Page 190 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence 177

However, it should be noted that Aya’s silence can also be interpreted as a conse-
quence of her own lack of commitment, as she admits choosing Japanese courses
as her “retreat.”
Unlike in Case Studies 1 and 3, where the subject matter mostly covered Aus-
tralian issues, Japanese sociocultural and sociolinguistic issues were as prominent
as Australian issues in Case Study 2, which placed Miki in a better position than
Tadashi or Aya. As a general tendency in the Intercultural Communication class,
the content of students’ comments and questions concentrated on students’ own
cultural experiences and knowledge. Accounts of personal experiences and par-
ticipants’ own cultural knowledge were frequently given in this class, and tech-
nical issues or theories were rarely discussed but provided in straight lecturing
periods. Dr. Telfer also commented that she recognised what students from vari-
ous cultural backgrounds had to say as valuable resources. Hence, Miki seemed to
have fewer difficulties created by a lack of background knowledge about Australia,
compared to Tadashi and Aya. It should be noted, however, that talking about
one’s own experiences or opinions was regarded as characteristic of Australian
students, and lacking in Japanese students, by Japanese interviewees in Chapter 4.
This was not necessarily the case with Miki and Aya. As we will see below, at least
for these two students, relevance to the subject matter of their own experiences
and culture created more opportunities to speak.
Nevertheless, the lack of local knowledge, a disadvantage inherently faced by
overseas students, can be regarded as one of the factors which negatively influence
their capacity to participate. It is also important to recognise that the subject mat-
ter under discussion, as an immediate contextual factor, can give an unexpected
twist to the performance of silence and talk, as seen in the cases of Miki and Aya.

5.6.3 Norms of relevance

While silence may result from a lack of background knowledge both as an indi-
vidual and a cultural group, different assumptions about relevance of message
content in classroom discussions among Japanese and Australian students ap-
peared to lead to less frequent participation of Japanese students (Chapter 4).
This factor which emerged from the interviews was explored in the case studies
with empirical data. The essential questions here are: what is considered to be a
relevant comment?; and what are the relevant interactional moves to make?

5.6.3.1 Topic relevance
As Jaworski (1993) states, silence can be found where certain issues or subjects
expected to be brought up are not spoken about. As discussed earlier (Chapter 4),