Page 182 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 169

The female lecturer in charge of this class, who will be referred to as Dr. Riley, was
seen to smile and encourage students in an explicit manner. She commented that
Aya’s contribution in her class was “terrific” and she was “good in volunteering
and vigorously talking in class.”
One explanation is that Aya’s different performance may depend on her percep-
tions of the level of performance expected by lecturers. While Aya mentions ‘strict-
ness’ and ‘pressure’ with Dr. Lucas’s class (see interview excerpt 50), she appears to
have responded positively to Dr. Riley’s encouragement, as she commented:
(59) [Interview: Aya]
[...] [Dr. Riley], how can I put it, she says we should ask about anything. I
mean, she says there is no stupid question, and this, you know, just this makes
me think of asking questions, like she says it is okay to say things like “What is
a verb?” So this motivates me very much. I like this kind of way very much.

However, it should be emphasized that a space for negotiation as well as humour
was present in Dr. Lucas’ class. He also commented in his interview that he was
well aware of the fact that students may falter in on-the-spot oral communication
and that oral performance may not be as reliable as written language. Moreover,
the two peer students from this subject commented that the tutorial sessions were
“informal,” “relaxed” and “cosy.” In fact, Dr. Lucas commented that Aya’s commu-
nication felt “formal” to him. In his class, Aya’s voice tended to be soft and difficult
to hear compared to her peers’. He also indicated that it was difficult to hear her.
This may be one of the reasons why Aya was perceived as a silent student, de-
spite her average frequency of participation. Her voice projection was so soft that
more than once Dr. Lucas asked her to repeat what she had said (see interaction
excerpts (16) above and (83) in Section 5.6.3 below for example). She was also
observed to have a tendency to lower her eye gaze, which she herself describes:
(60) [Interview: Aya]
I think that kind of situation is in fact different from the presentation you
give standing in front of the class, for example. So I wouldn’t read looking
down when I stand in front of everyone. I would look ahead or around. But
in such a situation, although I try to look up a bit from time to time, if on the
other hand you make too much eye-contact it makes me feel “He might pick
me next,” or something like that.

Although it was not only Aya who looked down to avoid being selected by the
teacher to contribute, her eye-gaze was almost always down when questions were
asked, including in her own tutorial presentation. Dr. Lucas, commenting on the
way he organised tutorial presentations, indicated the importance of eye gaze: