This presentation aims to contribute to the overall understanding of the importance of a new framework for interpreting acts of silence in classroom interaction. Utilizing the framework based on the theory of "pragmatic acts" (Mey, 2001) and "common ground" (Clark, 1996), the ambiguous and dynamic meaning of silence can be fully described. A close look at an sample example reveals different interpretations of silence from the perspectives of teachers and students.
This presentation aims to contribute to the overall understanding of the importance of a new framework for interpreting acts of silence in classroom interaction. Silence communicates something meaningful in classroom interaction. While it is often observed in conversation that it is difficult to judge functions and actors of silence, previous studies have tried to identify silence with a focus on either side of the participants (i.e. "teacher" or "student" / "majority" or "minority"). In order to identify silence fully, I present a theoretical framework for interpreting silence, based on the theory of "pragmatic acts" (Mey, 2001) and "common ground" (Clark, 1996). Pragmatic acts, which focus on "the entire environment in which both speaker and hearer find their affordances" (Mey, 2001, p. 221), are situated acts on common ground, which is defined as "sum of all the information that people share" (Clark, 2009, p. 116). Utilizing the new framework, the ambiguous and dynamic meaning of silence can be fully described. A close look at an sample example reveals different interpretations of silence from the perspectives of teachers and students. Situating silence in the flow of interactions with their full contexts provides a useful potential for interpreting silence not only from the teacher-student dichotomy, but also from a new perspective of silence as having multi-functional practices in our real communications.
