What causes some students to stay quiet even though they might have something valuable to contribute? This study proposes the idea of communicative inhibition of the foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) framework to shed light on the phenomenon of student silence. FLCA has been recognized for many years as a barrier to participation in classroom activities, yet silence in the classroom is often considered an anxious response. This response of silence, we argue, is the result of something much broader, which is culture. Inhibition, as we explain, is self-restraint because of worrying about offending, maintaining social harmony, or social rejection. This explanation is much broader than simply anxiety, which is an emotional response to something. Inhibition is related to social culture and etiquette regarding how we interact with each other. To investigate this idea, a survey consisting of 33 questions was given to a sample of 145 Japanese, 68 Indonesian, and 98 Malaysian university students. This survey focused on understanding the reasons students remained speechless in casual conversations, utilizing a 10-point measurement scale. An exploratory factor analysis disclosed three differentiable factors. These were labeled as Social Sensitivity, defined as concern for other people's feelings; Social Rejection, which is the fear of being excluded or judged; and Social Offense, which is the avoidance of conflict. In Japan, Social Sensitivity was more pronounced, while Social Rejection was more prevalent in Indonesia and Malaysia. These findings indicate that silence in classrooms in Japan might not be fear-induced but rather culturally appropriate forms of restraint.

Authors:
Jatrifia Ongga Sinatrya, State Polytechnic of Malang, Indonesia
Hiromi Oda, Tokyo Online University, Japan
Naoko Ichii, Okayama University of Science, Japan
Andrew Foong, Quest International University, Malaysia

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Hiromi Oda is a member of the Department of Information Management at Tokyo Online University. His research focuses on human communication, including cognitive processing, the emergence of symbol systems, and language learning.

Ms. Ongga is a university lecturer and ESP practitioner whose research focuses on foreign language anxiety, and learner inhibitions in higher education. She is involved in cross-cultural research collaboration with scholars from Japan and Malaysia

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiromi1/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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