Over the Wall of Silence

Getting Students to Talk 13

Chapter 1

T HE SOUNDS OF SILENCE All these factors have the effect of shattering a student’s willing ness to speak in class. Students who look as if they could respond to a teacher’s question will hesitate and wait to be prompted, often sev eral times. And when one person is reluctant to speak, it’s often contagious. Reactions like this will often quickly kill the lively, open atmosphere you want to have in your class. Even during pair work, when the pressure of the group is lessened considerably, some stu dents are hesitant to speak. And beyond hesitation, there is the actual wall, built of utter si lence. It’s as complete as in “I asked that student a question and he won’t even try to reply to me. No sounds are coming out of his mouth.” We call it a wall because it blocks everything. Blocks com munication, blocks learning, blocks your flow as a teacher. Don’t panic, there are ways to get over it. But first we need to look at why it’s there. When a student is sitting in silence, he may react in one of the following ways. (1) The student you just asked a question to directly may turn to his neighbour and ask for help. (2) He might open his textbook and start flipping through it. (3) Or he might just sit there, eyes forward but vacant, seemingly frozen, like the proverbial deer in headlights. But your students are only following their cultural instincts. In the way that small animals sit completely motionless when a larger pred ator approaches, Japanese students often freeze when asked a ques tion with the entire class watching. They hope that the teacher will give up and move onto a new target. You may have noticed this