Page 152 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 139

Here, Aya’s eye-gaze is on her sheet of paper in line 172, and as she says “and” in
a soft voice she turns the page, getting ready for her next question. However, the
lecturer continues to talk about the previous topic, and Aya is required to do her
negotiating work again by waiting a few moments in line 176. While “okay” can
signal “readiness to commence the next section of talk” (Rendle-Short 2000: 26),
“um” and “and” signal continuity in talk. Hence, Aya's strategies are less powerful
in terms of control over the discussion, which could lead to negative judgements
about her “leadership” and “engagement” in tutorial discussions. According to
Dorr-Bremme (1990), “framing words” (p. 388), which are equivalent to bound-
ary markers, can play important roles as contextualisation cues in controlling and
regulating classroom talk efficiently, and an absence of these “framing words”
is likely to cause problems in “enacting authority” and “maintaining the floor”
(p. 389). The perceptions of Aya being “quiet” and “retiring” may partly be partly
due to the absence of these “framing words” combined with longer silences pre-
ceding topic initiating moves in her presentation.
In the stretch of talk below, however, Aya makes a move to shift from Dr.
Lucas’ comment to the next key question in line 315 by using the boundary
marker “okay,” and the pause before “okay” is far shorter than pauses in her
other cases shown above. For once, Aya in fact uses the same strategy as her
Australian peers to maintain control in the discussion:

(34) [Interaction: Aya]

-> 293 Aya: °But° weren’t they trying to sort of °( )
294 equal opportunities°?
295 Lect: Yeah but the way timetables often worked is
296 meant that (0.2) it will be very diffi- (.)
297 difficult for a girl to do (0.3) u:m (0.5) uh
298 maybe to do French a:nd
-> 299 Aya: mmm.
300 Lect: physics for example.
((More explanation from the lecturer))
312 Lect: [( )] (0.3) The academic course
313 for girls was (0.5) French:, Botany,
314 (.) History. (0.4) The academic (0.6) uh::
315 subjects for boys were (0.3) mathematics:,=
-> 316 Aya: =Mm hm,=
317 Lect: =physics, (0.4) uh: chemistry, (1.1) Latin.
318 (2.2)
319 Lect: They were still going strong in the mid
320 nineteen sixties when I was at high school.