Page 163 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

150 Silence in Intercultural Communication

situation can be a good indicator of engagement, interest and understanding of
the subject. The average number of turns in ‘open floor’ situations was larger
than that in the ‘bidding’ category for all the students in the class except Aya.
This could have resulted in the impression that she was “quiet and retiring” as de-
scribed by Dr. Lucas (in example (7) above). According to Aya, one of the reasons
that she did not participate in ‘open floor’ situations was her lack of confidence in
grasping the content of the class:

(39) [Interview: Aya]
[This subject] is difficult. [Dr. Lucas] has really, so, got his principles, and I
think he is a very good teacher, and the way he talks makes it very easy to
listen, so that is good, but you know, my knowledge doesn’t keep up with it.
When I can understand, really, I understand, I find it useful, but after all, how
can I say, um... I also [attend the class] thinking, “I don’t understand.”

She also mentions that she felt that her English skills were inadequate to grasp the
content of the reading materials and that she was not able to speak as much as she
would have liked because of her lack of confidence:

(40) [Interview: Aya]
A: [...] This, to be honest, with this subject I don’t have any confidence
[“confidence” spoken in English], so you know, yeah, I want to speak,
but even if I want to speak more, I can’t.
I: Um, so you had things you wanted to say but you couldn’t.
A: So um, I really wished I could have read more. Yeah.
These difficulties in fact led to a lack of interest, according to Aya, who com-
mented that the class “was a bit awkward, so I didn’t enjoy it at all,” and that her
motivation for this subject was “40 percent, less than half.”
In Table 5.21 below, we can see that Aya has the largest number of other-se-
lected turns, all selected by Dr. Lucas. It is possible that Dr. Lucas made attempts
to include Aya precisely because she did not respond to the key questions after
the discussion as often as others.
Dr. Lucas noted in the follow-up interview that the researcher’s presence and
project made him “sensitive to Aya’s position in the group.” As he stated in ex-
ample (7), he could have let her “be in the corner and not really part of it.” Thus,
if he had not become “sensitive to Aya’s position in the group,” she may not have
been nominated as many as the nine times (Table 5.21 below). Below is an ex-
ample of the lecturer’s nomination of Aya, following a peer students’ voluntary
participation: