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.

• 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