Hands Up, Mouths Shut: Silence and Speech in a Second-Grade Classroom of English Learners

• In Event: Listening and Not Listening to Students’ Voices

Abstract

Previous scholarship identifies silence as one of the most pervasive yet least analyzed communicative behaviors in U.S. classrooms. Most studies of student language, however, focus on verbal communication, despite protests from applied linguistics to consider non-verbal communication, silence, and communication breakdown. Examining the circumstances in which students are silent or able to speak can help to identify opportunities or barriers for language use and learning. My project addresses this crucial but neglected topic and aims to capture the tensions, struggles, and potential in the communicative silence and speech of young English learners. It sheds light on the linguistic environment of an EL classroom, its interactive structures, and the differential learning opportunities created.

Author

• Sara Ann Rutherford-Quach, Stanford University