Page 177 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

164 Silence in Intercultural Communication

quite sure if I understood the question”. However, as we can see above, Miki re-
peated this strategy until she had to verbally express “I don’t know”, and as a con-
sequence, a long and awkward silence followed after which the lecturer tried to
restore the flow of discussion.
In fact, this use of silence was found extensively in my observation of high
school classes in Japan. When this type of silence occurs, teachers would either
keep providing clues to guide students to a ‘correct’ answer or move on to the
next student. The example below, from a lesson on classical Japanese literature in
2
a Japanese high school, shows the former strategy (lines 2, 4, 7, 12 and 14):
(53) [Interaction: Tokyo High School]
1 Teacher: Next, B. Who shall I ( ), Mr. ( ).
2 (pause – around 0.8)
3 Student: I don’t know.
4 (pause – around 1.0)
5 Teacher: Are you looking at the back [of the handout]? What is the modern
6 translation of ‘hitono soshiri’?
7 (pause – around 1.5)
8 Student: I don’t know.
9 Teacher: Why don’t you look for the relevant part in the translation and
10 read it ?
11 ((student looks for the relevant section?))
12 (pause – around 15.0)
13 Teacher: ‘Hito no soshiri,’ where is it in the translation?
14 (pause – around 3.0)
15 Teacher: ‘Soshiri’ means accusation, okay. So, where is it?
16 Student: ((reads out the relevant section))
17 Teacher: Then, ( ), who is the subject of this sentence?
18 Student: Mikado.
Similar behaviour of students in Japanese schools was reported by an Australian
exchange student in Kato’s (2001) study:

When asked questions during the class, they [Japanese students] often said “I
don’t know” even if they knew the answer, consulted other students before speak-
ing up, or remained silent until the teacher “gave up” and moved on to another
student. (p. 62)

2. The transcription conventions used in the Australian classroom studies do not apply to this
transcript.