Page 115 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

102 Silence in Intercultural Communication

When interpretations of behaviour differ as they do in most ethnically mixed
classrooms, there is no way to safeguard against cultural bias in evaluating per-
formances and to distinguish between differences in cultural style and differences
in ability. Without reference to the actual process of interaction, nothing can be
said about how participants react to and make sense out of particular tasks.
(p. 6)
The approach taken by Gumperz and Erickson originally is influenced by Hymes’
notion of ‘communicative competence’ (Hymes 1972). Hymes argued that com-
petence in communication is judged not only by grammaticality but also func-
tionality, appropriateness and feasibility. Thus, the discussion of the case studies
below addresses the following questions: what forms of silence is observed in in-
tercultural classroom communication, how these forms of silences are perceived
by the Japanese students, Australian students and lecturers, and what functions
are performed (or intended to be performed) by the silences observed. However,
as mentioned in Chapter 2, while the ethnography of communication assumes
the transfer of discourse patterns acquired through acculturation processes in
a speech community to intercultural communication, I attempt to demonstrate
below how factors in the local context of talk may also play an important role in
shaping participant performance in interaction. As mentioned in Chapter 2, the
tension between the ‘local’ and ‘global’ contextual factors has been an ongoing
issue in studies of talk and social context. This is precisely what I intend to argue
for – the importance of looking both locally and globally – and this is precisely
why it is important both to analyse details of classroom discourse using case stud-
ies and interview the participants in order to explore the intertwined relationship
between individual, situational and sociocultural factors.
This chapter will discuss the performance and perceptions of classroom par-
ticipants in three case studies following the framework introduced in Chapter 2:
linguistic, socio-psychological and cognitive factors operating at individual, situ-
ational and sociocultural levels of discourse. The case studies, each with one focus
Japanese participant, will also be discussed in relation to, and in comparison with,
the sociocultural context of Japanese high school classrooms (Chapter 3), and
the macro-level findings from the ethnographic interviews and questionnaires
(Chapter 4). Before presenting the analysis and discussion of the results, I will
begin with an overview of the methodology used in the case studies.

sympathise with this modified approach, these aspects of discourse are beyond the scope of
my analysis and discussion in this book, and therefore not included. For further details about
Erickson’s recent view, see Erickson (2004).