonverbally managed with the task as well as those who were to guess the proverbs. Finally, we concluded that our communication depends both on the words and gestures. The latter aspect helps us to broadcast our feelings and intentions at any moment without words.

2. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION AT SCHOOL

Nonverbal communication plays an important role in all spheres of  life including our school life. Body language matters in “teachers-children” interaction and in socializing among students.

It is much easier to understand explanation of some new material if the teacher of Physics, Maths, History, Literature or English uses different gestures. For example, a teacher moves her hands forward to  show students the development of something or to enumerate things. When students study figures in Geometry, a teacher can use the hands to show their shapes. Such subject as Physics cannot be taught without hands because some rules (like the rule of the right hand, the rule of the left hand) are illustrated by showing the proper disposition of hands. As for the English classes, nonverbal communication is especially important for vocabulary introduction. Besides, gestures can be used for practising new words  in the well-known game “Crocodile”. Moreover, the main means of nonverbal communication is the essential part of communicative competence development of students. Learning a foreign language implies learning a foreign culture, traditions and peculiarities of people’s norms of behavior including physical conduct.

Being aware of the gesture meaning enables to react immediately to information. It is advisable for students to learn different ways of expressing  thoughts and feelings by means of facial expressions and movements. Thus, a skilled reader of nonverbal cues is certain to be a success, for example, in making school presentations. They say that 90 % of the best speakers  combine verbal and nonverbal messages. It is scientifically  proved that 80 % of such speech are easily memorized by listeners. So, students should present information illustrating it properly with body movements. Here is some advice how to make your presentation successful:

• Make a constant eye-contact with the audience (don’t look at the floor or the ceiling).
• Your gestures shouldn’t be chaotic.
• Don’t stand with your back to the audience.
• Don’t put your hands into pockets.
• Speak standing etc.

4. CONCLUSION

     Our everyday communication is the process of exchanging verbal and nonverbal messages.  We send and receive a great deal of information through words and  movements. Different ways of nonverbal behavior including body language, facial expressions, personal space, postures and gestures are important because they make people’s interaction easier. Being aware of  nonverbal cues meanings we can become better communicators in various situations and professional fields.

     It is worth learning and considering cultural and regional attitudes to the means of nonverbal interaction to improve communicative skills and abilities. The peculiarities of gestures and body language across cultures may cause misunderstanding and confusion. So, one should be very attentive and avoid getting into trouble in foreign countries.

     The significance of nonverbal communication is evident. It goes without saying that it is impossible to socialize without gestures and body language at different levels. Each situation (from job interview or leading a meeting to informal conversation ) requires a certain type of physical behavior. Your ability to interpret the latter in the right way reveals more than the person’s spoken words. That’s why the key to your personal and professional success is the proper nonverbal communication of a  person under the conditions of the same culture or culture dialogue.

APPENDIX 1

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

1. It is a sign of deception if a person includes lots of “umms” and “uhs” along with long pauses in conversations.

• True
• False

2. A person standing tall with head held high is a sign of:

• confidence
• aggression

3. If a person starts looking away during a conversation, it means:

• he is bored with the discussion and you should change the topic;
• he wants to hear more details.

4. A person with suppressed anger or frustration will be seen:

• staring at the floor continuously;
• grinding his teeth.

5. You can make out whether a person is interested in you if:

• they tilt their head or lean towards you;
• they keep staring at you.

6. Eyebrows down and toward the centre of the face are the sign of:

• annoyance;
• surprise.

7. In Japan the gesture “OK” means:

• zero;
• money;
• good.

8. It’s impolite to make a direct eye-contact in:

• Europe;
• America;
• Asia.

9. People kiss greeting each other in:

• Asian countries;
• the USA;
• Spain.

10. People use their entire hand to point something in:

• Japan;
• Germany;
• the USA.

LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF THE ENGLISH PHOTO SITES USERS

CONTENTS

1. Introduction. The actuality and the aim of the research project
2. Theory

1. The term “linguistic representation”
2. Photo sites and photo hostings
3. Different photo genres
4. The analysis of photo commentaries

3. Practice: the results of the survey
4. Conclusion.
5. List of reference
6. Appendices

 “The Internet…is a collection of communication networks

that all  speak the same digital language.”

Jim Clark

I. INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

     Nowadays the Internet has great influence on different spheres of our life: production, social structures, communication  of people etc. New forms of verbal interaction have resulted in the appearance of computer mediated communication. The English language has become its main means. Besides  this language plays the role of communicative standard for representatives of different cultures.

      The theme of our  project is actual.  Computer communication is getting more and more popular in our country and abroad alongside with such new media as Twitter, Youtube and others. Contemporary linguists pay special attention to the study of computer mediated communication, its different forms, their functions, peculiarities and spheres of usage. Nevertheless, the methodology of the linguistic research in this field is underdeveloped. It  does not include much information on the analysis of foreign photo sites.

     The aim of our research is to find out and to describe the linguistic peculiarities of the English photo sites users.

     The tasks of our work are as follows:

• to study scientific literature;
• to consider the relevant Internet resources;
• to analyze speech acts from the point of view of linguistics;
• to conduct a survey revealing our students’ attitude to photo sites.

     The Internet is the greatest source of information. We use it for learning as well as for the written communication. Visual information is especially important for linguistic researchers. They have already started studying the so-called “Weblish” (“Web”+”English”).  It is a new form of communication that has the characteristics similar to the ones of  oral and written speech. Sometimes it is also called  “e-language, netlingo, e-talk or netspeak”. It is spreading faster and faster among the Internet users.

     So, we decided to analyze English photo sites and give the linguistic representation of their users. In this respect chats and forums are especially interesting from the point of view of linguistics..

II. THEORY

1) The term “linguistic representation”

     First of all, it is necessary to  consider the term “linguistic representation”. The essence of this notion is connected with the description of phonetic representation of politicians, writers, scientists given in the 1960s by Panov M.V. The main criteria of that analysis was pronunciation of people.

     According to Leord S.V., the problem of linguistic representation should be solved on the basis of linguistic personality research. Tarasenko T.P. defines the term “linguistic representation” as “a combination of speech and linguistic characteristics of a person at some period of time”. As a rule, scientists point out such peculiarities of  linguistic personality as social, psychological, ethnic characteristics  alongside with age and gender.

     Matveeva G.G. differentiates 2 types of linguistic representation: individual and collective. Individual linguistic representation reflects peculiarities of  a certain  person while collective linguistic representation summarizes peculiarities of  a certain group of people united by national, social and professional   characteristics.

     Very few linguists follow a particular model in the analysis of linguistic representation. Mostly they prefer to take into account the usage of vocabulary and phonetics, grammar and the system of motives, aims and communicative roles in the process of communication.

2) Photo sites and photo hosting

     A photo site is a special program device that allows professional photographers as well as amateurs display their photos, communicate with each other, discuss images, give commentaries to them, vote and choose the best pictures. Being  social platforms photo sites show an interesting combination of  some texts and  visual components. They give users   a chance to share their  emotions, exchange experience and also express criticism in the form of advice.

     Besides one can use photo sites to:

• upload personal digital images;
• create photo galleries;
• send messages to other photo sites users;
• take part in the rating of photos, their authors;
• form groups and societies;
• follow the news of a photo studio;
• participate in competitions;
• publish one’s own works and articles.

     From technological point of view a photo site is a theme portal and a huge web-resource giving detailed information on a certain theme. From communicative point of view a photo site is an interesting phenomenon. It represents the combination of a textual and a visual components. Their interaction makes it possible to exchange thoughts and ideas, impressions and emotions.

     We’d like also  to give definition to “photo hosting”. It is a website giving an opportunity to post any pictures on the Internet. The name of the Russian photo hosting “Yandex. Photki” aims users to communicate at an informal level.

     Photo hosting has some functions similar to those of photo sites. Nevertheless, its main distinctive feature is the procedure of joining photo club members. The latter is followed by getting a particular status of membership: a new author, an amateur, a profi, a guru, an expert etc.

     The most widely spread speech acts of photo sites and photo hosting is viewed to be the discussion of pictures. Different Internet forums make it possible to comment on images of various genres.

     Photo.net is an online community that started in 1993. It has hundreds of thousands of active members. It attracts more than 3.6 million unique visitors each month. Photographers visit the site to connect and discuss photography, share and critique photos, explore galleries. The site is a very good educational resource and community for people who wish to become better photographers. 

     Flickr.com was launched in 2005 as a game service. Now it is one of the most popular sites among bloggers for hosting images. In 2013 Flickr had a total of 87 mln registered members and it has more than 3.5 mln new images uploaded daily.

3) Different photo genres

      Linguistic representation of photo sites users implies the analysis of commentaries. Our attention was attracted by different photo genres and commentaries given to them.   So, we have considered the Internet-commentaries to 7 photos on the above mentioned sites: 3 landscapes, 2 street photos and  2 family portraits.

     Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines “landscape” as “a picture showing an area of countryside or land”. As a rule, landscapes represent our nature and its beauty: forests, fields, mountains, meadows etc. nowadays pictures demonstrating nature should be seriously considered  because of the crisis between civilization and environment.

     A landscape has such main elements as land, plants, countryside. Besides some additional elements can be found on landscapes: water bodies (lakes, seas, rivers), fauna, people, light, clouds, rain etc.

     Our linguistic research was based on 2 landscapes taken from the photo gallery “Colours in Nature”. Their tags are as remarkable as the images themselves: “Pink desert” and “Glowing morning”.

     It is worth mentioning that some landscapes can be related to the genre called “wild photography”. These are pictures focused on wild birds, animals or insects. Photo hunters usually take such images in natural habitats and manage to catch really fantastic moments.

     The genre of “street photography” is known as a documentary photo that shows people in ordinary situations, in some public places: in the streets, shops, parks, on the beaches etc. Street photos are very often called straight photography because it illustrates our life itself. This genre is represented by black-and-white photos. It  is concentrated on some emotion or feeling of a person at some moment. For example, it can be the woman who is deep in thought at her dinner or a couple kissing round the corner…

     The street photos chosen for our research have the following tags: “The travelling man”, “Christmas time” and “Hobby”. All of them demonstrate usual  moments of our life but due to the photographers they are presented as the most vivid ones.

     A photo portrait is one of the most popular and favourite genres of photo sites. We chose the category “Family portraits” that have important meaning for everyone. It is quite natural that family pictures are very emotional and touching. They remind us of those we have lost and who we used to be. They make us ponder over such eternal things as family traditions, relative ties, love, friendship and mutual understanding. Family portraits give spectators a hint to make a certain conclusion that is beyond the frames of the picture…

     The main characteristics of a portrait are as follows:

• appearance of a person;
• character of a person;
• mood and emotions of a person;
• showing a person under natural conditions that helps to reveal his essence.

    To take an excellent portrait requires a lot of efforts. It is important to create a relaxing and natural  atmosphere for a successful photo shoot.

     The family portraits we chose are titled in the following way: “Grandfather and granddaughter” and “Fall portrait”. The first one is especially touching. It demonstrates the unity of two generations. The second image rises spectators’ mood thanks to the three smiling guys.

4) The analysis of photo commentaries

     Our attention was given to the commentaries of different photo genres. It is especially interesting to study speech acts that are used by various photo sites users.  We tried to find out the basic strategies of commenting on pictures and to analyze linguistic characteristics of the comments.

     Firstly, let’s look through the comments to the landscapes “Pink desert” , “Glowing morning” and “Owens river and sea grass”. As it turns out, they concern the composition, colours and also space characteristics. For example,

• “Great colours and sky!!”
• “Cool! Wow!”
• “Love the tones, very nice!!! ☺”
• “Beautiful capture!”
• “The mountains really add to the composition!”
• “I like light-shadow colours and shapes…”

     A great number of adjectives are used to describe impressions. For example,

• informal:   “Cool! Groovy! Terrific … gorgeous…”
• spoken:    “GREAT… “

     These epithets describe separate elements of the landscapes and praise them. “Smiles”  express  emotional reactions  and compensate the lack of gestures and  mimics. They help to highlight some part of the speech.  Besides “smiles” we can come across with the usage of “capital letters”. They are used as speaking up and rising the voice tone . Many exclamation marks show people’s excitement and admiration. So, the commentaries are the example of a vivid and quite emotional type of the written speech.

     Secondly, let’s analyze the commentaries to the street photos under the titles “The travelling man” and “Hobby”. Such comments as :

• “Nice style”
• “I love the square comp!”
• “Well timed with his arm and legs just right.”
• “Great capture!!!”

again prove their connection with evaluation of the photos’  arrangement.

     The photo “Hobby”  is really funny as well as its comments:

• “This young man's hobby is looking in the sky, ha! “

     The interjection “ha!” demonstrates the sound of  laughter  while the next interjection shows that a person giving the comment is thinking:

• “I think… er…the background writings are an important part of the picture”.

     Thirdly, let’s turn to family portraits. They are the most touching ones. It is proved by the comments to the photo “Grandfather and granddaughter”. It  has more than 100 000 views and has been getting comments for several months. The commentaries prove our true respect and liking for this photo masterpiece:

• “So touching, so real and true!”
• “So sweet!”
• “It makes me remember my grandfather…”
• “Outstanding/ Magical / So lovely / Great!”  

The next group of the comments can be referred to the category of compliments. They are divided into the compliments given to the photo:

• “It’s one of the best photos I’ve seen so far! “
• ‘Congrats for the 100 000 view!”
• “This I a fantastic image saying a million and one words, yet non!”

and to the author:

• “Excellent photographer!”
• “Great! You’re my winner!”

     Besides  compliments can be direct  (“Compliments! I love it! Thank you, very nice series!”)    and indirect (“Words escape me.  Wish I was there! Please, continue to post your best works! You are getting better and better!”).

     Sometimes critical ideas can be found among the commentaries. For example, the comments

to the  landscape  “Owens river and sea grass”  give  some advice on shooting:

• I would have liked to see the sky a little darker, though.
• I would have moved my camera to the right…
• I would have worked the scene with many shots.

III. Practice: the results of the survey

     To find out the attitude of students to photo sites we conducted the survey. The respondents were asked several questions (See Appendices). According to the results, 86 % of the students have visited the English photo sites. Moreover, nearly half of them always comment on photos and really like it. It proves the popularity of different photo genres among young generation.

     We also asked the respondents to give their own comments to the three photo genres. That’s the way they did it. Here are some of the ideas.

     The comments to the landscape “Owens river and sea grass”  :

• Cool photo, very nice ☺
• Beautiful river!
• Cool!!! Very beautiful!!!
• No comments! Impossible to describe…
• Miracles of nature! Like in the fairy tale!

The comments to the street photo “Hobby”  :

• Interesting!
• I think this man has neither hobby, nor dream…
• Can’t understand!
• I don’t like it.
• Very strange!

The comments to the family portrait “Grandfather and granddaughter”  :

• Nice family! ☺
• I like it!!!
• I think this girl has a very kind grandpa.
• So nice!
• The photo reminds me of my grandparents…

     So, the above mentioned commentaries have much in common with the original comments from the English photo sites:  the use of informal adjectives to describe impressions; short grammar structures characterizing informal style of communication; exclamation marks and smiles to compensate the absence of body language.

IV. Conclusion

     The research made resulted in extending the idea of  the Internet communication and linguistic peculiarities of its users. Having analyzed the English photo sites and photo hosting we considered such ways of computer mediated communication as forums, blogs, commentaries to pictures. Our linguistic analysis was based on the comments to photos of different genres: landscapes, street photography and family portraits.

     Some researchers define  the   linguistic representation as the combination of linguistic and speech characteristics that a person has. The users of the English  photo sites are united by the common professional field.

     Our attention was drawn to vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure and communicative roles. Such linguistic features as informal vocabulary, simplification of sentence structures, contracted forms, inversion etc prove the existence of the so-called “informal written speech”. The latter is especially interesting being an essential part of computer mediated communication.  We made the conclusion that nearly all speech acts attached to the photos are characterized by congratulations, direct and indirect compliments. Besides, users express their impressions and sometimes give critics depending on a certain photo genre. The lack of mimics and gestures results in the use of graphic signs: for example, a great number of “smiles”, exclamation marks, capital letters.

     Finally, it is necessary to state that English as the language of communication in charts and forums is strongly influenced by oral speech. It results in the appearance of  informal written speech. On the one hand, there are certain disadvantages of computer communication: no visual contact, the problem of feelings’ expression. On the other hand, it makes sense to analyze new forms of the Internet interaction between people and their  main linguistic characteristics. So, the

linguistic representation reflects the peculiarities of vocabulary and grammar  usage as well as the level of communicative roles, strategies and tactics.