On College Students' Silence In Efl Classroom

With China's economic development and frequent exchanges with the outside world, the importance of oral English has become more prominent and has gained greater attention. Scholars and researchers have never stopped their exploration to improve students' oral proficiency and put the results into the English classroom. However, most English teachers in China are confronted with the awkward phenomenon of "silence". Silence, an important medium of human communication, has long been ignored and was defined negatively---merely as an absence of speech or communication, and thus neglected by researchers to some degree. Unfortunately, in the limited studies on silence that have been carried out, studies on college students' silence in EFL classes are even fewer.According to Interaction Hypothesis, learners can best succeed at learning a target language through a negotiation of meaning. When a learner is attempting to start a conversation in the target language, the gaps in their abilities are revealed to them. This self-realization brings about an authentic interaction, which will encourage the second language learner to produce a target language output to negotiate the meaning and seek out the knowledge they lack. This interaction can result in language acquisition. Learners also need comprehensive "output" ---the opportunity to make full use of their linguistic resources to achieve full grammatical competence in the target language. However, students' silence, which widely exists in English classrooms, denies students themselves the opportunity to engage in the classroom interaction and hinders the communication not only between teacher and students but among students themselves. Students' silence not only impedes students' English language acquisition, teaching effectiveness but also deprives classmates of learning from the silent students' insights, observations, and experiences. Furthermore, it hampers students' improvement of oral proficiency and communicative competence. Besides, "silence" has a variety of meanings and a wide range of functions, and the interpretations of silence are highly context-dependent. In all, it is essential and significant to probe the interpretations and causes of students' silences in an English classroom and find the solutions.In this study,243 non-English major sophomores from Shengli College of Petroleum University of China were chosen to be the subjects. The investigation lasted a term. A mixed methodology of both qualitative and quantitative research was adopted. In the qualitative research, by means of classroom observations and interviews, both students and teachers were interviewed on the reasons for students' silence in EFL classroom. The quantitative part was conducted by a semi self-made questionnaire and the data was then computed and analyzed statistically by Optic Mark Reader. The analysis explored the degree and types of silence and what were the relevant reasons leading to the students' silence in EFL classroom. According to the SMCR communicational mode, the reasons were categorized into four groups. By further exploring factors resulting in students' silence, the study attempted to raise the teachers' awareness to implement a number of strategies and the awareness to create a comfortable and harmonious environment which would facilitate language learning and to break students' silence in their English classroom.The main findings of this present study are that those factors related to teachers, students themselves, class and social culture have a strong impact on students' silence in the EFL classroom. Teachers' improper questioning, wait time, feedback and quantity and quality of teacher's talk may lead to students' passive participation; students' English proficiency and affective factors that may hinder them from active involvement. As far as class factors are concerned, large classes, depressing classroom atmosphere and class inertia developed as a result of the teacher-centered method also can lead to students' silence. Finally social culture including teachers' authority, students' concept of silence, face-saving and collectivism all play a part in students' silence in EFL classroom.The implications for teaching generated from the research findings are put forward. First, on the teachers' part, teachers should try to improve their questioning strategies, feedback strategies, strategies for no-response reinitiating and improve their talk; Second, on the students' part, teachers should promote students' questioning strategies, enhancing students' motivation, build up students' self-confidence and reduce students' anxiety; Third, in the English classroom, teachers should create a comfortable and harmonious class atmosphere and make full use of cooperative learning in the EFL classroom. This study investigates systematically the degree and causes of classroom silence and gives out suggestions accordingly. However, the shortcomings revealed can not be neglected. Limitations of the current study and suggestions for further research are also discussed in the paper.