LINGUIST List 15.1290

Fri Apr 23 2004

Diss: Applied Ling: Nakane: 'Silence...'

Editor for this issue: Takako Matsui <takolinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. i.nakane, Silence in Japanese-Australian Classroom Interaction

Institution: University of Sydney
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2003

Author: Ikuko Nakane

Dissertation Title: Silence in Japanese-Australian Classroom
Interaction: perceptions and performance

Linguistic Field: Applied Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics 

Dissertation Director 1: Ingrid Piller
Dissertation Director 2: Jane Simpson
Dissertation Director 3: Barbara Mullock

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis examines silence as attributed to and performed by
Japanese students in Australian university classrooms. It attempts to
elucidate processes in which silence can be used and created in
intercultural communication in the classroom. The data, which was
collected in Australia and Japan, include interviews, a questionnaire
and survey data, classroom observation and video-recorded classroom
interactions. There are three case studies which make up a substantial
part of the thesis and provide detailed analyses of classroom
interactions. The analysis draws on the frameworks of the ethnography
of communication and conversation analysis. Micro- and macro-
perspectives are combined to investigate how perceptions and
performances interact to construct silence in the cross-cultural
encounters in these classrooms. The findings are integrated into a
model of silence in Japanese-Australian classroom interaction, which
takes into account psychological, linguistic and cognitive factors on
three levels of social organisation: individual, interactive and
sociocultural.