What does the silence mean? Student non participation in classroom discourse – reasons and effects
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Student participation in classroom discourse is an important source for their learning. In this contribution, we focus on non-participating students and we strive to explain why they talk rarely in the classroom and what are the consequences of their communicative behavior. We conducted an ethnographic research in four Czech lower secondary classrooms. The data we analyzed comprised six video recordings of language lessons, two interviews with teachers, and four interviews with students in each classroom. Our analysis shows that silence has different consequences for high-achieving and low-achieving students. High-achieving students use silence to gain exclusive opportunities for learning and to construct and maintain the social position of extra capable students. Low-achieving students are excluded from communication, do not gain relevant learning opportunities, and their silence is interpreted as a sign of their incompetence. |
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