例如:不同的民族在談話時,對雙方保持多大距離才合適有不同的看法;談話雙方身體接觸的次數多少因文化不同而各異;在目光接觸這一方面也有許多規定:看不看對方,什麼時候看,看多久,什麼人可以看,什麼人不可以看;在某些場合下,在中國和講英語的國家無論微笑還是大笑,通常表示友好﹑贊同﹑滿意﹑高興﹑愉快,但是在某些場合,中國人的笑會引起西方人的反感;打手勢時動作稍有不同,就會與原來的意圖有所區別,對某種手勢理解錯了,也會引起意外的反應等等。因此,要用外語進行有效的交際,在說某種語言時就得了解說話人的手勢,動作,舉止等所表示的意思。而有些權威人士認為兩者相互依存。在大多數情況下這是對的。在某些情況下,人體動作與所說的話不一致,口頭說的與身勢語表達的意思不一樣。這時要藉助其他信息或從整個情況中猜測說話人的意思,從某種意義上說,一切身勢語都要放在一定的情景下去理解;忽視了整個情景就會發生誤解。而通過中美身勢語對比研究表明,兩者有相似的地方,也有差異的地方,說明了解另一種語言中身勢語的重要性。 one could draw up quite a list of “rules” about eye contact: to look or not to look; when to look and how long to look; who and who not to look at; smiles and laughte r usually convey friendliness, approval, satisfaction, pleasure, joy and merriment, and, this is generally true in China as well as the English-speaking countries, however, there are situations when some Chinese will laugh that will cause negative reactions by westerners; gestures can be particularly troublesome, for a slight difference in making the gesture itself can mean something quite different from that intended, and, a wrong interpretation of a gesture can arouse quite unexpected reactions and so on. So in order to communicate effectively in a foreign language, one should&nb sp;know also the gestures, body movements, mannerisms and etc. that accompany a particular language. Some authorities feel that the two are dependent on each other. This is certainly true in most situations. But it is also true that in certain situations body action contradicts what is being said, just as the spoken words may mean something quite different from what body language communicates. When this occurs, one must try to get further information, or guess the meaning from the context of the situation. In a sense, all body language should be interpreted ;within a given context; to ignore the overall situation could be misleading. A comparative study of Chinese and American body language shows a number of similarities and diversities of body language. It shows the importance of knowing the specific gestures that go with a language. Observation shows that a truly bilingual person switches his body language at the same time he switches languages. This makes communication easier and better.