Newsletter Teaching Topics

1. Teaching Tips
Newsletter: Seven
Long Silences - Part Two

2. Long Silences
• Comfort with the length of a period of silence can surprisingly
depend on the cultural background of the people involved in the
conversation. In many Asian cultures, silence is a sign of very
careful thought, calm, and an ease of personal comfort with the
conversation. In many western cultures, silence is very
uncomfortable. It shows a lack of interest, disagreement, or even
anger. Getting used to silence, becoming comfortable with silence
as a teacher can be helpful not only for your student, but also for
yourself as it can reduce any anxiety you may face when confronted
with long silences.
• Here is a further look into why students and teachers alike may
experience long silences.

3. The student didn’t understand the
question/instructions
• I am sure there have been a few times where you explained
instructions or asked a question to a student and immediately
followed up with some form of “is that okay?” or “do you
understand?” and your student says, “Yes.” followed by an
immediate lock up or silence and a blank stare.
• Now, the question is, are they just trying to formulate their
response? Or did they say “yes” out of reflex, but didn’t genuinely
understand what was said to them? Usually, as pointed out in part
one of long silences, there are signs that your student is thinking:
mouthing/muttering words, using filler sounds like “eeto” or
“mmmm”, or they are giving some sort of physical sign that they are
trying to come up with an answer.

4. • However, if it is obvious that they are merely stuck or maybe haven’t
understood what was asked (uncomfortable squirming, locked eye contact
as though waiting, or looking around the room/screen), here are a few ways
to help them out.
1. If there is a difficult word in the instructions/question, ask “Do you know x?”
or “What does x mean?”
• A lot of the time, the student will say they don’t understand the word and
can give an answer once given the definition.
2. Rephrase the instructions/question.
• If said instructions or question is particularly long or grammatically difficult,
rephrasing to something simpler or using different words can really help.
The student didn’t understand the
question/instructions

5. 3. Use modeling.
• Giving your own example answer will give the student a grammar model to
follow and more often than not, they will be able to answer the
question/follow the instructions without much further prompting.
• Discussion
• Please think about your own cultural background. How are silences
perceived in your own culture? How comfortable are you with the silences
you have experienced with students from different cultures? How could you
go about getting used to silences that aren’t caused by lack of
understanding?
• Share your ideas in a reply to the email and we can select a few relevant
tips to share in the following newsletter! (If you wish to not have your name
included, please say this in your reply as well) .
•
The student didn’t understand the
question/instructions