Silence in Intercultural Communication
Perceptions and performance
| University of Melbourne
How and why is silence used interculturally? Approaching the phenomenon of silence from multiple perspectives, this book shows how silence is used, perceived and at times misinterpreted in intercultural communication. Using a model of key aspects of silence in communication – linguistic, cognitive and sociopsychological – and fundamental levels of social organization – individual, situational and sociocultural - the book explores the intricate relationship between perceptions and performance of silence in interaction involving Japanese and Australian participants. Through a combination of macro- and micro- ethnographic analyses of university seminar interactions, the stereotypes of the ‘silent East’ is reconsidered, and the tension between local and sociocultural perspectives of intercultural communication is addressed. The book has relevance to researchers and students in intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis and applied linguistics.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 166] 2007. xii, 240 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
|
Acknowledgements
|
ix
|
|
Transcription conventions
|
xi–xii
|
|
Chapter 1. Introduction
|
1–4
|
|
Chapter 2. A review of silence in intercultural communication
|
5–39
|
|
2.1 Overview
|
5
|
|
2.2 Preliminaries: Silence in communication
|
5
|
|
2.3 Silence in intercultural communication
|
12
|
|
2.4 Silence in multicultural classroom contexts
|
16
|
|
2.5 Silence of overseas students from Asia in the Anglo-mainstream classroom
|
18
|
|
2.6 Silence in Japanese communication
|
22
|
|
2.7 Summary: An overview of silence in intercultural communication
|
30
|
|
2.8 Interpreting silence
|
31
|
|
Chapter 3. The sociocultural context: Silence and talk in Japanese classrooms
|
41–67
|
|
3.1 Japanese high school classroom study
|
41
|
|
3.2 Linguistic domain
|
43
|
|
3.3. Socio-psychological domain
|
52
|
|
3.4 Cognitive domain
|
60
|
|
3.5 Summary: Japanese classroom practice and silence
|
66
|
|
Chapter 4. Perceptions of silence: From a macro-perspective
|
69–99
|
|
4.1 Introduction
|
69
|
|
4.2 Linguistic factors contributing to silence
|
72
|
|
4.3 Socio-psychological factors contributing to silence: Politeness orientations
|
84
|
|
4.4 Cognitive factors contributing to silence
|
91
|
|
4.5 Intentional and unintentional silence
|
97
|
|
4.6 Summary: Perceptions of silence in intercultural communication
|
98
|
|
Chapter 5. Performance and perceptions of silence: An empirical view
|
101–195
|
|
5.1 Introduction
|
101
|
|
5.2. Methodology of the case studies
|
103
|
|
5.3 Talk and silence in the case studies: Comparison of performance and perceptions
|
107
|
|
5.4 Linguistic factors contributing to silence
|
115
|
|
5.5 Socio-psychological factors contributing to silence
|
154
|
|
5.6 Cognitive factors contributing to silence
|
171
|
|
5.7. Summary of the chapter
|
193
|
|
Chapter 6. Re-interpreting silence in intercultural communication
|
197–208
|
|
6.1 Introduction
|
197
|
|
6.2 What is 'silence'?
|
197
|
|
6.3 The roles of factors affecting silence at different levels of social organisation
|
199
|
|
6.4 Rethinking 'the silent East': Perceptions and performance
|
203
|
|
References
|
209–219
|
|
Appendix 1
|
221
|
|
Appendix 2
|
223–224
|
|
Appendix 3
|
225
|
|
Appendix 4
|
227–228
|
|
Appendix 5
|
229–231
|
|
Appendix 6
|
233
|
|
Author index
|
235–236
|
|
Subject index
|
237–239
|
“[...] Nakane's work fills an important gap in the field by providing an in-depth understanding of silence in the multicultural classroom context. The book is particularly relevant for graduate students interested in carrying out research in the area of silence, intercultural communication and classroom discourse. Because the book explicates the intricate nature of silence, it would also be of interest to lecturers teaching students coming from a variety of countries, cultures and educational backgrounds and to native-English-speaking students studying in multicultural classrooms.”
Sibil Tatar, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, in Discourse & Communication, Vol. 3(1), 2009
Cited by
Cited by 42 other publications
No author info given
2008. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED (Through December 18, 2007).
Language in Society 37:3 ► pp. 485 ff. 
No author info given
2015.
In The Semantics of Chinese Music [Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts, 5],
No author info given
2019.
In Conversational Humour and (Im)politeness [Topics in Humor Research, 8],
Amundrud, Thomas
2011. On Observing Student Silence.
Qualitative Inquiry 17:4 ► pp. 334 ff.
Araki, Naoko & Jo Raphael
2018.
In Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Japan [English Language Education, 14],
► pp. 41 ff.
Behnam, Biook & Nastaran Nosratzadegan
2014. A Discourse Study of Rhetorical Silence in Persian and English Literature.
International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development 3:4
Bodis, Agnes
2020. ‘Double deficit’ and exclusion: Mediated language ideologies and international students’ multilingualism.
Multilingua 0:0
Covarrubias, Patricia O.
2015.
In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction,
► pp. 1 ff.
Ducker, Nathan
2020.
In The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching,
► pp. 1 ff.
ELLWOOD, CONSTANCE & IKUKO NAKANE
2009. Privileging of Speech in EAP and Mainstream University Classrooms: A Critical Evaluation of Participation.
TESOL Quarterly 43:2 ► pp. 203 ff.
Ghavamnia, Maedeh & Saeed Ketabi
2015. Voices from the voiceless: Iranian EFL students' attitudes toward English.
Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 9:2 ► pp. 102 ff.
Girardelli, Davide, Stephanie Kelly, Bodong Chen, Xiaogao Zhou & Tingting Gu
2020. “Learning lords” and “ink in your stomach”: eliciting Chinese EFL students’ beliefs about classroom participation.
Communication Education 69:2 ► pp. 155 ff.
Ha, Phan Le & Binghui Li
2014. Silence as right, choice, resistance and strategy among Chinese ‘Me Generation’ students: implications for pedagogy.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 35:2 ► pp. 233 ff.
Handford, Michael
2016.
In The Dynamic Interplay between Context and the Language Learner,
► pp. 151 ff.
Hao, Richie Neil
2011. Rethinking Critical Pedagogy: Implications on Silence and Silent Bodies.
Text and Performance Quarterly 31:3 ► pp. 267 ff.
Hei, Kuang Ching, Wong Ngan Ling & Maya Khemlani David
2015. The Perceived Value of Silence and Spoken Words in Malaysian Interactions.
SEARCH: The Journal of the South East Asia Research Centre for Communication and Humanities 7:1
Kidd, Jenny & Joanne Sayner
2019. Intersections of silence and empathy in heritage practice.
International Journal of Heritage Studies 25:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
King, Jim
2013. Silence in the Second Language Classrooms of Japanese Universities.
Applied Linguistics 34:3 ► pp. 325 ff.
King, Jim
2016.
In The Dynamic Interplay between Context and the Language Learner,
► pp. 127 ff.
King, Jim & Atsuko Aono
2017. Talk, silence and anxiety during one-to-one tutorials: A cross-cultural comparative study of Japan and UK undergraduates’ tolerance of silence.
Asia Pacific Education Review 18:4 ► pp. 489 ff.
Kurzon, Dennis
2015.
In Handbook of Pragmatics,
Kyppö, Anna, Teija Natri, Margarita Pietarinen & Pekka Saaristo
2015.
In Voices of pedagogical development – Expanding, enhancing and exploring higher education language learning,
► pp. 319 ff.
Le Pichon, Emmanuelle & Maretha de Jonge
2016. Linguistic and psychological perspectives on prolonged periods of silence in dual-language learners.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 19:4 ► pp. 426 ff.
Lin, Shumin
2018. To speak or not to speak in the new Taiwanese university: class participation and identity construction in linguistically and culturally diverse graduate classrooms.
Language and Intercultural Communication 18:2 ► pp. 184 ff.
Matei, Mădălina-Georgiana
2013. The Linguistic Mechanisms of Trauma Discourse.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 92 ► pp. 517 ff.
Moghaddam, Azadeh Sharifi, Golnaz Chavoshi & Vahideh Abolhasani Zadeh
2014. Eloquent Silence, a Pragmatic Concept in Persian Language.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 136 ► pp. 250 ff.
Nakane, Ikuko
2012.
In The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication,
► pp. 158 ff.
O’Connell, Daniel C. & Sabine Kowal
2012.
In Dialogical Genres,
► pp. 167 ff.
Perez, Isabelle
2016. Review of Mulayim, Lai & Norma (2015): Police investigative interviews and interpreting: Context, challenges, and strategies & Nakane (2014): Interpreter-mediated police interviews: A discourse pragmatic approach.
Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 18:1 ► pp. 127 ff.
Rober, Peter & Paul C. Rosenblatt
2017. Silence and Memories of War: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Family Secrecy.
Family Process 56:1 ► pp. 250 ff.
Ryan, Jonathon & Leslie Forrest
2021. ‘No chance to speak’: developing a pedagogical response to turn-taking problems.
Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 15:2 ► pp. 103 ff.
Sasaki, Yusuke & Evan Ortlieb
2017. Investigating why Japanese students remain silent in Australian university classrooms.
Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 27:1 ► pp. 85 ff.
Smith, Lesley & Jim King
2018.
In Emotions in Second Language Teaching,
► pp. 323 ff.
Takahashi, Junko
2019. East Asian and native-English-speaking students’ participation in the graduate-level American classroom.
Communication Education 68:2 ► pp. 215 ff.
Takeda, Atsushi
2021. Uncovering ethical concerns through reflexivity—ethics in practice in fieldwork.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology ► pp. 1 ff.
Tanaka, Hiromasa & Florin Nechita
2020. Social Cognition of Temporality and Environment: Lingua Franca
English Construction.
Business Communication Research and Practice 3:1 ► pp. 17 ff.
Tomita, Yasuyo & Nina Spada
2013. Form‐focused instruction and learner investment in L2 communication.
The Modern Language Journal 97:3 ► pp. 591 ff.
Wagner, Lauren
2015. Using Silence to “Pass”: Embodiment and Interactional Categorization in a Diasporic Context.
Multilingua 34:5
Wang, Anhui, Indika Liyanage & Tony Walker
2019.
In Multilingual Education Yearbook 2019 [Multilingual Education Yearbook, ],
► pp. 189 ff.
Wang, Sihui, Marta Moskal & Michele Schweisfurth
2020. The social practice of silence in intercultural classrooms at a UK university.
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education ► pp. 1 ff.
Wanphet, Phalangchok
2015. Emic approach to research on conversational gap in the foreign language classroom.
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 28:1 ► pp. 319 ff.
Yi, Joanne
2020. Reticence as participation: Discourses of resistance from Asians in America.
Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 42:2 ► pp. 120 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Communication Studies
BIC Subject: CFG – Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
BISAC Subject: LAN009000 – LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General