Page 27 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

14 Silence in Intercultural Communication

noted that pauses of the same length can be interpreted differently as contextual
factors affect their significance and meaning (cf. Watts 1997).
What seem to be argued often, instead of the empirically-measured length of
silence, are different levels of tolerance for silence found through ethnographic
observation. For instance, Lehtonen & Sajavaara (1985) and Sajavaara & Lehtonen
(1997) report that the Finns often attach a positive value to silence on social oc-
casions. Similarly, Jaworski (1993) mentions Reisman’s (1974) description of long
silences typically observed in social encounters among neighbours in Lapp com-
munities in Northern Sweden. Corcoran (2000), in questioning the Western valu-
ation of talk over silence, describes some uses of silence in Australian Aboriginal
communities as “silence at the time of pleasure, sorrow, adopting the meditative
and consensual ‘mark of silence’” (p. 185, see also Walsh 1994). A number of other
speech communities are found to be more tolerant of silence and attach a more
positive value to silence than Western-communities (e.g. Basso 1972; Enninger
1987; Nowye 1985; Scollon 1985).
At a wider sociocultural level, different norms may operate in terms of the
context-specific distribution of talk and silence. Scollon & Scollon (1983) report
that in Athabaskan Indian communities children’s learning takes place by listen-
ing to and observing adults silently and not by displaying and discovering errors
like Anglo-American children. Philips (1972, 1983) also reports a similar distri-
bution of talk between adults and children in the Warm Springs Indian com-
munity, which is in contrast with the pattern found in Anglo-American learning
processes. Another aspect of silence which can be characterised as part of wider
sociocultural frameworks is what not to talk about, or what is irrelevant as a topic.
For example, in Aboriginal communities in Australia, there are topics which can
only be mentioned by women or men, and these topics have been called “secret
women’s business” and “secret men’s business” (Moore 2000: 138).
Approaching silence from a psychological perspective, one of the important
contextual factors which can affect silence in intercultural communication is par-
ticipants’ second language (L2) anxiety. Lehtonen et al. (1985) discuss the role of
L2 anxiety in Finnish students’ silence. The results of their study suggested that
communication apprehension in L2 is likely to be caused by a “perception of low
personal competence or low self-esteem, inability to identify appropriate social
behaviour, and anticipation of negative outcome to communication” (p. 61). The
authors argue that rather than the actual proficiency, the negative self-perception
of L2 proficiency can be one of the major causes of avoidance of communication.
However, it is notable that hardly any studies in silence in intercultural commu-
nication have explored the relationship between silence and the actual language
proficiency with empirical data. Lehtonen et al. (1985) also raises an interesting
point that one in five Americans feels apprehensive about communication because