Silence in the Second Language Classroom

Jim King is a lecturer in the School of Education, University of Leicester, UK. A Post-doctoral Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), he worked for a number of years in Japan as a lecturer, researcher and teacher trainer.

'This book...tackles the meaning of silence in the second language classroom. To say 'the meaning of silence' is, at first glance, to imagine a Zen koan. However, the author does an excellent job, using dynamic systems theory, of challenging the reader to consider why Japanese students are silent and sets up a framework to investigate the phenomenon.' - Joseph Tomei, Asian Englishes 'This is a book written for all language teachers as I am sure all will come up against baffling moments of silence in the classroom. Such silence varies greatly from classroom to classroom and from learners to learners. Not always is it detrimental but it can become so. How should a teacher understand this and deal with it? Silence is a phenomenon that varies widely culturally and King's book helps us look into a society with norms that may differ greatly from ours and are therefore more difficult for us as teachers to understand.' - Tanya Roy, The Linguist List

• Foreword by Zoltán Dörnyei 1. Introduction 2. Major Theoretical Frameworks of Silence 3. An Interdisciplinary Overview of Silence in Japan 4. A Critical Analysis of Japan's Language Education System 5. A Structured Observation Study into L2 Classroom Silence 6. An Interview Study Into Learners' Perspectives on L2 Classroom Silence 7. A Naturalistic Stimulated Recall Study of Specific Silence Events 8. Summary and Conclusions Appendices