Page 169 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

156 Silence in Intercultural Communication

112 Class: [huh huh huh huh huh]
113 Kylie: You can’t ma[ke us,]
114 Lect: [·hhuh ] huh,
115 Class: Uh huh huh huh huh huh=
116 ?: =We have right [( ] )
117 Lect: [Quickly,] ]
-> 117a Lect: [((pointing at Tadashi and WY))
-> 117b Tadashi: [((Tadashi is looking down))
118 (1.0) ((students mumbling jokes))
119 ?: [We k]now our rights.
120 Lect: [U:m ]
-> 121 (0.6)((Tadashi looks up and sits straight))
122 Lect: u:m [(0.3) way you dress speak behave,
-> 122a Tadashi: [((looks down))
123 dress:,(0.2) all right? [(0.4) How
-> 123a Tadashi: [((looks up at Lect))
124 Lect: dress[ing ,]
125 Kylie: [firs-]
-> 126 Lect: all of [you?
127 Kylie: [first week suits:.]
128 (0.4)
129 Lect: That’s right.
*[] overlaps the laughter
While the peer students try to continue with their talk, the lecturer attempts to
bring their attention to Tadashi and his Korean partner (line 99), and to “the other
parts” (line 103) of the task assigned for them. However, Tadashi’s non-verbal be-
haviour shows that he avoids the lecturer’s attention (103a, 117b, 122a), by looking
down. In the end, the lecturer explicitly addresses the whole group (“all of you?” in
line 126), at which point Kylie, one of the most active students, responds.
We have also seen in the previous section that Miki often remains silent and
lets her peers talk when she seems to be unsure of herself. As for Aya, she does not
often respond to discussion questions, which sometimes results in the lecturer
nominating her. She mentioned in her interview that she was under pressure to
perform appropriately. This pressure may have led to her perceptions of her own
inability to express herself, which resulted in silence to avoid inappropriate re-
sponses. Such silence can be regarded as a strategy to save one’s own positive face:
the image of a competent student. This, however seems to lead to a pragmatic fail-
ure, caused by a mismatch of politeness orientations between Japanese students
and Australian lecturers. For example, Miki’s lecturer described her English as
“careful,” and “a great contrast with” one of the Korean students in the same class