Over the Wall of Silence

Getting Students to Talk 11

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 G ETTING STUDENTS TO TALK

T HE PRESSURE OF THE GROUP Let’s return to Jack and his sweaty collar and think for a moment. Why aren’t any of his students putting up their hands and volunteer ing answers? His students are on the whole rather bright and do well in their other classes. It’s not like they don’t understand his elemen tary-level questions. Perhaps they don’t see him as a real teacher? The reason his students aren’t jumping out of their chairs to an swer Jack is all around him. It’s the other students in the room . In a Jap anese classroom, the pressure of the group is far stronger than it may appear. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that most students do not want to differentiate themselves from the group and will ac tively try to appear modest. In Japan there’s a famous saying- almost a cliché now- that goes, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” In the foreign lan guage classroom this translates as “don’t show off your language skills unless you want to appear full of yourself.” In other words, a