Silence in the Second Language Classroom

J. King

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781137301482
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Sprachen unterrichten

Why are second language learners in Japan's universities so silent? This book investigates the perplexing but intriguing phenomenon of classroom silence and draws on ideas from psychology, sociolinguistics and anthropology to offer a unique insight into the reasons why some learners are either unable or unwilling to speak in a foreign language.

1

Introduction

This book explores the silent behaviour of learners studying English within Japanese university second language (L2) classrooms. The verbal unresponsiveness of undergraduates in this setting has been alluded to in a number of past works (e.g. Anderson, 1993; Korst, 1997) and there is much anecdotal evidence of Japanese students’ propensity towards silence, and yet it seems strange that no major empirical research has been conducted positioning silence at the heart of its investigation whilst using Japanese tertiary education as its context. Why could this be? Perhaps it is because silence is a somewhat esoteric phenomenon that tends to exist on the edge of our consciousness. This lack of awareness, coupled to a relative scarcity of relevant literature dealing with the subject (when compared to spoken aspects of L2 learner discourse), means that silence simply does not seem to be on most educational researchers’ radar. This in itself is odd because it is an issue that affects everybody who teaches; whether silencing the boisterous or encouraging the silent to contribute – both are part of educators’ daily classroom realities. A further difficulty which might help to explain the lack of empirical studies in this area is that investigating silence presents a number of methodological challenges and interpretive conundrums that are not easily resolved. How can silence be effectively identified and measured within classrooms? How can accurate meanings be gleaned from something so multifaceted, ambiguous and highly dependent upon context for its significance? In answering these questions, the research presented here adopts a highly interdisciplinary perspective and draws upon multiple data types and sources in a bid to uncover the true complexity that lies beneath language learners’ classroom silences.

1.1 My L2 pedagogical beliefs and assumptions

As the mixed-methods study of silence presented in this monograph involves a substantial qualitative element, it would be appropriate here to outline some of my own biases and personal beliefs about language learning in order to enhance the reflexive nature of my research. This is in line with Cohen, Manion and Morrison’s (2007, p.172) conception that highly reflexive researchers are acutely aware of how their selectivity, perception and background help shape the research they conduct. It also acknowledges Dörnyei’s (2007) assertion that qualitative research entails a co-constructed product made up of both the researcher’s and the participants’ perceptions, and as such, should involve reflexive discussion of the researcher’s biases and assumptions.

While conceding that silence itself is certainly not an inherently negative phenomenon, indeed many is the time I have sought out its restorative or contemplative functions, I do believe that in the context of a foreign language classroom silence represents a significant threat to effective language learning when it is characterised by a lack of oral participation and verbal responsiveness on the part of students. Simply put, I believe that language learners have to communicate in order to acquire the target language they are studying. This position is partly informed by my many years of experience as a foreign language educator working in different countries around the world, but it is also a view well supported by what is a broad body of research into L2 learner interaction and output (e.g. de Bot, 1996; Ellis, 1999; Gass, 1997; Iwashita, 2003; Izumi, 2003; Mackey, 2002; Mackey, Gass & McDonough, 2000). Prominent within this canon is Swain’s (1995) seminal work on language learner output which posits that production of the target language has three main functions that are worth setting out in more detail. They are: the noticing/trigger function whereby learners are prompted to consciously recognise their linguistic problems; the hypothesis testing function which sees learners use output to test whether their utterance is communicated successfully or whether it results in negative feedback and hence requires further modified output; and the metalinguistic function whereby output allows for reflection about the language produced by the self and others, this being a particularly useful function when learners are engaged in collaborative tasks (see Swain & Lapkin, 1998). A closely related study also worth mentioning here is Long’s (1996) reworked version of the Interaction Hypothesis which suggests that conversational interaction promotes L2 development through the negotiation of meaning and ‘connects input, internal learner capacities, particularly selective attention and output in productive ways’ (pp. 451–2).

While it is true that not all classroom talk leads automatically to L2 development, few people would argue with the notion that opportunities for meaningful oral production in the target language do help students to achieve greater levels of spoken fluency. Through my own professional experiences I found this to be an issue particularly relevant to the Japanese L2 learning context. I spent a number of years as an English language lecturer within Japan’s tertiary system and this experience reinforced my conviction that a premium has to be placed on maximising students’ oral participation, particularly if their communicative competence (see Canale, 1983; Canale & Swain, 1980) is to be enhanced. While there were one or two notable exceptions, generally the undergraduates I encountered during my time in Japan possessed what could only be described as desultory L2 communication skills and appeared to have been very poorly served by a system of pre-tertiary foreign language education whose limited focus and restrictive practices neglected the development of the students’ practical language abilities. In my role as a teacher trainer of Japanese teachers of English (JTEs), I was able to see at first hand how entrenched traditional grammar-translation instructional methods were amongst staff working in junior and senior high schools. Encouraging students to communicate in the target language simply was not a priority for these teachers. Although enthusiastic to learn about new task-based and communicative approaches to language learning, in private many JTEs freely admitted that pressure to achieve high examination scores, coupled to demands from senior staff to follow established institutional precedents and concerns about effectively managing learners’ classroom behaviour, precluded them from ever being able to implement the communicative techniques they had learnt. The pedagogical position I endorsed on these courses acknowledged the importance of adopting a methodology appropriate to the social context (Holliday, 1994). This position is perhaps best summed up by Fotos (2005) when she points towards:

an eclectic combination of methods and activities, with grammar, vocabulary, and translation activities retained and communicative activities added that contain abundant uses of target language structures and vocabulary, thus permitting exposure to target structures and providing opportunities for negotiated output in the target language. (p. 668)

I would further contend that classrooms which emphasise maximum cooperation between participants tend to be the ones in which successful learning is facilitated. While this applies to most learning contexts, I feel it is particularly relevant to university settings where learners ought to have reached a relative level of maturity. Cooperative learning in an L2 learning context (see Dörnyei, 1997; McCafferty, Jacobs & DaSilva Iddings, 2006; Oxford, 1997) can only take place when students engage in active, collaborative oral participation both with each other and with their instructor. This follows the belief by Johnson and Johnson (cited in Ehrman & Dörnyei, 1998) that, in addition to other factors, effective cooperation requires students to: ask for opinions; ask for help/clarification; justify their opinions; give full explanations; negotiate ideas; manage conflicts through discussion; encourage active participation by all; and give constructive feedback and criticism. Clearly these behaviours require overt verbalisation (whether in the students’ own language or in the L2) and consequently learner silence is something which threatens the effective functioning of cooperation within a classroom.

I should note here that, in a bid to avoid influencing subject behaviour, throughout the various phases of data collection for this book I was careful not to reveal any of my pedagogical beliefs to those participating in the research. In interactions with the instructors whose classes I observed, I studiously avoided voicing support for any of the L2 instructional paradigms outlined above and was also meticulous in circumventing requests to provide feedback on the lessons I observed – at least until after data collection was completed. With the learners who participated in the study’s various interviews, I endeavoured to maintain a strictly non-judgmental stance towards learner silence and reticence within L2 learning situations. Criticising such behaviour would not only have been detrimental to the interviewer–interviewee rapport I was keen to establish, it would most likely have resulted in the collection of rather limited and unreliable testimony.

My professional experiences in Japan proved to be not the only catalyst which stimulated a long-term academic interest in silence within social interactions. In my non-professional identity as a long-term resident of the country and keen student of the Japanese language who interacted with locals on a daily basis, I gradually became aware of what appeared to be a quite different disposition towards silence within interpersonal interactions than I had encountered previously. In naturalistic contexts it seemed that knowing when not to speak, and the ability to tolerate and interpret silence, particularly in more formal settings, were skills perhaps even more vital to successful interaction than being able to discourse on any given topic at length. This crystallising emic perception of appropriate Japanese paralinguistic behaviour proved important, as it enabled me to begin to view the verbal unresponsiveness of the L2 learners I was encountering in my professional life in a changed and slightly more sympathetic light.

1.2 The theoretical approach of this book

I have adopted an intentionally varied conceptual approach in this book in order to provide a thorough, yet cohesive examination of the wide-ranging and sometimes perplexing issue of silence. Helping to draw these interdisciplinary arguments together, I interpret the results of my research through the lens of dynamic systems theory (DST). At first glance DST can seem quite a daunting prospect for those who are new to the approach – it emanates from the hard sciences and is well known for having some rather difficult mathematics associated with it. However, the basic premise of the theory is really quite simple. Complex systems, which in the case of research on classroom silence might include, for example, an individual’s classroom discourse system, have numerous interrelated and interacting components which work together to influence both directly and indirectly how the system develops. This means that it makes more sense to view a learner’s oral behaviour as being shaped by multiple, connected factors whose influences wax and wane over time, than to explain the behaviour as being the result of a single variable.

A DST approach is very useful for silence researchers because it offers great flexibility. It provides an over-arching conceptual framework through which to view entrenched silent behaviour at individual, classroom, institutional and societal levels, whilst at the same time not precluding the use of other theoretical approaches to explain specific silence episodes. Silence is such an inherently ambiguous and varied phenomenon that its study necessitates the flexible, interdisciplinary approach which DST allows. Complementing the DST-orientated discussion with which I present my various research findings, in Chapter 5 I provide a more in-depth overview of the theory and introduce some key DST concepts and terminology relevant to the project.

1.3 The structure of this book

This book is organised in such a way as to provide an in-depth and inter-connecting critical exploration of the silence which exists in the L2 classrooms of Japanese universities. Following on from this introductory chapter, Chapters 2 to 4 provide an overview of the various theoretical frameworks through which silence may be studied and also place the current research firmly within its Japanese context. The subsequent three chapters are presented as stand-alone studies. This approach makes a good deal of sense because each chapter employs a different primary research methodology, and when viewed in sequence they combine to form a natural progression from the general to the specific. In other words, the book progresses from research identifying general trends of silence within language classrooms, and then moves on to an individual-level analysis of students’ fundamental beliefs about oral participation and classroom silence, and concludes with a detailed examination of learners’ perceptions of event-specific silent episodes which occurred during their L2 lessons. This organisation provides the maximum coherence for what was an extensive multi-site, mixed-methods research project. In the following, I offer a more detailed outline of each chapter’s contents.

Providing an overview of major studies which have to date sought to define and interpret the phenomenon of silence, Chapter 2 outlines a number of quite different conceptual frameworks dealing with people’s silent behaviour. These works emanate from a range of academic fields and are intentionally eclectic in nature. This eclecticism is firstly a matter of necessity, due to the severe paucity of empirical research studies which place language learner silence at their heart, but more importantly, and as Jaworski (1997) rightly reminds us, silence is such a broad and diverse concept that only an interdisciplinary approach to its study can really do it justice. Hence the chapter draws from such varied disciplines as pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psychology, anthropology, educational theory, and conversation analysis, in an attempt to gain insights into the conundrum that is silence. One important theme to emerge here is that silence does not necessarily equate to a breakdown in communication. In a functional sense it may overlap with speech and, although sometimes misinterpreted (particularly in intercultural contexts), silence is often employed to convey a message. Another significant theme discussed in the chapter relates to the psychological and emotional aspects of a person’s silent behaviour. That silence may reflect one’s psychological inhibitions, and that it can be used as a very effective tool for emotional defence, are both concepts which become evident not just in this initial literature review chapter, but also throughout the book. A final fundamental idea to emerge in this section, supported in particular by insights gained from the ethnographic-orientated studies which I examine, is the merit of studying silence within a specific cultural context. As people’s reactions to, and interpretations of, silence may vary significantly between cultures, it becomes vitally important to have a clear understanding of the relative value that particular speech communities place on silence in comparison to speech.

Chapter 3 seeks to extend the idea that valuable insights may be gained through a culture-specific study of silence by exploring how it is perceived and utilised within a Japanese sociocultural context. This wide-ranging and, once again, highly interdisciplinary chapter adopts a wide definition of silence (ranging from the micro-silence of pauses, through to the macro-silence of minimal verbalisation by a discourse community) in order to delve to the very roots of Japanese silent behaviour. I discuss how silence appears to be positively construed in many contexts, and how cultural concepts relating to hierarchical social relationships and the importance of group membership both provide helpful background knowledge for researchers hoping to understand Japanese silence more fully. After reflecting on how deep-seated cultural attitudes towards speech and silence are reflected in Japan’s proverbs, poetry and literature, the chapter goes on to examine the assertion that the Japanese may in fact be socialised into a kind of silent, highly inferential communication style by specific child-rearing practices which tend to avoid overt verbalisation. I also consider the argument that Japanese children are encouraged from an early age to be sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of those around them, and that this sensitivity may eventually transmute into an ego-centric concern for how the self is presented which is manifested by a chronic silence-inducing inhibition that is especially evident within classroom situations. Linked to this is the idea that the avoidance of talk is an effective method of protecting one’s own and others’ face – this being an endeavour that is particularly important within Japanese society. I therefore draw on the work of researchers such as Sifianou (1997) to outline the various ways in which silence may be employed as a politeness strategy, before reflecting on the possible uses of silence by Japanese learners as a means of face protection. Chapter 3 concludes with an examination of silence from a linguistic perspective, and considers how cross-cultural differences in turn-taking styles may result in Japanese learners’ prolonged pauses being misinterpreted during educational interactions.

I have to admit to being intrigued by language learners who, even though they possess the requisite L2 skills for oral communication in the target language, persist in remaining silent in class. Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that for many Japanese students, their lack of talk has little to do with choosing to be silent but is primarily a consequence of significant deficiencies in their L2 abilities. With this in mind, Chapter 4 provides a wide-ranging critical analysis of how Japan’s foreign language education system has persistently struggled to produce competent L2 users, despite the fact that English forms a compulsory component of every child’s pre-tertiary education. Various top-down curricular reforms have been introduced over the years aimed at improving the situation, but these have proved to be poorly planned and ineffective, doing little to improve the nation’s disappointing practical language skills. Part of the problem appears to be that the system places far too much emphasis on achieving high scores in university entrance examinations at the expense of developing students’ basic L2 communicative competencies. I therefore provide a detailed overview of Japan’s university entrance examinations and consider how these high-stakes tests may be related to the silence of its second language learners. Building upon this theme, the chapter subsequently addresses the issue of yakudoku, a common and deeply entrenched traditional pedagogical approach to L2 learning which appears to effectively silence learners whilst at the same time allowing instructors to avoid actually ever having to converse in the target language. One would think that the thousands of native speaker assistant language teachers (ALTs) who have historically been employed in Japan’s schools would provide the perfect antidote to such an unproductive state of affairs. However, as we shall see in Chapter 4, for various reasons these generally inexperienced instructors have achieved relatively little success in helping learners improve their L2 communicative skills.

While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence concerning the taciturnity of Japanese language learners, large-scale, empirical studies aimed at measuring the extent of macro-level silence within Japanese university L2 classrooms are notably lacking. Chapter 5 responds to the gap in the literature by reporting on an extensive, multi-site study using a structured observation methodology to investigate the classroom behaviour of over 900 language learners across nine universities. In order to do this effectively, a classroom observation instrument called the Classroom Oral Participation Scheme (COPS) was specially developed for the task. Based on the in-time coding design of Spada and Fröhlich’s (1995) Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching scheme (COLT) and the content categories of Moskowitz’s (1971) Foreign Language interaction analysis system (FLint), the COPS provides a novel means of recording classroom events in real time, with an emphasis on the scrutiny of learners’ oral production. Chapter 5 describes the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Major theoretical frameworks of silence
• 3 An interdisciplinary overview of silence in Japan
• 4 A critical analysis of Japan’s language education system
• 5 A structured observation study into L2 classroom silence
• 6 An interview study into learners’ perspectives on L2 classroom silence
• 7 A naturalistic stimulated recall study of specific silence events
• 8 Summary and conclusions
• References
• Glossary of selected Japanese terms
• Appendix 1: The COPS observation scheme
• Appendix 2: The SOPIG interview guide
• Appendix 3: The stimulated recall protocol
• Author Index
• Subject Index