Page 112 - Silence in Intercultural Communication
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Chapter 4. Perceptions of silence 99
Lecturers also do not seem to realise that silence may also be constructed
through the internal organisation of intercultural classroom interaction. Since
they appear to regard the speed of talk and turn-taking in Australian classrooms
as normal, they do not see how dazzled some Japanese students feel. As we have
seen in the comments of Japanese students, instances of ‘silencing’ may be found,
which means that silence may be co-constructed with lecturers or peers. The inves-
tigation of this aspect will be left to the case studies in Chapter 5 where video and
audio recorded classroom interaction will be closely examined and the percep-
tions of Australian students about Japanese students, not discussed in this chap-
ter, will be included.
