Page 218 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

Chapter 6. Re-interpreting silence in intercultural communication 205

son 1987; Scollon & Scollon 1995) from relatively solidarity-oriented with her
‘less strict’ female lecturers to more hierarchy-oriented in this particular class.
This suggests that immediate contextual factors triggered the Japanese orientation
to politeness in classroom discourse, a factor at the level of sociocultural context.
However, in terms of participant structures and turn-taking norms, Aya seemed
to show a high level of adaptation to Australian classroom discourse. She was not
as vulnerable as Miki or Tadashi to interruptions, and more frequent voluntary
participation was observed. Indeed, Aya was found to be experiencing the great-
est exposure to the discourse of the mainstream Australian population including
young people. She had an Australian boyfriend, regularly attended church youth
group activities where she mixed with local people, and had spent three years
with an Australian family during her secondary school years. Thus, her exten-
sive exposure to local native-speaker Australians may have played an important
role in the level of her sociolinguistic and sociocultural adaptation to Australian
classroom discourse. However, as discussed, lack of control in a specific area of
language and perceived face-threat seemed to have reduced her bicultural ability
and readiness to participate.
When factors in the model which could be affecting Japanese students’ si-
lence were considered, a tension between ‘inability’ and ‘resistance’ emerge. In the
midst of this tension, the performance of the Japanese students was found to be
greatly affected by contextual factors in the immediate situation specific to each
classroom. This is one of the most significant implications for future research into
silence in intercultural communication. The previous emphases on cultural and
linguistic factors in interpreting Japanese student silences in classroom contexts,
as found in existing literature may therefore need reconsideration. Earlier studies,
which looked at the silences of Asian or Japanese students in the classroom (e.g.
Harumi 1999; Liu 2000, 2002; Tsui 1996) did not give sufficient consideration to
the role of evolving immediate contextual factors in the construction of silence,
or to the role of individual variables in interaction with such immediate factors.
It is hoped that this book revealed that silence is constructed through a complex
negotiation process of talk and silence by not only the Japanese students but also
by other participants in the classroom. It is also important to recognise that si-
lence was observed not only amongst Japanese students but also those Australian
students who were relatively silent compared to their peers who tended to domi-
nate the class. Thus, the extent to which, and the specific context in which, silence
is observed should be carefully taken into account by critically scrutinising the
perceptions of interactants involved.