Page 164 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 151

Table 5.21 Number and length of other-selected turns in History of Secondary Education
(Regular Discussion)
Participant No. of classes Total number Total turn Average no. of Average turn-
included of turns length turns per class length
Aya 3 9 94 3.0 10.4
Robin 3 4 19 1.3 4.8
Kathy 3 2 3 0.7 1.5
Henry 3 2 58 0.7 29.0
Average 3 4.3 43.5 1.4 11.4

(41) [Interaction: Aya]

16 Kathy: So (0.2) as it went on it became (0.6)
17 it- it ( ) a lot of youth had still
18 (0.2) open eyes to adults ( )
19 to ( ) •hhhh.
20 (0.8)
21 Kathy: Kind of ( ) friends with,
22 (0.6)
23 Lect: That's not the point of the question
24 probably,
25 Kathy?: (Mm huh),
26 Henry: I just think that (0,2) (es ar: ci:), even
27 though they did that, (0.2) they were
28 within the guidelines of the ( ),
-> 29 (4.5)
-> 30 Lect: What do you think about this question Aya,
31 (0.4)
-> 32 Aya: I- I- I ↑just wasn’t sure what you mean
33 wha- ex- (0.6) what extent? belong to-? Is
34 it like (1.6) the youth have (0.6) really
35 get (.) (got) up from the reading which is
36 written by Ueda?
The above extract begins with the last part of Kathy’s comment in response to a
discussion question asked by the presenter of the session, Robin. In an ‘open floor’
situation, Kathy volunteers first, and then, after negative feedback from the lec-
turer in lines 23 and 24, Henry offers his comment. This does not receive any feed-
back, but instead, the lecturer nominates Aya for a response. A similar situation,
where Aya was nominated after other students’ voluntary comments, occurred