Page 102 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 4. Perceptions of silence 89

(37) Many believe that the teacher is the sole expert/transmitter of knowledge.
[LQ28]
(38) Often silent when other students engage in discussion. It does not always mean
language difficulty, one suspects culture that expects only instruction. [LQ3]
(39) An inability to be critical of the material they learn, to question authority, and
to speak to their teachers in a relaxed manner....A less authoritarian and
hierarchical educational system is needed so that Japanese students can
develop to the fullest extent of their developmental potential. [LQ13]

In the Macquarie University survey (Braddock et al. 1995), 64% of the teaching
staff saw international students as polite. The study interprets this politeness as
a reflection of Asian students’ perception of academic teaching staff as “parental
figures” (p. 20) who should be experts in everything.
However, silence can be a strategy to avoid confrontation and violation of so-
cial rules at the surface level of communication; underneath the ‘polite’ behaviour
of Japanese students resistance and disagreement may be hidden, as in the case of
the student (in example (33) above) who used silence to cover up his rejection of
the lecturer’s advice.
In addition to the influence of hierarchy on the silence, distance and formal-
ity among students and between students and the teacher assumed in the public
sphere of Japanese high school classroom lessons (Chapter 3) may also be playing
a role in Japanese student silence in Australian classrooms. Brown and Levinson
(1987) claim that not only hierarchical relationships but also the social distance
among participants in a social encounter provide conditions for them to work
on negative politeness which in turn orients participants towards avoidance of
imposition. This in turn suggests that solidarity may enhance the participation of
Japanese students, as we can see in the comment below:
(40) F6: This term, even though I didn’t say anything at all in any subjects before,
I began to speak from this semester.
I: How did you work out, how?
F6: Well, the strategy is, not with the lecturer but with the tutor, I am close.
That way, I don’t feel nervous, because it’s someone I always talk to.
Because I know that what I say will receive proper attention. I can speak
calmly. [30:43-45 F6]

Identifying oneself with other interactants and sharing the membership of a
group raise the possibility of more positive politeness strategies being applied in
interaction, as Brown and Levinson (1987) argue. In their view, positive polite-