Page 158 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 145

above). More importantly, a comparison of Tables 5.8 and 5.9, and Tables 5.10 and
5.13, above, shows that although Kylie’s average number of other-selected turns
is not significantly higher than others, her self-selected turns are overwhelmingly
higher than her classmates. Kylie was observed to be a motivated, enthusiastic and
active student, and was positively evaluated by Ms. Hardy. Ms. Hardy noted in
her interview how impressed she was by Kylie’s performance saying, “That [Kylie]
girl sounds pretty good, too. I thought she was going to be wonderful.” Similarly,
Gary, a mature student from the US, who was also articulate, voluble and enthusi-
astic (see Table 5.3), was described by Ms. Hardy as “really committed.” It was also
the case that he self-selected his turns frequently while the frequency of other-se-
lected turns was moderate. In contrast to Kylie and Gary, Tadashi was negatively
evaluated by Ms. Hardy for his classroom performance:

(36) [Interview: Ms. Hardy]
I’d be interested to know what he was getting. Yes - pass ... I couldn’t imagine it
would be a higher level than a pass from just my impression in the classroom.

Ms. Hardy also commented that Tadashi and Wong Young only spoke when they
were asked direct questions (“direct” meaning straightforward factual memory
checking questions), which she found unsatisfactory. Moreover, the negative eval-
uation expressed in the comment above was not an evaluation of classroom perfor-
mance but actually an evaluation of overall academic performance. This comment
seems to strongly encode the considerable impact of classroom participation on
perception of academic competence, at least from Ms. Hardy’s point of view.
On the other hand, the lecturer in charge of Curriculum and Examinations
class, Mr. Fuller, noted that Tadashi approached “his tasks and learning with some
enthusiasm.” He added, “[Tadashi] seems to be unafraid to ask questions when
necessary.” However, among Tadashi’s total 22 turns through self-selection in this
class, he asked three questions, two of which were asked during a one-on-one
period before all other students arrived. The gap in Mr. Fuller’s comments and
Tadashi’s performance maybe due, as mentioned earlier, to the fact that Mr. Fuller
is overly careful about giving any judgemental or negative comments.

5.4.3.2 Case Study 2
The tables below show the sample group’s patterns of participation in Regular Dis-
cussion. First of all, comparing the frequency of self-selected turns (Table 5.14)
and other-selected turns (Table 5.15), it is possible to see that all the students in
the sample group take their turns more frequently through self-selection, however
Miki’s turns are almost evenly taken through self-selection and other-selection.
The percentage of self-selected turns out of total turns for each participant is
shown below in Table 5.16.