Page 187 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

174 Silence in Intercultural Communication

share knowledge schema. It Chapter 4, it emerged from the interview comments
that the shared knowledge of the Japanese students is in some ways at variance
with their Australian peers, which is likely to result in the silence of Japanese stu-
dents. The case studies, however, showed a more complex picture.
In Case Study 1, while all the students in the Teaching as a Profession class
including Tadashi had experienced a teaching practicum in a secondary school,
in the Curriculum and Examinations class, Tadashi was the only student who had
not attended an Australian secondary school. The Curriculum and Examinations
class focused exclusively on issues involved in the planning, teaching and admin-
istration of the HSC exams for secondary school students in New South Wales.
Thus, graduating from secondary school in Japan may have made it particularly
difficult for Tadashi to bring his own experiences to the Curriculum and Exami-
nations class, where he had a ‘topical disadvantage’ in participation. However, his
comment below suggests that he attributes his silence to his own lack of knowl-
edge as an individual:
(66) [Interview: Tadashi]
I think they are knowledgeable - they know a lot of things. As for me, I almost
always listen by their side thinking, “Oh that’s what it is,” and I am always
nodding.

In Case Study 3, in the History of Secondary Education class, it was mostly events,
people, schools, and social changes which had taken place in the history of edu-
cation that were discussed. Occasionally education in the past was discussed in
relation to contemporary education, but aspects of the participants’ present day
lives and personal experiences were not brought up in discussions as frequently
as in the two previous case studies. This suggests that those who had more back-
ground knowledge and experience in history and education in Australia or even
in the United Kingdom, which has had a great influence on Australian education,
may have had an advantage over those who came from different educational and
cultural backgrounds. The tutorial group for this case study had two Australian
students, one British student and Aya. Thus, it is likely that Aya was disadvantaged
by her lack of background knowledge. Even though Aya had spent three years
in an Australian secondary school, her background knowledge would have been
limited compared to those who had been brought up in Australia or in the UK.
Therefore, this may have been another factor which affected her ability to keep up
with and make contributions to the discussion.
As shown earlier in her comments, Aya did not have confidence in this sub-
ject, which made it difficult for her to participate. Furthermore, Aya never took on
the role of the first respondent when discussion questions were asked in an open
floor. The two occasions on which Aya provided her response to key discussion