Page 77 - Silence in Intercultural Communication

64 Silence in Intercultural Communication

to verbalise the process of inferring in cause-effect style explanations, whereas
in Japanese classrooms, this process of inference does not seem to be valued but
instead a top-down way of understanding is assumed in learning.
In the Japanese classroom excerpt below, the classroom talk is not well con-
nected but incoherent, and the students’ comments are based on impressionistic
views or transitory emotional reactions.

(17) [Tokyo High School Class 4 Japanese]
The teacher asked students about an incident which affected them during the holidays.
One student mentions the destructive behaviour of 20 year olds who attended coming-
of-age ceremonies held in communities nation-wide on the 15th of January.

1 Teacher: Tell me what yours was, Ms. Maeda.
2 (pause about 3 seconds)
3 Maeda: Seijinshiki ‘coming-of-age ceremony’
4 Teacher: Right. Comment please.
5 Maeda: Well I was surprised when I saw it on TV.
6 Teacher: Why?
7 Maeda: There were people who were pulling crackers, you know.
8 Teacher: Surprised. Do you know their psychology?
9 Sato: They just want to attract attention, with big ( ).
10 Maeda: Those people who do those things, even if they are enjoying, there
11 are people with good motivation, so I don’t know.
12 Teacher: You are going to attend the ceremony in three years’ time. What
13 would you do if you are in that situation? Ms. Kimura, what did
14 you think about those people?
15 Kimura: They don’t really have to come.
16 Teacher: Do you understand why they do such a thing?
17 Kimura: To attract attention.
18 Teacher: Mr. Ishida, how about you? You are listening to music, but take
19 your earphones off.
20 Ishida: What’s wrong with that. They are having fun. Let us drink.
21 Teacher: Mr. Ishida, if you were in that situation, would you do that?
22 Other students: He’d do it.
23 ((class laugh))

The interaction shows that students are unfamiliar with cause-effect discourse
structure or with presenting a view using logical and objective reasoning. This
appears to contribute to the teacher’s questions “Why?” (line 6) and “Do you un-
derstand why...?” (line16). It is not only within each students’ turn but also in
the interactive sequence involving teacher and student turns that construction of
coherent and logical discussion does not seem to be achieved. Students neither