Action ResearchA Study of Silence

Introduction

How do students experience silence and its subversion in the classroom?

What are the underlying reasons of keeping silent and what can be the possible solutions relevant to my research question?”

How can I know whether a student is keeping silent as a political stand or as a result of shyness?

Literature Review

Bartholomae and Petrosky (1993) defend ‘college students want to believe they can strike out in their own. (Teachers patience and forgiving)

James Berlin (1991) posits the value of making students aware of the competing discourses that influence who they are, in the hope of encouraging students’ “resistance” to such cultural codes.

The context of the project

at a public university’s law department where I work in an EFL context.

two lecturers one to teach and one to observe; 5 lecturers who were directed to take part in the survey.

36 upper-intermediate students in distinct two classes at all.

The processSeeking knowledge

Seeking knowledge

in order to find out the reasons of keeping silent, I conducted a survey of Seiko Harumi, who is a researcher in Japan, to both the students and the teachers.

The survey included two sections. Part I of the survey sought general background information on previous learning and teaching experience. Part II of the survey dealt with the reasons for remaining silent. 36 students and 5 teachers were asked to complete the survey.

First of all in order to find out the reasons of keeping silent, I conducted a survey of Seiko Harumi, who is a researcher in Japan, to both the students and the teachers. The survey included two sections. Part I of the survey sought general background information on previous learning and teaching experience. Part II of the survey dealt with the reasons for remaining silent. 12 teachers were asked to complete the survey.

Teacher’s interpretation N: (5) %

Linguistic problems- Student doesn’t know the answer- Student doesn’t understand

6040

Problems with time- Student thinking how to answer 40

Psychological problems- Shyness- Boredom- Cultural reasons

404020

Depends on the situation 20

Students’ reasons N: 36 (%)

Linguistic problems

- Problems with vocabulary

- Problems with expressing myself in English

- Problems with comprehension and listening

- Doubts about accuracy of grammar

11.11

44.4

5.5

2.7

Problems with time

- Lack of time to answer

2.7

2.7

Psychological problems

- Lack of confidence, nervousness; shyness

- Feel desperately in a hurry

- Because of my level of the target language

- Because of tense atmosphere

- Lack confidence in my own idea

- I whisper sth in my mind

- Lack of confidence in pronunciation

- I tend to depend on others

13.8

5.5

13.8

2.7

25

2.7

13.8

11.11

Problem with turn taking

- Was not given chance to speak out; turns were not allocated

- Missed timing (others speak before I do; teachers move on to other students; difficulty in claiming

turn)

- Teacher did not notice my soft voice

2.7

5.5

5.5

Findings

Surveys suggest two problems in common;› Linguistic problems› Lack of confidence

Planning an action

Preparing an observation form

Observation Form

Period: 1 2 3

Day of week: _______ Date: _______ Start: _______ End: _______

Observer: _Hülya Fidan ______ _ Level: Upper-intermediate

Name of the student (+) : active

( - ) : not interacting-initiated the interaction?-the recipient ?Who involved in inter.?

1.Funda

2.Sinan

3.Esra

4. …

adapted from the study of Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 41, No.2, pp 6-13. Copyright 2008

First day of observation; changed the style of the activities and used

more engaging topics in discussions. I also gave more preparation time before

whole class discussion. The groups received 7 to 8 minutes to discuss first.

› 83.33% were observed to attend the group discussion however only 16.6 % accepted to share their ideas with the whole class, the rest rejected to speak out and kept their silence.

Second day of observation employ roles to each individual in the group such

as; › the leader responsible for engaging the others to talk,› the presenter who will share the group’s ideas to the

class later, › the note-taker who will take notes during the activity,According to the tally sheet used, the percentages

changed as such; 100% initiated to talk by attempting to take part in the discussion whereas only the ones who were responsible to share ideas with the class (22.22%) did so.

Accordingly, we still can’t be quite sure whether the others who are significantly silent will speak out in class or not no matter they spoke in group activity.

Third day of observation specific roles to the ones who are defined

and specified significantly as silent students.

› The percentages did not change, but according to my observation, two students who are recognizably silent kept short talking and hurried in order to pass the turn on to the next student at once.

Forth day of observation

I decided to use some techniques such as smiling, proximity(moving closer to the speaker), and making eye contact with the students in order to make sure that those two students would feel more comfortable.

› The percentages kept the same, but the techniques did not work, rather caused those two students to feel more uncomfortable;

› As the teacher kept eye contact they hurried more and when the teacher went closer, the students stopped by saying that ‘That’s all!’.

The results As seen, the problem seems to have been

solved 94.4%, however for the rest of the class which comprises of 2 out of 36 students still remains unsolved.

However, given the chance of speaking and acting in a group within a time limit, most of the students did not reject sharing ideas.

As far as confidence-building is concerned, nominating individual students to speak is another effective technique so that learners can enter and continue the flow of discussion or conversation with confidence.

Thank you all for your patience