Page 128 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 115

tutorial presentation. Hence, there is incongruity here between performance and
perceptions. To explain this incongruity, a more detailed analysis of classroom
interaction will be given below in Sections 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6.

5.3.4 Summary

The quantitative analysis of classroom participation in the three case studies pres-
ents a mixed picture. In Case Study 1, Tadashi’s silence was evident, in terms
of both the frequency and length of his turns, and he was also perceived to be
silent by at least one of his lecturers and a peer student. The results from Case
Study 2 are slightly more complex: Miki was more silent than other students, but
it appeared that her low frequency of participation seemed to override her turn
lengths in perceptions of her as silent by the lecturer and peers. Case Study 3
shows an incongruence between the performance and the perceptions: Aya was
perceived to be silent despite the fact that she participated with average frequency
and turn lengths. Significantly, all the Japanese students in the case studies were
perceived to be silent, although the performance data did not always provide evi-
dence to support these perceptions of silence. This, and comments from the case
study participants, suggest that there is more to perceptions of silence than the
actual frequency or amount of participation; the manner of participation plays a
role. This is what the following sections aim to explore.

5.4 Linguistic factors contributing to silence

5.4.1 Language proficiency

Lack of language proficiency in English was given by the Japanese students as
one of the major causes of their silence (Chapter 4). Furthermore, this lack of
confidence in English appeared to hold them back from participation. Lack of
proficiency and lack of confidence in proficiency were also given by lecturers in
their questionnaire responses as major causes of Japanese student silences. In the
existing literature, however, an emphasis on the role of language difficulties in
creating Asian student silences has been replaced by an alternative view in which
culturally shaped communicative styles and beliefs about communication are
considered to be the most important factors (see Chapter 2, Section 2.5). The case
studies thus allowed actual performances of Japanese students to be examined in
order to investigate the extent to which proficiency in English affects silence.