Page 178 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 165

On the other hand, Australian students in the case studies who did not have the
exact answer were often found to use verbal responses to indicate that they either
had no idea or that they had some idea. In the following excerpt, Dr. Lucas asks
the group in the History of Secondary Education class to give the name of the
chancellor of the university:
(54) [Interaction: Aya]

1 Lect: >You know< the myth goes on:, our own
2 chancellor or this university, (.) who is?
3 (1.0)
-> 4 Kathy: hhh uh huh [huh hhhh]((Aya silently giggles))
5 Lect: [ Ah HAH ] ha:h, (0.2) who’s the
6 chancellor of °Sydney university°.
7 (0.4)
8 Robin: Um:=
-> 9 Kathy: =Haven’t got [a clue.]
-> 10 Robin: [I can ] see him (0.3) uh huh
11 huh huh=
12 Lect: =Aye,
13 (0.3)
-> 14 Robin: I can see his picture: but-
15 Lect: All right, you really will. (0.2) because
16 it’s not a he.
17 (0.4)
18 Robin: Ah all right, (.) °Thinking of ( ) °
19 Lect: It’s a she: it's a woman called Leonie
20 Kramer. (0.8) you know? (.) She’s been
21 quite an important and powerful person
22 (0.4) in Australia.

It is interesting to see how the two students handle this situation in which they do
not have the ‘correct’ answer to the question. Kathy openly admits she does not
have a clue. Her straightforward response without hesitation as well as her giggles
in line 4 suggest that she is not worried about loss of face. On the other hand,
Robin makes attempts to show that she has some clue, even though she cannot
come up with the name. Although she does not know the answer, she manages to
cope with the pressure to present herself as a committed student by showing her
engagement and requesting more clues to the answer.
As to Aya in the stretch of talk above, she was in fact the only one who stayed
silent. She also giggled along with Kathy in line 4, but silently. It is possible that her