A Study Of Students' Silence In College English Class From The View Of Culture And Pragmatics

Silence is one of the research subjects of macro-linguistics. It is a research branch which is as important as language in linguistics studies. For a long time, many linguists dedicate themselves to language research, neglecting silence research in some degree. Unfortunately, in the present limited silence researches that have been carried out, studies on students'silence in college English classes are even less. Students'silence, which exists extensively in college English classes, is hindering them from acquiring an all-round English competence. So, it is very necessary to carry out such studies.Students'silence is caused by a number of reasons. This thesis, in discussing the meanings and communicative functions of silence, adopts the pragmatic and cultural view other than being confined to the classroom context. Thus, it lays a solid foundation for the later discussions on causes and solutions. By analyzing the questionnaire investigations, this study finds out that the factors leading to students'silence are the student factor, the teacher factor, the course book factor, the class organization factor and the cultural factor. On the basis of these findings, this thesis carries out further analysis and discussion of the above factors to reveal the underlying reasons. As a result, it comes to various solutions accordingly.Due to the complexity of student's silence, teachers should have a clear understanding of the meanings and causes of their silence. In this way, they can adopt appropriate solutions to improve their English teaching.