English Language Teaching Educational Journal (ELTEJ)
Vol. 3, No. 1, 2020, pp. 1-13
E-ISSN: 2621-6485
Exploring How Silence Communicates
Dat Bao
Monash University, Australia
dat.bao@monash.edu
Abstract
This article argues that silence as a communication can be academically practised in the classroom as
much as talk, simply because talk and silence are both essential components of everyday interaction
(Nakane, 2012). These two constructs are interdependent in the sense that one would not exist without the
other. Silence can be practised in two different ways: one is to employ it as a mental processing process in
learning; two is to observe and discuss how silence is used in communication. The article begins by
sharing the literature review on how silence works in education, how t deserves a place in SLS
theorisation, and how it constitutes communication competence. Secondly, it highlights classroom tasks
that trigger silent processing and explain why this is the case. Thirdly, the discussion recommends an
activity which addresses the value of silence, which was developed by the author through research and
experience. Finally, there are recommendations for task design in which similar activity types are
introduced to assist the learning of reflective students.
Keywords: silence, talk, mental processing, inner speech, private speech
How to Cite: Bao, D. (2020). Exploring how silence communicates. English Language Teaching
Educational Journal, 3(1), 1-13.
INTRODUCTION
The duality of speech and silence in communication deserve more attention in
academic discourse. Language teaching is not always about talk. In the real world, effective
communication is both about speech and silence. Sometimes, we express ourselves through
words but at other times, we speak better without them. For example, when a friend is
internalising from the loss of a loved relative at a funeral, quiet sympathy would be
essential unless one finds helpful words to say and locates the right moment. Because of
this duality in the nature interaction, it is absurd to only rely on what we hear to make sense
of the world, but there is the need to rely on feeling, observation, understanding,
knowledge, empathy, and other non-verbal clues such as eye contacts, gestures, movement,
tone, posture, and artefacts. In a word, while speaking out fluently is an essential ability;
employing silence productively represents another major capability as well (Bao, 2014).
The discourse on how silence works
responses seem to denote the same attitude, that they do not agree. As Zembylas &
cannot. suggests that while talk might dominate as an utterance system, silence can operate
as a productive system of its own. In many cases, it is the structure of silence among talk
intervals that help enhance articulation quality. Because of this, in reviewing silence, it
would be unreasonable to remove talk from the background of the discussion, simply
because without the presence of talk, one cannot recognise how silence really occurs. This
r
justification when a decision on participating modes is made. Based on this,
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recommendations are offered to task design. Being able to comprehend the rationale behind
gths.
To understand classroom silence is one step forward in uncovering the learning
experience but also on the foundation of research, without which we might, in the words of
Although the current discourse has expressed appreciation for the silent mode of learning
to be either silent
-verbal
behaviour as tactically influenced by task characteristics. This article responds to this gap
through an empirical project that sheds light on the relationship between the nature of the
In search of silence in SLA theories
Silence is an under-explored theme in the mainstream literature on second language
acquisition and on the methodology of teaching a second language (Bao, 2019). Silence is a
hard topic to deal with when it comes to empirical research, simply because when learners
talk, the research can record data for analysis, yet when learners are speechless, data hardly
exist for one to collect and read. In fact, the association between words and silence have
historically divided Eastern and Western social, educational, and academic attitudes over
the past century toward which one is the more cherished mode of communication
(Zembylas, 2008; Belanoff, 2001). While in some non-Western cultures, silence may be
required to express a role or a voice, in many Western contexts, the obsession with words
sometimes causes one to be intolerant toward silence and view the wordless person as
subo
Believe it or not, more research on silence has come from other disciplines including
psychology and sociology than research in second language acquisition. Although the
discourse has embraced rich discussion on the silent period (Krashen, 1985), the inner-
speech stage (Vygotsky, 1986), internalisation (Winegar, 1997), private speech (Saville-
2006). Given all the subtleties and complexities of human talk that makes it hard to research
on talk (Edwards & Westgate, 1987), research on silence is many times more difficult as
there is virtually no scientific method to transcribe silence.
As a constantly evolving discipline in the fields of linguistics and psycholinguistics,
second language acquisition was initially concerned with cognition and over the years has
moved to exploring affect (Chambers, 2007) as well as other areas in language
development. Despite such dynamics, the role of silence in L2 education has been treated
with great caution and, as far as research findings are concerned, has hardly been connected
to learning abilities in optimistic ways. Scholarly research during the 1960s and 1970s
pointed out that children who remain reticent in class were often perceived as socially and
intellectually incompetent (Gordon & Thomas, 1967) as they make poorer school progress
than their peers (Feshback et al., 1974; Stevenson et al., 1976; Colligan, 1979). In fact,
silence in SLA discourse until the 1980s was mentioned as resistance to speech (Harder,
1980), difficulty in performance, and lack of comprehension (Dulay et al., 1982; Gibbons,
1985). While acknowledging silence as the initial stage of language study, SLA scholarly
research until recently remains uncertain about how to proceed to address the continuing
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3
- a term which indicates the end of silent film era and
which is mentioned to criticise how excessive talk can weaken the subtlety of
communicative silence. Although this debate in the movie industry seems irrelevant to
language learning, it reminds us that silence should be seen more than just a period when
we were hopeless due to the inability to produce speech and that silence continues to play a
significant role in L2 development. In fact, SLA shows less interest in private speech than
overt production (Saville-
Silence as communicative competence
It is important to note that silence, historically, has an integral role in communicative
competence ever since the 1960s. According to Hymes (1967; 1972), language competence
comprises three elements: knowledge, ability and actual use. Although silence may allow
space for the construction of knowledge and ability, it may not show evidence of the actual
use of language. The gap between silence and actual verbal communication, however, is not
always clear-cut due to the existence of private speech and internalisation. Private speech
can happen in silence, through whispering to oneself or others, or in spoken and written
-regulatory nature
(John-
social interaction and therefore it is hard to say that silence is far removed from verbal
communication. Instead, the internal world and the social world can be quietly negotiated in
1997), has the potential to become useful in future communication.
Although it is commonly acknowledged that silence plays a role in monitoring
language, it remains a mystery how exactly that role can help develop communication
strategies. Strategic competence is the ability to make conversational plans and compensate
for difficulties in verbal communication (Canale & Swan, 1980). Even though one can
communication, and engaging in self-directed speech, the development of such competence
needs to be negotiated within the framework of language use (Bachman & Palmer, 1996).
So far, the relationship between silent observation and strategy development has rarely been
a concern in second language acquisition research.
Oxford (2001) argues that there is a connection between learning and social skills:
those who are good at social communication strategies often tend to be good at language
learning strategies. Based on this understanding, if silent learners develop effective ways to
learn L2, they have potential to develop social skills. These abilities, which Celce-Murcia et
al. (1995) refer to as interactional competence, requires practical actions such as managing
social introduction, turn-taking, initiation of talk, closing conversation, changing topics,
interrupting, recognising the difference between L1 and L2 social norms, and so on.
Someone who remains silent from such practice may experience difficulty in
communication.
One may need to keep in mind that silence, in a similar vein to talk, is not context-
free. If talk has to be socioculturally appropriate depending on who, where, when, what role
and what content, silence as part of language also shares similar needs in order for one to be
welcome, accepted, valued and understood rather than to cause confusion and
misinterpretation. Celce-Murcia et al. (1995) maintain that social competence includes
factors such as power, politeness, and cultural awareness. Arguably, if these elements play a
role in how one communicates through talk, they also must play a role in how one
appropriately keeps silent. In other words, to keep silent cannot be a decision made by the
silent language user alone but is contingent upon social situations. In the context of the
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classroom where the regulation to moderate between silence and talk is negotiated and co-
decided by both the teachers and students, silence needs to take place within the expectation
of the class society rather than occur accidentally.
On an additio
research on silence beyond a face-to-face learning mode, that is, online silence. Nowadays
take on a digital connotation. Likewise, the concept silence has altered its meaning as the
nature of communication in the digital age constantly changes. As much as the concepts of
social presence and social interaction have been modified (Gunawardena et al., 2001; Leh,
2001), silence can also refer to the state of being quiet from writing rather than from talking
(Zembylas & Vrasidas, 2007). When someone is not making written comments during
engagement with online discussion, the person is considered as keeping quiet. Silence in
this sense indicates social and psychological distance between humans, that is, the lack of
attentiveness, engagement, responsiveness, and participation. The need to understand the
nature of and reasons for such types of silence should be studied alongside the need to
improve online learning and communication.
RESEARCH METHOD
This article itself is not a research study, but it follows up on two empirical projects
conducted by the authors. The former took place during 2009 - 2013 (Bao, 2014) and the
latter happened during 2018 2019 (Bao, 2014). Both of the studies have been
systematically reported in academic publications. The first project was a qualitative,
phenomenological study in which Bao (2014) interviewed 100 participants for two years to
find out how these learners developed their language proficiency through silence. It was
SLA discourse (Bao, 2019). The second project is also a qualitative, phenomenological
study in which 10 East-Asian participants were interviewed about how they responded to
classroom tasks through the use of both silence and talk, with analysis related to when
silence and talk occur respectively.
The article, which is a follow-up on the above projects, responds to the appeal for
knowledge about silence to be pushed further and becomes classroom pedagogy. The article
focuses on a new activity, whose type is extremely rare in English language education. The
activity, agai
above, about the use and value of the silent learning style in second language acquisition. In
particular, two important research findings lay the foundation for the activity propose in this
article. One is the need for silence to enter into task design; and two is the need to
understand task types which allow for silent processing of information. These needs, which
come from research effort, are explained in the subsequent section.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The first finding, which comes from the project conducted by Bao (2014), concluded
that silence needs to be incorporated in classroom tasks. Without this awareness and
practice, communication would be unreal. Teachers would continue to pretend that talk
articulate would demonstrate better academic skills than those who speak sparingly. For this
ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485
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5
enthusiasm would seem to be an inadequate approach to educational practice. Even when
we become aware of this reality, to be able to comprehend how students learn effectively in
silence remains a challenging task.
The second finding, which arrives from an empirical study by Bao (2020), highlights
that a number of classroom tasks actually trigger silent learning and intense mental
processing, a reality that many teachers are unaware of. Collecting narrative data from 10
East-Asian students in Australia, Bao was discovered that there are certain types of
classrooms that actually require more silent processing than spontaneous talk; and if the
teacher unknowing stress students out to come up with immediate responses, that pedagogy
would ruin the discussion, risking low understanding of the learning process and risking
poor quality contribution from students. Such tasks would offer personal space and wait
time, not requiring peer interaction, challenging the mind, inviting personal reflection,
asking for a written response, and organising cognitive processing of rules or methods.
They encourage students to work alone and produce output such as a written summary, an
idea, an account of experience, and solutions to problems.
Of course, there are tasks that would that elicit verbalisation right away. They
include, for example, fluency tasks (which involve spontaneous responses for verbal skills
development), exploratory tasks (which involve peer discussion), communication and
feedback tasks (which involve mutual support), collaborative projects (such as producing a
poster, a video clip, or a summary), post-tasks (which follow up a main task for sharing
further thoughts), and game-like tasks (which encourage teamwork, competition, and
enjoyment). The common characteristic of these activities is that they involve collaborating
with classmates rather than functioning alone, with clear emphasis on fluency, rehearsal,
communication, collaboration, and sharing. They prompt talk by requiring quick,
spontaneous answers or reactions, which focus on the process rather than outcome and are
often not of a cognitively demanding type. Arguably, tasks that go well with their
knowledge and experience will give them the confidence to speak out more; and tasks of an
informal nature that require no right or wrong answer also make students feel relaxed
enough to participate.
The proposed activity
This section, which is the main part of the article, proposes a classroom activity in
which silence is used as a discussion topic. In addition, silence is also employed as part of
the learning process whereby learners watch a video clip from a movie, reflect on the
content, take notes, and later on join a verbal discussion if they wish. Observing and
listening to silence attentively is an important skill in communication. This is an activity
which the author designed and implemented for the first time in 2020 at Monash University.
The task has four steps: experience sharing, observation, reflection and discussion, as will
be elaborated below.
Sharing your experience
Think about moments of tension or conflict in your life. When was the last time you
experience such a moment? Where? In what situation? With who? How long did tension
last? How was it resolved?
Ex. You are waiting for someone or some news anxiously, not knowing when or even
if at all that person/news will arrive.
Ex. You are struggling to express yourself in a specific situation and not sure if you
should speak out or keep quiet. You want a promotion; someone bullies you, etc.
Share that with the person next to you.
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In that experience, which tool seemed work for you: talk to explain, or silence to let
things work.
Observe a movie scene
Watch this movie scene, as in the link below, to see an interesting example of the
above. Please also refer to the Appendix at the end of this article to form an idea of what the
conversation in the movie scene is about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hvc1Ae-YCU
You will notice that the first half of this scene is filled with words: you need to listen.
The second half take place almost without words: you need to observe.
Discussion questions
1. Which detail in this scene is your favourite moment?
weapon?
3. Suppose you are to add more dialogues into this scene, what you would add?
Would those make this scene better?
4. How would you comment on the use of words and that of silence?
5. What elements helps build tension and climax?
6. In your view, what content carries the most weigh in this scene?
(ex. honour, manhood, sacrifice, respect, hypocrisy, tyranny, resolution, etc.)
7. In your imagination, how would Hollywood movie depict this scene differently?
(ex. Consider gymnastics, clashes of words, dramatic dialogues, ways of telling
the story, camera work, expression of emotion, etc.)
can remake of Zatoichi
Challenged to see a different interpretation of the scene.
Productive follow-up
Some people feel that the best part about the last scene is not words: it is the frugality
of them. Do you have a moment in your life which points to the same value where not
talking out at the moment seems to be the best thing to practise? For example, one of my
friends suffered from the loss of someone he loved. To comfort him I said very little but
stay with him in silence to show that I was there for him, understood what he was going
through, and share the pain with him by not verbally disturbing too much.
Would you like to write a comment, share a life anecdote, or create a poem about this
scene or even part of it?
Here is an example:
Like paper lanterns
flowing down the river
The souls of two warriors
torn apart in the winter
Steel and snow, cold.
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Recommendations for task design
Task developers might consider providing explicit suggestions for silent processing,
verbal responses, or self-talk when necessary. One example provided by Wilkinson and
Olliver-Gray (2006) is an instruction that guides students to write down how they feel
during exam time and then compare their responses with peers. Stickler, Batstone, Duensing
and Heins (2007) suggest that task designers can specify which part of a task does not
involve speaking; and can allocate specific moments when students are expected to reflect
or silently type their thoughts. Such instructions show the evidence that materials
developers can consider including learning strategies to assist students in coping with the
learning process.
need to keep silent to ensure that the shared space is observed and respected. It is noted that
experienced teachers tend to use silence in their pedagogy more than novice teachers
(Vassilopoulos & Konstantinidis, 2012). Silence may not benefit learning unless teachers
can monitor the ways in which learning takes place before, during, and after the productive
silent moment. This requires thoughtful task design, clear expectation, and a well-planned
management procedure. Such a procedure includes explicit instruction, appropriate wait
time, timely support, relevant follow-up strategies, and effective assessment policy. All
these strategies should be included in task design with guidance for teachers to use the
material.
The challenge of the pedagogy above is that silence, unfortunately, might not be
equally favoured by all members in a learning community depending on who shares the
learning environment and its broader social norms. It is therefore important for teachers to
handle such diverse preferences, with clear expectations when conducting multiple sub-
tasks that allow various learning modes to come into play.
Similar activity design for reflective learners
Of course, the task introduced in this article is not the only one of its kind. Below are
some of my suggestions for working with both highly articulate and less verbal students in
the English classroom:
Asking students yes/no and either/or questions and accept brief responses
Giving students the opportunity to participate in whole class activities whereby
everyone takes note from both conversation and observation
Using artefacts or props such as video clips, pictures and realia to encourage
thinking and questions
Having small groups of students present new vocabulary to the class by using
pictures
Providing listening activities and reflection time before verbal response
Creating tasks that involve prediction, such as showing a picture and asking wait
happens next, telling a story and pausing for guessing the continuation, and so on.
These tasks allow for thoughtful responses and high-quality discussion.
Supporting learning with graphic organizers, charts and graphs as frames to
scaffold writing.
Creating tasks that require memorisation, such as showing a detailed picture and
having students report what they remember.
Classroom tasks sometimes exhibit a stimulating qua
thinking. At other times, they might have a routine and humdrum characteristic. When
learners are inspired, some mind find themselves spending more time in silent thinking;
while others may prefer to speak out more with others.
into the occasional verbal articulation. For example, some reflective students prefer to
8 E-ISSN: 2621-6485
quietly work on a written task, while other reflective counterparts might switch learning
modes and share their thought with peers, especially when the task seems to require some
exchange of ideas. Some learners experience such moments of adjusting their participation
mode. Empirical research has found that peer influence is a factor which governs how much
a learner is willing to participate in classroom discussion (see, for example, Bao, 2014).
However, findings from various case studies are often so diverse that they show no
consistent formula with regards to what personality leads to talk and silence respectively.
You might wish to reflect on your individual inclination in working with peers. To some
Recommendations for task design
Task developers might consider providing explicit suggestions for silent processing,
verbal responses, or self-talk when necessary. One example provided by Wilkinson and
Olliver-Gray (2006) is an instruction that guides students to write down how they feel
during exam time and then compare their responses with peers. Stickler, Batstone, Duensing
and Heins (2007) suggest that task designers can specify which part of a task does not
involve speaking; and can allocate specific moments when students are expected to reflect
or silently type their thoughts. Such instructions show the evidence that materials
developers can consider including learning strategies to assist students in coping with the
learning process.
Sometimes, to avoid disruptin
need to keep silent to ensure that the shared space is observed and respected. It is noted that
experienced teachers tend to use silence in their pedagogy more than novice teachers
(Vassilopoulos & Konstantinidis, 2012). Silence may not benefit learning unless teachers
can monitor the ways in which learning takes place before, during, and after the productive
silent moment. This requires thoughtful task design, clear expectation, and a well-planned
management procedure. Such a procedure includes explicit instruction, appropriate wait
time, timely support, relevant follow-up strategies, and effective assessment policy. All
these strategies should be included in task design with guidance for teachers to use the
material.
The challenge of the pedagogy above is that silence, unfortunately, might not be
equally favoured by all members in a learning community depending on who shares the
learning environment and its broader social norms. It is therefore important for teachers to
handle such diverse preferences, with clear expectations when conducting multiple sub-
tasks that allow various learning modes to come into play.
Similar activity design for reflective learners
Of course, the task introduced in this article is not the only one of its kind. Below
are some of my suggestions for working with both highly articulate and less verbal students
in the English classroom:
Asking students yes/no and either/or questions and accept brief responses
Giving students the opportunity to participate in whole class activities whereby
everyone takes note from both conversation and observation
Using artefacts or props such as video clips, pictures and realia to encourage
thinking and questions
ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485
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9
Having small groups of students present new vocabulary to the class by using
pictures
Providing listening activities and reflection time before verbal response
Creating tasks that involve prediction, such as showing a picture and asking wait
happens next, telling a story and pausing for guessing the continuation, and so on.
These tasks allow for thoughtful responses and high-quality discussion.
Supporting learning with graphic organizers, charts and graphs as frames to scaffold
writing.
Creating tasks that require memorisation, such as showing a detailed picture and
having students report what they remember.
thinking. At other times, they might have a routine and humdrum characteristic. When
learners are inspired, some mind find themselves spending more time in silent thinking;
while others may prefer to speak out more with others.
develop into the occasional verbal articulation. For example, some reflective students prefer
to quietly work on a written task, while other reflective counterparts might switch learning
modes and share their thought with peers, especially when the task seems to require some
exchange of ideas. Some learners experience such moments of adjusting their participation
mode. Empirical research has found that peer influence is a factor which governs how much
a learner is willing to participate in classroom discussion (see, for example, Bao, 2014).
However, findings from various case studies are often so diverse that they show no
consistent formula with regards to what personality leads to talk and silence respectively.
You might wish to reflect on your individual inclination in working with peers. To some
extent, learne
CONCLUSION
can train you to become more confident at speaking in
inferred from this exchange, since different individuals have their own prioritised ways of
learning best, it is hard to assume everyone would benefit from learning in the same
manner. In many cases, not talking in class may not denote low confidence but could mean
one simply feels confident enough to contemplate a less assertive disposition.
Teachers need to be unbiased about the various ways in which students respond to the
demand of a task and should not hold on to any pre-determined expectations, such as
supportive attitudes, and innovative pedagogical strategies that would improve task design
by allowing both mental and verbal rehearsal to reach its optimum. Although many
communicative tasks might expect learners to switch to an impulsive learning mode, during
the actual classroom process, some learners might choose to handle them in a more
reflective manner. This is because some might need more self-monitoring time than others
before verbal exchange can take place. When this happens, the quality of classroom tasks
should not be measured by how much speaking occurs but by the depth of learner
engagement.
Silence as mental rehearsal provides conditions for self-directed learning which may
be either connected to or independent from the teaching. Pedagogy founded on a profound
understanding of productive silence can liberate learners from the constraint of having to
10 E-ISSN: 2621-6485
produce impulsive, low-quality participation. Silence needs to be managed with acute
awareness of why, how, when and how long a student needs it to support their own learning
and when the verbal mode of learning should take over. Obligatory talk can be frustrating
when learners are required to publicise their half-baked thoughts when they are unprepared
to do so. Silence training should be organised to include reflectivity, concentration, outcome
and avoidance of idle, unproductive momentsthe same way as talk that needs to be
directed to enhance learning rather than become mere social time in the classroom. The
structure of learning might fundamentally change when this knowledge is applied so that
learners can employ both silence and talk as learning tools in conscious, informed ways.
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Appendix: Transcript from the video clip
The following script, which was documented by the author, is for the teacher to use as a
way of keeping track what is said in the movie, if you would lie to try out the activity
items A, B, C and D, can be printed out as handouts for your
students to use. If you have feedback from the implementation, please email it to
<dat.bao@monash.edu> for further conversation.
Dialogue from the last scene of Zatoichi Challenged (1967)
座頭市血煙り街道 17th episode of 26
Akatsuka: Ichi
Ichi: Master Akatsuka. Is there something I can do for you?
Akatsuka: I want you to hand Shokichi over to me
Ichi: I beg your pardon?
Akatsuka: Just hand him over
all of a sudden?
(turning to Shokichi) Shokichi, do you have some history with this samurai?
Akatsuka: (silent)
, how do you expect me to comply?
Ichi: (silent) Have you gone mad?
official business. I would have killed Gonzo as well, but you saved me the trouble. Perhaps
now you can understand my position.
crime was being forced by Gonzo to -
the forbidden items. It was his
misfortune to have been born with such a gift.
-
Akatsuka: My orders are to destroy all traces of the plot, whether man or object, to prevent
it from becoming a scandal.
ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485
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13
their first chance to live happy as a family. Please just look the other way and let them go.
Please have mercy on them.
Akatsuka: The law has no mercy. If you refuse to turn him over, I will have to kill you as
well.
Omitsu: (down on her knees bowing) Please let Shokichi go. For the sake of the child, I beg
you.
Shikochi:
Ichi: (throwing Shikochi to the ground) Shikochi stay with me.
Akatsuka: Ichi!
what
you do to people.
Akatsuka: (angrily) Step aside.
Akatsuka: (more angrily) Step aside.
Ichi: (long pause) (slowly with emphasis) You have to take Shokichi over my deadbody.
(Fighting scene)
A servant (running in from a distance): Master Akatsuka!
(Ichi killed the man)
(Ichi and Akatsuka wrestled, then stopped in long silence)
Akatsuka: Ichi (long pause), you win.
(Long silence Akatsuka put his sword back into his sheath/scabbard and walked away.
Tension eases; mood changes)
End of scene
