Page 205 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

192 Silence in Intercultural Communication

In Aya’s case, the desire to be capable of expressing critical views was men-
tioned in her interview:
(87) [Interview: Aya]
After all you often do not have one answer in things like education. So, so
that’s actually difficult, or that’s why I feel the need to improve my ability to
argue... rather than simply accepting something because that is what they say,
you know, you consider what other people think about certain issues, and you
see what you think. I feel I (lack?) that kind of (ability?).

Thus, while the expression of critical views was absent from their speech, we can
see that the three Japanese students have varied attitudes towards it. Their norms
of relevance may be negotiated as they are immersed into, and become aware
of, the norms of Australian classroom practices, although, as with Aya’s case, the
inability to adjust their behaviour may result in silence. Concerning Australian
students, a greater degree of orientation towards critical thinking was observed,
if not strongly demonstrated, as there were instances where they expressed criti-
cal views in classroom discussions (see Section 5.5.2). Considering the valuation
and advocacy of critical thinking in Australian education, however, the absence
of expression of critical thinking among Japanese students may be perceived as a
marked silence.

5.6.4 Summary

While inadequate data was obtained from the case studies in relation to silence
due to reaction speed, or cognitive processing speed, it was possible to see that
the Japanese students in the case studies are in various stages of their adaptation
to a variety of aspects of discourse in Australian classrooms. Such an understand-
ing was gained by scrutinising the roles of the cognitive factors and the way the
impact of these factors were negotiated in each specific classroom context. This
approach also allowed us to see the context-dependent nature of silence, especially
the importance of the topic and the organisation of classroom dynamics. There-
fore, although there may be general patterns of preference in Australian classroom
interaction and among the Japanese students, it is important to recognise that pref-
erence patterns in a specific classroom context can also influence silence.