Vocalics Activity

Divide the class into groups of 5. Provide some special separation since they will be making sounds. Each person will get a chance to be the expressor. The first expressor chooses three emotions from the list below, writes them on a paper, turns away from the rest of the group (or puts a paper back of her/his head) and then chooses a single letter of the alphabet to express the emotion (e.g., says “S” to express anger). They choose a different letter for each emotion. As they express each emotion, the rest of the group writes does the emotion they think is being communicated. After all three are communicated, the expressor reads her/his list and people note if they got it right or wrong. The expressor should count how many people got each correct and add them up. Then the next expressor goes. Each emotion can be used only twice (i.e., can be repeated once). When everyone is done, people should total the number of emotions they correctly identitied. Like the sending and receiving activity, this gives you a measure of nonverbal abilities.

Use a letter from the alphabet to express:

Anger
Fear
Happiness
Jealousy
Love
Nervousness
Pride
Sadness
Satisfaction
Sympathy

Debriefing, look for high and low scores, compare gender differences, and note which emotions were the most difficult. Previous research suggests the following correct identifications in order from most accurate to least:

Anger
Nervousness
Sadness
Happiness
Sympathy
Satisfaction
Love
Fear
Jealousy
Pride