Page 111 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

98 Silence in Intercultural Communication

are intentional or unintentional, because even unintentional silences may be in-
terpreted by other interactant(s) as intentional. Hence, in the following chapter,
rather than trying to determine the existence of intentionality, assessment of the
intentionality of silence by the participants will be the focus of discussions.

4.6 Summary: Perceptions of silence in intercultural communication

Various aspects of Japanese student silences in Australian university classrooms,
as perceived by Japanese students themselves and their Australian lecturers, have
emerged from the interviews and questionnaires. In particular, a lack of voluntary
participation in participant structures such as open discussion was noted by both
groups. In the latter part of the chapter, I presented explanations for such silence
from the perspectives of both Japanese students and Australian lecturers.
Linguistic proficiency was the most frequently mentioned explanation for
silence by Japanese students, while other factors such as politeness or relevance
were mentioned less frequently and less directly associated with silence. Along
with the Macquarie University survey results (Braddock et al. 1995), it seems that
international students regard their linguistic proficiency as one of the major rea-
sons for remaining silent. However, not only lexico-grammatical competence but
also turn-taking skills were found to be an issue, and this will be explored in the
case studies in Chapter 5.
Comments by both Japanese students and Australian lecturers showed that
sociocultural background is also considered to be an explanation of silence, con-
firming findings of existing research (Chapter 2). Having been socialised into the
classroom practice of Japan, Japanese students bring different assumptions about
knowledge and learning processes. These assumptions may clash with Australian
norms of classroom interaction and result in Japanese student silences. For ex-
ample, disagreement, critical comments and jokes are not expected to be voiced
by students because they are not expected in Japanese classroom practices. How-
ever, covert messages behind the silence of Japanese students were not necessarily
recognised by lecturers. Instead, their silence may be interpreted as ‘lack of criti-
cal thinking skills’ or ‘expressions of politeness.’
Japanese students are, however, not necessarily slaves to their own culture.
Many seem to appreciate the originality, creativity and independence in learning
which they see as Australian academic values. However, lack of social contacts
with local students seems to be one of the factors which make it difficult for them
to accustom themselves to the discursive features of Australian students, which is
in turn necessary for successful participation in classroom discussion.