Page 49 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

36 Silence in Intercultural Communication

learning which required them to volunteer and respond verbally to Anglo-Amer-
ican teachers. This resulted in the children’s silence and underachievement. Us-
ing the notion of participant structure, we can identify patterns of participation
familiar to participants in the setting in question and consider whether variance
in participant structures may affect talk and silence.
Another factor to consider in the linguistic domain at the sociocultural level
is preferred mode of communication. Certain types of communication in certain
settings within a certain community are done through speech while in others they
may be done in written or visual modes. This may lead to a negative evaluation of
silence in contexts where the written mode is preferred over speech.
Finally, the shared meanings and practices of non-verbal behaviour can play
a role in that they are often acquired through socialisation in speech communi-
ties and may become a source of negative stereotyping in intercultural commu-
nication, especially when the non-verbal behaviour accompanies silence (Saville-
Troike 1985).
At the situational level in the linguistic domain, each classroom context is dif-
ferent in its participants’ orientation to turn-taking. For example, in some classes,
the students have to interrupt to secure a floor, while in others, the competition
for the floor may not be so intense as to require constant interruptions. Another
important factor is the extent to which different types of participant structures
are used in each classroom context, as it does vary, and therefore needs to be
considered in relation to student orientations to participation. Finally, the vary-
ing significance of non-verbal behaviour in the classroom may lead to different
ways in which silence accompanied (or not accompanied) by certain non-verbal
behaviour is perceived.
The second domain, the socio-psychological aspect of communication, in-
volves issues such as anxiety, personality, commitment, and preferred learning
style and topic at the individual level. For example, anxiety over speaking is one
of the causes of silence. In particular, speaking in a second language may cause
so-called second language anxiety, and second language speakers may not speak
as much as they would in their first language in the same situation. Even in a
first language context, shy or introverted people simply speak less, or do not like
speaking in public. This is where personality comes in. Thus, we should be aware
there may be occasions where an extroverted, outgoing person speaks more in a
second language than a shy speaker in the native language.
Another individual factor in the socio-psychological domain is the level of
commitment to the activity which interaction takes place. For example, a partici-
pant in a meeting may remain silent throughout if he/she is not interested in the
agenda and thinks it would not make any difference to make comments or sug-