Show Me Your Listening Position: Embodied Silence and Speech in a Second-Grade Class of Language-Minority Students

• In Event: Negotiating Identities, Cultures, and Discourses in Educational Settings

Abstract

Previous scholarship identifies silence as one of the most pervasive yet least analyzed communicative behaviors in U.S. classrooms. Yet most studies of classroom interaction focus solely on verbal communication. This study examines the silences that accompany the speech of language-minority students as well as the circumstances that contribute to silence or create space for talk. Its findings demonstrate that although silence is commonly thought of as an absence of speech, in this class silence had a palpable presence. The findings identify several different silence types and subtypes, which accomplished different kinds interactive and sociocultural work. Finally, the study illustrates how listening for silence can reveal insights about talk as well as how participants attend to knowledge and learning.

Author

• Sara Ann Rutherford-Quach, Stanford University