Page 71 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

58 Silence in Intercultural Communication

ing advantage of the fear of standing out, she gets all the students to stand up and
allows those who volunteer for an answer to sit down. In this way, those who do
not speak till the end will stand out. The students participate voluntarily by rais-
ing their hands, which appears to confirm the fear of standing out as an explana-
tion for collective silence of students.
In the Australian context, where articulation of students’ ideas is encouraged
(cf. Matsuda 2000; Milner & Quilty 1996; Yoneyama 1999), this behaviour is not
considered to be ‘showing off.’
In the teacher-nominating-student structure, if the student does not know a
‘correct’ answer, silence or “Wakarimasen (‘I don’t know’)” are common respons-
es. Several examples illustrate this type of interaction.

(12) [Tokyo High School Class 2 Classical Japanese]
1 Teacher: Next, B. Who shall I ( ), Mr. ( ).
2 (pause – around 0.8)
3 Student: I don’t know.
4 (pause – around 1.0)
5 Teacher: Are you looking at the back [of the handout]? What is the modern
6 translation of ‘hitono soshiri’?
7 (pause – around 1.5)
8 Student: I don’t know.
9 Teacher: Why don’t you look for the relevant part in the translation and
10 read it ?
11 ((student looks for the relevant section?))
12 (pause – around 15.0)
13 Teacher: ‘Hito no soshiri,’ where is it in the translation?
14 (pause – around 3.0)
15 Teacher: ‘Soshiri’ means accusation, okay. So, where is it?
16 Student: ((reads out the relevant section))
17 Teacher: Then, ( ), who is the subject of this sentence?
18 Student: Mikado.

(13) [Tokyo High School Class 3. English]
(The class is team-taught. Teacher 1 is a native speaker English teacher; Teacher 2 is a
Japanese English teacher)
1 Teacher 1: Second question. Erika.
2 (pause – around 4.0)
3 Teacher 2: I usually go to – ((points to the written cue: I usually go to))
4 (pause – around 3.0)
5 Erika: The temple.