Page 210 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

chapter 6

Re-interpreting silence
in intercultural communication

6.1 Introduction

In this book, I have presented an analysis and discussion of silence in intercul-
tural communication from multiple perspectives. First, I explored silence in the
Japanese classroom context. Second, I looked at perceptions of silence in inter-
cultural classroom communication in Australia. Finally, the silence in the actual
performances of the Japanese students, their Australian lecturers and peers was
investigated using empirical classroom data. This analysis was then juxtaposed
with perceptions of performance obtained through follow-up interviews. I now
address the question of “what is silence?” by summarising various types of silence
discussed in this book. Following that I will return to the multi-layered model for
interpretation of silence in intercultural communication introduced in Chapter 2,
in order to integrate the findings from the various studies presented in this book.
Then, I will present a discussion of the long-debated view of the ‘Silent East’, by
reconsidering it from an empirical perspective. I will conclude by offering impli-
cations for improved intercultural communication and for future research.

6.2 What is ‘silence’?

The main theme of this research, ‘silence,’ must now be addressed. As is clear
from the wide range of phenomena covered in this book, the question “What is
silence?” is rather difficult to answer. However, it is worthwhile tackling the ques-
tion by rephrasing it as “What phenomena were perceived as silence, what roles
did these silences play, and what were the meanings of these silences?” As a re-
sponse to these questions, I give a summary of the forms, functions and meanings
of silence identified in my research and discussed in this book.
In terms of forms, the types of silence found in the research and discussed in
this book are summarised as follows: