Page 180 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 167

(55) [Interview: Dr. Telfer]
T: First, because I worked in ( ) Aboriginal communities and habit
into it that singling out ( ) a direct question was a bad thing to
do. And, second, because working with undergraduates in big classes, if
you ask them direct questions you often put them on a spot.
I: Um...you don’t like to do it to ( )
T: No, we don’t. We worry about doing it because if someone doesn’t know the
answer, it is really bad if they don’t have things to say, so... but, it doesn’t
...from the semester ( ) in order to get better participation from
the students like Miki and Mike, I should ask direct questions.
These comments suggest that one way to avoid nominating a student in the class-
room is the “Don’t do the FTA” strategy, used to minimize imposition or loss
of face. As shown in example (13) in 5.4.2, Dr. Telfer sensitively performs ‘face-
work’ when Miki’s face is threatened by her classmate persistently directing ques-
tions to her. Ironically, as Dr. Telfer herself notes above, she elicited relatively long
accounts from normally inactive students by direct questioning after becoming
aware of issues in classroom participation in the first recall interview. Thus, her
approach to interaction with quieter Asian students was altered to accommodate
their politeness orientation. Ms. Hardy in Case Study 1 also mentions that stu-
dents should not be embarrassed by being forced to speak:

(56) [Interview: Ms. Hardy]
[..] there are many other kids like him [Tadashi]. And the Australian kids that
should not feel embarrassed - and to a certain extent, you know, as a tutor, I
think you’ve got to be aware - if they don’t want to speak…

She also feels that the “quietness” of students such as Tadashi “has to be respected
as well,” and she “won’t impose that [speaking] because you [they] don’t want it to
happen.” She also says she is “scared of” breaking down the “barrier” which she
feels is there. She goes on to say:
(57) [Interview: Ms. Hardy]
[...] there must be a difference and in the behaviour that we’ll tolerate that
would cause actually a difference between how I relate to Tadashi that I expect
a bit more up front more um engagement with me that probably- I find [it]
difficult - that I don’t get with him and that I must admit I don’t get with a lot
of students that haven’t got an Australian background?

However, the students are likely to be evaluated negatively by not participating
actively, as discussed earlier. Erickson (2004) and Jaworski & Sachdev (2004) also
found that teachers tend to form a negative view of students’ academic compe-