Page 57 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

44 Silence in Intercultural Communication

6 Teacher: Not yet?
→ 7 (16) ((students take notes, the teacher looks at their notes,
8 walking among them to see what they have written.))
9 Teacher: Have you copied properly?
10 Student 1: (I’m hungry)
11 Teacher: Hungry?
12 Student: It’s growling.
→ 13 Teacher: It’s growling? (0.8) You’ve copied now?
14 Student 2: ( )
→ 15 Teacher: Then I can rub it out up to here right. I’ll rub this out okay?
16 ((the teacher slowly rubs out what is on the blackboard.))
17 Teacher: I was really exhausted last week but I am fine this week.
Following this exchange, the teacher looks at his notes, and writes a summary on
the board, without saying anything. Occasionally checking his notes, he writes the
summary without speaking. This silence lasts over 4 minutes, during which time
the students copy the summary, some chatting to their friends.
Another example of the privileging of writing over speaking can be seen in
the World History class at the same school. The teacher gave an instruction to
the students regarding the layout of blackboard writing saying “You might want
to leave space for two or three lines here, because I will come back to this point
later.” The teacher’s focus on the importance of the written can also be found in a
comment such as “There’s not enough space here, you know I cannot write below
this, so I had to use two lines.”
Writing is also used to draw attention to important concepts. In the excerpt
below, in line 1, the teacher provides the important concept of Butsuzoo (‘figure
of Buddha’) first in writing and then in speaking. Further, in line 7, the teacher
announces that the answer is coming, and writes it on the board (line 8).

(2) [Fuji High School Class 3 World History]
→ 1 Teacher: And what is important is, ((writes ‘Butsuzoo’)) butsuzoo
2 ‘figure of Buddha’.... And, originally Mr. Takeda, Butsuzoo,
3 to worship god figure, where do you think it started?
4 Takeda: Eh?
5 (2.4)
6 Teacher: Then I’ll make it easier. (0.4) .... This famous area is, (0.2) this
7 you may have heard before.
→ 8 ((the teacher writes ‘Gandaara’ on the board))
9 Sato: Gandaara.
10 Teacher: Mm. The place called Gandaara. ...