Page 215 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

202 Silence in Intercultural Communication

6.3.3 Sociocultural level

One of the factors explored through the analysis of empirical classroom inter-
action data was the norms of turn-taking. There was an indication by some of
the Japanese students in the ethnographic interviews that different sociolinguistic
norms of participation in Japanese and Australian classrooms prevented them
from actively participating in classroom discussions. The detailed analysis of in-
tercultural classroom interaction in the case studies confirmed this difference to
a certain degree, although the Japanese students were found capable of precisely
timing their turn-taking in one-on-one situations and when they were given sup-
port to hold the floor. Hence, it is important to include various contextual factors
at the local level of interaction when considering silence in relation to sociolin-
guistic norms of participation. In addition, to my knowledge, no comparative
analysis is yet available. Thus, an important area to be explored in future research
would be speed of interaction in Japanese in contexts where Australian English
speakers interact in Japanese with Japanese native speakers.
At the sociocultural level, from a linguistic perspective, silence can be inter-
preted as a consequence of a cross-cultural gap in the expected pattern of interac-
tion, or participant structures. The overall preference for self-selected turns by
both students and lecturers in the Australian university context is a challenge to
the discourse system of the Japanese students who are familiar with participation
brought about almost exclusively through nomination by the teacher. Similarly,
a marked silence may be found if the functions and allocation of the written and
spoken modes of communication in the context of interaction vary across cul-
tures, as illustrated by the contrastive weight placed on written and spoken modes
of communication in the classroom which played a role in Japanese student si-
lences in Australian classrooms.
A factor which falls in between the linguistic and cognitive domains at the
sociocultural level is shared knowledge. Where the knowledge required for par-
ticipation in a speech event is not shared, silence is likely to result. However, as
we have seen in the case studies, with the recognition and advocacy of multicul-
turalism in Australia, sharing of experiences and knowledge about issues outside
Australia is encouraged and appreciated, and where such activities were enacted
in the classroom context, participation by some of the Japanese students was en-
hanced.
In the cognitive domain at the sociocultural level, silence was analysed in
relation to norms of speed of interaction. Speed of reaction, in terms of cognitive
processing, was perceived to be faster in the Australian classroom, and Japanese
students in Australia struggled with the insufficient reaction time. However, an
analysis of the empirical evidence is difficult because of the problem of discrimi-