East Asian Perspectives on Silence in English Language Education

Jim King is based at the University of Leicester where he directs the institution’s campus-based Masters courses in applied linguistics and English language teaching. His books include the monograph Silence in the Second Language Classroom (Palgrave, 2013) and the edited volume The Emotional Rollercoaster of Language Teaching (with Christina Gkonou and Jean-Marc Dewaele, Multilingual Matters, 2020).Seiko Harumi is a Lecturer in Japanese and Applied Linguistics (Education) at SOAS, University of London. She has taught English, Applied Linguistics and Japanese in Japan and currently teaches in the United Kingdom. Her academic interests lie in classroom discourse, pragmatics, learner-centred reflective approaches in L2 learning and language pedagogy.

• Foreword    Chapter 1. Seiko Harumi and Jim King: East Asian Perspectives on Silence in English Language Education: An Introduction Chapter 2. Dat Bao: Silence, Talk, and In-betweens: East-Asian Students’ Responses to Task Challenge in an Australian University Chapter 3. Seiko Harumi: Approaches to Interacting with Classroom Silence: The Role of Teacher Talk Chapter 4.  Jim King, Tomoko Yashima, Simon Humphries, Scott Aubrey and Maiko Ikeda: Silence and Anxiety in the English-medium Classroom of Japanese Universities: A Longitudinal Intervention Study Chapter 5. Kate Maher: A Cognitive-behavioural Theory-based Approach to Examining L2 Learners’ Silent Behaviour and Anxiety in the Classroom Chapter 6. Michael Karas and Farahnaz Faez: Communicative Language Teaching and Silence: Chinese (pre-service) Teachers’ Perspectives Chapter 7. Simon Humphries, Nobuhiko Akamatsu, Takako Tanaka and Anne Burns:  Silence in Japanese Classrooms: Activities and Factors in Capacities to Speak EnglishChapter 8. Jian-E Peng: Willing Silence and Silent Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in the Chinese EFL Classroom: A Dynamic Systems Perspective Chapter 9. Amy B M Tsui and Rintaro Imafuku: Silence in EFL Classrooms Revisited

Although seemingly paradoxical, King and Harumi have much to say about silence. This edited work unlocks the ‘problem’ of silence in East Asian English language classrooms, and shows teachers how to leverage it for better language learning. Educators are certain to find this book to be a valuable resource.