A Research On The Phenomenon Of Silence In College English Classrooms

According to the theory of social interaction, effective learning in classroom is achieved through the interaction between students with teachers and students of different levels. The role of the teacher played is called scaffolding (Bruner) in class. The teacher uses many ways to play the role of scaffolding, which can help and support students’language learning. According to Van Lier, IRF is the mostly often used teaching pattern in class, which makes a big effect on students silence in classroom.Teaching interaction needs students and teachers both parts’participation. However, a very common phenomenon of students’silence exits in College English class, and silence becomes an obstacle of the interaction, which not only affects on achieving teaching aims of teachers, but also it is not good for the cultivation of students’language abilities. Therefore, it is necessary to explore reasons that cause this phenomenon, and find out the means to overcome it, and this can achieve effective classroom interaction.Based on the above theories, this paper has a case study of two teachers from two different universities in Dalian. Through questionnaire, interview and observation, the writer finds out reasons that cause silence in two classes, and methods that two teachers used to deal with silence. This expects to provide implications for college English teaching.The results show that there are3aspects of main reasons that cause students’silence in classroom, learner factors, culture factors, and teacher factors. Specifically, student factors include motivation, characters, learning habits and language proficiency. The main aspect of culture factor is a positive attitude of Chinese traditional culture towards silence. In classroom, students’silence not only shows respect for the teacher’s authority, but also makes it as a way of saving face because they are afraid of giving wrong answers. Teacher factors mainly focus on the organization of the class.For the means to overcome silence in classroom, both teachers use3means to help to break silence. One is the use of question strategies; it includes planning strategy, designing strategy, controlling strategy, and evaluation strategy. Planning strategy and designing strategy are related to questioning. Controlling strategy mainly includes redirecting, repetition, self-explanation, and promoting. Evaluation strategy includes teachers’feedback. Second one is the use of non-linguistic factors. It includes smile, eye contact, tone and intonation, the distance between teachers and students. The third one is the use of different IRF patterns used by two teachers to organize classes.Based on2kinds of IRF models of Van Lier (1991), the author has an analysis on the structure of IRF in two teachers classrooms, the result shows that two kinds of IRF models make different effects on teaching.The most different aspect between two teachers is that Teacher B encourages students-initiated turn, and she uses controlling strategies to achieve inter-personal interaction among students. Teachers A tends to ask higher level of referential questions, which inspires students’deep thinking. Generally speaking, Teacher A tends to enlighten intra-personal interaction, and Teacher B pays attention to inter-personal interaction. From the effect of the teaching, it shows that Teacher A’s class has much more silence than Teacher B’s class, and Teacher B’s class has more students’participation than Teacher A’s class. Finally, the author suggests that he teacher should balance both meaning and form teaching from teaching reflection, have an balance between inter-personal and inter-personal interaction,and make comprehensive use of language, activities and non-linguistic factors, which can improve learners’development both language and comprehensive abilities.