McLean, TerenceTalandis Jr., Jerry2020-11-062022-05-312022-05-312020McLean, T., & Talandis Jr., J. (2020). Answer the question: A research project. In J. Talandis Jr., J. Ronald, D. Fujimoto, & N. Ishihara (Eds). Pragmatics undercover: The search for natural talk in EFL textbooks (pp. 84-90). Tokyo: JALT Pragmatics SIG.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/2043As you probably know from experience, many Japanese students have trouble answering questions during English class. Why is that? According to Harumi (2011), the roots of this phenomenon lie in a complex mixture of linguistic, psychological, and socio-cultural factors. There is, in fact, quite a large culture gap in how silence is interpreted. For example, from a Japanese view point, the silent response from the student above could be seen as a means to save face, avoid difficulty, or request help. On the other hand, from a "western" perspective, the silence may come off as a sign of disinterest, boredom, or laziness. This phenomenon makes it very difficult for teachers to facilitate active learning (Harumi, 2001) and presents a risk of misunderstanding during cross-cultural encounters (King, 2005), both in Japan and while traveling or studying abroad. As a result, silence in the EFL classroom is widely acknowledged as a serious problem (King, 2013; Humphries, Akamatsu, Tanaka, & Burns, in press). It is therefore essential we help our students promptly respond to questions, whether they know the answer or not.488.62KBPDFenAll Rights ReservedquestionssilenceJapanese studentsEnglish as a second languageBook Chapter