Page 213 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

200 Silence in Intercultural Communication

At the individual level in the cognitive domain, it was found that knowledge
schema, preferred learning style and topics of discussion may affect participation
in classroom interaction. While it is expected that these aspects of communication
are, to a large extent, shared in interactions among people from the same cultural
background than in intercultural communication, silence may be a consequence of
a context-specific mismatch between the preferences and background knowledge
of individual participants and those assumed as shared in the immediate context of
interaction. In this respect, the interactants’ levels of acculturation to one another’s
cultures are strongly related to variations in individual knowledge and preferences,
with consequent effects on silence in intercultural communication. This is illus-
trated by the case studies (Chapter 5) where varied levels of adaptation to Austra-
lian classroom discourse were found among the Japanese participants, with the
least adapted being perceived as the most silent.
The commitment of individuals to speaking in each context, which is located
in the socio-psychological domain of the model, was also found to be related to the
performance and perceptions of silence. Different levels of commitment towards
classroom talk and discussion were observed, and seemed to derive from various
causes, such as family commitments or difficulties in keeping up with the reading.
While one could consider lack of commitment as a factor at an individual level, a
pragmatic orientation to learning may also be a consequence of a Japanese edu-
cational background (Chapter 3, Section 3.2.1, see also Yoneyama 1999). Hence,
both an individual level of commitment and a socioculturally-shaped undervalu-
ation of classroom interaction may be operating here.
Turning to another factor in the socio-psychological domain, personality, in
the individual variables, was discussed with a specific reference to the personal-
ity traits ‘shy’ and ‘unconfident’ which are often associated with silence. This is a
dangerous assumption to apply to the interpretation of Japanese student silences.
It was discussed that this association may have a negative impact on intercultural
communication in the classroom, which is also suggested by Crown & Feldstein
(1985), Erickson (2004) and Scollon (1985). Moreover, ‘shyness’ is ambiguous in
that it can not only be a personal trait but also a temporary reticence which can be
caused by various contextual factors in different situations in the classroom.

6.3.2 Situational level

Factors at the situational level presented in the model were mostly discussed in
the case studies, naturally since the perceptions and performances of the partici-
pants could be accounted for in details with a great amount of specific informa-
tion on the local context of interaction. In the linguistic domain, we have seen