A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS’ SILENCE
IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dyah Ayu Enggaring Tyas 112008155
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS’ SILENCE
IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dyah Ayu Enggaring Tyas 112008155
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS’ SILENCE
IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
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Copyright@ 2013. Dyah Ayu Enggaring Tyas and Danielle Donelsons Sims, M.A.
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A Study of Teachers‟ Perception of Students‟ Silence in English Department
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A STUDY OF TEACHERS‟ PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS‟ SILENCE IN
The controversy of students‟ silence between western and eastern perspectives are still happening until now. Some people believe that students‟ silence is positive because it is one of learning strategies and indicate students‟ comprehension. In contrast, some people say students‟ silence is negative because they just sit down in the class, do nothing, do not care about the lessons and do not answer the questions. This study was needed to explore teachers‟ perception of students‟ silence in Indonesia, especially in English Department. As a result, the beliefs of teachers of students‟ silence can be shared and they can have different strategies in dealing with. This study used qualitative approach to describe the findings and interviews to explore teachers‟ perspective. The result of this study showed that some English Department teachers had different perspectives of students‟ silence. Three major perspectives were found in this study. Some teachers say students‟ silence is positive, some say it is negative and the rest say neutral about this term.
Key words: students’ silence, teachers’ perspective, positive-negative-neutral belief.
INTRODUCTION
One of the negative stereotypes of Asian learners is that they are considered as
passive learners compared to Western learners. In recent ESL/ EFL literature, Asian learners
of English as a foreign/second language (especially East and South East Asia) have been
arguably reported as reticent and passive learners (Cheng, 2000). The most common
allegations are these students are reluctant to participate in classroom discourse. They are
unwilling to give responses; they do not ask questions; and they are passive and
over-dependent on the teacher (Jones et al.,1993; Braddock et al., 1995; Cortazzi and Jin, 1996;
Tsui, 1996). Those studies represent me as an English learner; I sometimes have the same
situation during teaching and learning process in the classroom. I was also afraid of giving
responses and asking questions. As seen from this active-passive conceptualization, I may
have different perceptions toward silent students. The interesting thing is that teachers from
Indonesia said Indonesian students are active in the class, but a foreign lecturer who teaches
Indonesian students said they are passive. This statement is based on my Indonesian teacher
who once taught English abroad.
On the other sides, some experts have a opinion related to active and passive
definition. MacKinnon and Manathunga (2003) state students who proactively communicate
their opinions orally in the class are often perceived as „active‟ or „positive‟; whereas those
who interact less or prefer listening, are correspondingly categorized as „passive‟ or „negative‟. The statement triggers a question of why do these teachers have different ideas of
„silent students‟. As a result, I am interested in exploring teacher‟s perception of silent
students‟ in a wider sense than this active (positive) and passive (negative) dichotomy.
There have been some studies that look at some factors affecting students‟ silence in
the class. These factors include whether the reticence results from students‟ negative attitudes
towards English as a medium of communication (Liu & Littlewood, 1997), students‟ lack of language proficiency (Cheng, 2000; Kim, 2006), students‟ identity differences, including
cultural characteristics (Jones, 1999; Morita, 2000; 2004), and students‟ different perceptions
of classroom participation (Chen, 2003; Chu & Kim, 1999; Inoue, 1999; Jackson, 2002; Kim,
2006; Liu, 2001, 2005). However, I see English as my target language not as the primary
communication language that I use in daily life. Therefore, I sometimes feel that I lack the
ability to speak in English since I rarely communicate with others using English in daily life.
Moreover, as a Javanese, I am taught to be a good listener and the teacher is often seen as the authority in the classroom because teachers are considered as the “expert” of knowledge. The
Aside from the studies above, many studies have been done from the perspective of
students, but little has been done from the perspective of the teacher themselves. In order to
seek the answer, this study requires a following general research question:
What is teacher‟ perception of students‟ silence in the classroom? There are some sub
questions for the research question:
a. What is the teacher‟s opinion about silent students?
b. How do teachers feel about silent students?
c. Why do the students‟ silences happen according to the teachers‟ opinions?
Therefore, this study is aimed at:
a. Investigating teachers‟ perspective about silent students in the classroom.
b. Describing how the teachers understand this issue and their strategies or responses
toward silent students.
c. Investigating the controversy about silent students.
Teachers have a main role in the teaching and learning process as guides and
facilitators. Their opinions and feeling toward the students are important to be considered
because it will affect the way they teach. Later, for the significance of the study, this study
can be a reference or help for both the students and teachers. The benefit for the teachers is
teachers will share their experiences about their understanding of silences in the classroom
and describe different strategies for other teachers who are dealing with silent students in the
classroom. Moreover, for the students, they will be more aware of how their silence is
interpreted by some teachers and they can be more active in the class. In addition, this study
is expected to find out the best interaction pattern, so the students can be more critical and
they can develop analytical mind. It is also expected that this study can trigger other
researchers to conduct similar studies about silent students according to teachers‟ perspective.
is a positive attitude, some say differently. In addition the studies from teachers‟ perspective
of silent students are still rare to be found.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The definition of silence
Scholars affirm about the different definition and understanding in terms of silences.
It can be known by some studies which believe silences are barriers in a communication but
others believe silence can be beneficial to human interaction. Madison and Hamera (2006)
view silence as a social performance. The social performances are the ordinary day by day
interactions of individuals and the consequences of these interactions as they move through
social life. Hence, silence can be considered as a positive attitude because silence is one
human characteristic. In addition, the culture in Indonesia supports the statement. For
example, Javanese culture believes that being silent means respect to others. If there is no
question or opinion and the students remain silent, the teacher will assume that the students
understand the material. From Indonesia is one example of the eastern perspective, whereas a
different western perspective is stated by Jaworski (1993) who describes silence as hostile or
threatening when a student does not respond to the teacher when being asked to do so. In
other words, silence can be seen as an obstacle when teaching and learning happens in the
classroom.
Aside from the study carried out by Madison and Hamera (2006), other prior researches related to the researcher‟s study were conducted by (DeVita, 2005; Jones, 1999;
McLean & Ransom, 2005). They state a main conclusion that an active participation is often
associated with an outward manifestation of one‟s thoughts and feelings, or in simple terms,
talking or speaking in front of people. Talking or speaking also seems to be perceived as the „ideal‟ classroom behavior by some lecturers working in English-speaking western
proactively communicate their opinions orally in the class are often perceived as „active‟ or
„positive‟, whereas those who interact less or prefer listening, are correspondingly
categorized as „passive‟ or „negative‟ (MacKinnon & Manathunga, 2003). It can be
concluded that the more students speak in classes, the teachers will see these students as
active students.
From the theory above, Madison and Hamera (2006) state that silence is a positive
attitude because it is one of human characteristic. In contrast, DeVita (2005), Jones (1997),
McLean and Ransom (2005) believe that ideal classroom is the students should talk rather
than just remain silent. The theory is also supported by MacKinnon and Manathunga (2003)
affirm that listening or silence is passive or negative. In addition, from the theories above my
research will try to fulfill and seek the coherence between the recent study and mine. I will
use the theories above for my data analysis. The theory will be used to analyze the teachers‟ belief of students‟ silence.
The causes of silence
One more previous research which relates to this study by Kirkbride & Tang (1999 as
cited in Ping 2010) state that from Eastern point of view, Chinese students preferred
didactic and teacher-centered style of teaching and would show great respect for the
wisdom and knowledge of their teachers. In addition, the same finding also be found in the
study by Schultz (2010) who has observed that teachers dominate the classroom, this
therefore suggests that there are many occasions of silence and confusion in the classroom.
In their study, they argue that the term teacher-centered means teacher as the “almighty” of the class is still happening until now. In other words the teacher can be one
factor that causes students to remain silence in the class. Learners may feel afraid to ask to
the teacher, so they tend to be silent in the classroom. Furthermore, because there are several
itself in order to make the teaching and learning activity run smoothly. The reason is because
when teachers believe silence is a negative attitude, teachers have to try to seek the strategies
in order to solve the problem of silent students. As a result, the communication between
teachers and students in the teaching and learning process can be achieved and maintained
during the lesson. As a consequence, that both teachers and students will not misunderstand
each other because there is a communication.
Another study by Jackson (2003), Miller and Aldred (2000) also pointed out that
some students remained silent because they were afraid that their peers thought that they
liked to show off. In other words, it can be said that students prefer remaining to be silent to avoid another judgment which is “showing off.” However, there is a different perspective
related to this issue between West and East that affected students‟ performance. Kim and
Markus (2005) state that since Western classrooms depend largely on speech, verbal
expression, and debate, these skills are considered important in enhancing student thinking.
The study tells that western students mostly talk much because of their culture. They speak
freely because their cultures teach them to do so. Aside from Western point of view, in most
Eastern cultures, when students have to listen to the teacher silently, it means they respect the
teacher. The study by Liu and Littlewood (1997) as cited in Ping (2010) found most Chinese
students were accustomed to minimal speaking opportunities at school. “Listening to the teacher” had been their most frequent classroom experience because they think it will prove
that they respect their teacher. In other words, the students who tend to be silent in the class
see their silence as part of their culture and it is an appropriate behavior and way to
participate.
From the theory above, the experts state different causes of silent. The first cause of
silence is because of the teacher. The theory is conducted by Kirkbride and Tang (1999).
describe by Jackson (2003), Miller and Aldred (2000), point out that students are remain silent because of their peers. Third cause of students‟ silence which is stated by Liu and
Littlewood (1997) come out with different idea. Their study shows students‟ silence means
respect to teacher. As a result, after knowing the different theory from different prior studies, I will use all of theory to become the base for my data analysis in term of participants‟ belief
of the causes of students‟ silence.
The strategies dealing with students’ silence
Another research correlated to this study is the recent study by Ping (2010) in which
he discovers the strategies in dealing with silent students especially for Asian students who
resist speaking in the class. Those are:
(1) Rather than relying solely on language to facilitate learning, teachers use a
variety of activities and learning opportunities for students (e.g., visuals, physical activity,
and nonverbal cues).
(2) When teachers use English, they modify its complexity and content so that
students understand and can participate in classroom activities.
(3) Teachers hold high expectations of their students, challenging them to tackle
complex concepts and requiring them to think critically, rather than eliciting a preponderance
of one-word responses to factual questions that do not require higher order thinking.
(4) Using a learner-centered approach to teaching provides students with a greater
opportunity to interact meaningfully with educational materials as they acquire English and
learn subject matters.
Those strategies above are appropriate for students in Asia, especially in Indonesia
THE STUDY Context of study
The context of the small study was English Department of Satya Wacana Christian
University. English is not the first language of this department, but English is used as a
medium of instruction in the classroom only and students and the teachers use code-switching
sometimes while they have a meeting outside the class. There are about fifty teachers who
teach English in this Department. Another reason the study was conducted in English
Department was because I had immediate access to collect the data in this Department.
Participants
The participants are 10 teachers of English Department (ED). I use “purposive sampling” a strategy which means I select participants purposely. This means I select a group
of people that can meet certain criteria (Blackledge, 2001 as cited in Zacharias. 2011). I
specifically worked with teachers who have been teaching English for skill classes. The reason is because they have had experience with students‟ silence that happened in the skill
classes like speaking, reading, writing and listening. From the criteria above, I have found the teachers‟ perspective of silence students.
Instrument of data collection
In attempting to answer the research question, the data were collected through interviews. The interview focused on teacher‟s opinion toward silent students in the
classroom. I prefer to use “semi-structured interview” by Patton (1990 in Zacharias, 2011,
p.83) because it is similar to structured interview but it allows for greater flexibility. In other
words, the flexibility can create follow-up questions during the interview. Furthermore,
David and Sutton (2004, p.87) state “semi-structured interview” are non-standardized and
frequently used in qualitative analysis. The interviewer does not do the research to test a
In addition, having key themes and sub-questions in advance gives me a sense of order from
which to draw questions from unplanned encounters (David, & Sutton, 2004, p. 87). The
interview was conducted at least for 15 to 20 minutes and the interview questions were
divided into two parts: General questions and Specific questions.
1. General questions to identify teacher‟s understanding of students‟ silence.
2. Specific questions to seek out teacher‟s strategies of responding silent students
in the class.
Procedure of data collection 1. Gathering Data
The interview took 15-25 minutes because teachers tend to speak more, so I gave them a lot time for giving their explanations. I used note taking and recording because “note
taking” can have an advantage (Zacharias, 2011, p.96), because it is far easier to analyze the
data summarized in notes than in the transcription. However, based on (Zacharias, 2011, p.96) the “recording” has some advantages. It preserves the actual language use and provides
an objective account of what was said. Both ways in capturing the interview data gave me a lot of help because from the recording, I could keep playing it again and again if I didn‟t
understand or I want to make sure about the data. I also got help from note-taking because I
could recheck my transcriptions and the recording. If I missed the recording part, I could
check the note-taking.
2. Data Analysis
This study used qualitative data. After gathering the data, I used clean transcription
from Elliot (2005) which focuses on the content of the interview and it does not provide any
extra information as to the manner in which the content is communicated. Another reason the
clean transcription chosen is because this study did not focus on discourse analysis, so there
2011, p.100) by omitting phrases and words the transcription become more accessible to the
readers or even lay persons.
In addition, “categorical content” was used for analyzing data in order to focus on the
contents or themes across participants (Lieblich et al,. 1998) in (Zacharias, 2011, p.103). After transcribing the data, I coded the data based on the “coding scheme” from Brown and
Rodgers (2002, p.67) in (Zacharias, 2011, p.88). I tended to use the coding scheme from
Brown and Rodgers because it was relatively easy to code the data. The data is coded based on categories, example of data and explanation. The “categories” were based on the theme
that be found from the data. For “example of data”, I grouped the statements from the interviewee related to silent‟s students and for “explanation” I explained the data and the
example to make the coding clear. In other words, coding can make it easier for the
researcher to analyze the data. Based on the data, I drew a conclusion about the teachers‟
perspective of silent students.
DISCUSSION
I will give a brief explanation of the participation. I choose seven data from ten data
from the participants. The reason is because I found that those seven data answered my research question and the data are informative enough whereas the rest of data doesn‟t give
much information to my study. The informative data here is showed by the clear answer from
the teachers so the data can be analyzed. In addition, to protect participants, I used
pseudonym for the interview. Since the topic of my thesis is “Teacher‟s perspective of silent students in the classroom”, based on my interview I found three general themes.
1. Teacher’s opinion toward students’ silence (positive-negative-neutral). Due to the importance of a teacher‟s role in the teaching and learning process, a
why students are silent in English Department, I did interviews with the teachers. Interestingly, from the interviews I found different teachers‟ opinions of silent students.
Three teachers said that silent students are positive classroom participants. Three teachers
said silent students are negative classroom participants and one teacher was neutral about
silent students.
Three teachers said when students who are silent in the class, it doesn‟t always mean
negative behavior or they don‟t understand about the material. Silence means the students
understand. These are the three statements from teachers who are thinking that silence is a
positive attitude.
Excerpt 1: Interview with Mr. Robert (July, 2012)
“If the students just silent,, I think they understand the material”
From excerpt one, the interviewee said silence is an indicator of students‟
understanding. The statement from the teacher is clear when students are silent it means they
understand the lesson given by the teacher. The data shows that silence is indicated as
positive.
Excerpt 2: Interview with Mrs. Kara (September, 2012)
“I think when they are silent, they have time to think about the answer. So I think that silent doesn’t always mean negative”
The next data is from second excerpt. The interviewee stated silence is a situation
when the students try to think about the answer. In other words silence can be said as a
positive attitude because students remain silent to concentrate on finding the answer. The interviewee also clearly stated that silence doesn‟t always mean something negative behavior.
Moreover the data above is supported by Mustapha and Rahman (2011) who argue that
positively passive students were those who chose to be quiet throughout the class because
they felt that they learnt more by concentrating on what was going on in class. Aside from the
“I used to think that silent students are students who don’t understand material, incompetent and shy.
But after I conduct my study, I realize that they just don’t want to speak in front of class.”
The third teacher said she used to think that silent students are negative because they don‟t understand, they are incompetent and shy. However, her study proves that she is wrong
because she believes that silent students do not have a negative attitude. They just won‟t
speak up in the class. It means, silent students are actually capable of answering or asking questions but they just don‟t show it in front of the class.
The second opinion about silent students is stated by three teachers who say that silent
students have a negative attitude in the classroom.
Excerpt 4: Interview with Miss Bening (July, 2012)
“I think a silent student is a student who a ctually comes in the class but just silent, do nothing, do not
ask, they don’t care about the lesson”
From the fourth excerpt the teacher said that silent students actually come to the class but they only sit in the class doing nothing and don‟t care about the lesson. She specifically
said students don‟t care about the lesson and just remain silent. From those statements it is
clear enough that she thinks students‟ silence has a negative attitude in the teaching and
learning process.
Excerpt 5: Interview with Miss Rias (September, 2012)
“Based on my experience, silent students are students who are actually in the class and they are passive
without do something, if I ask questions they don’t answer, they just remain silent in the class, passive.”
In addition, the excerpt five is nearly same with excerpt four that said silent students actually come in the class but they only sit and do nothing. They don‟t answer the questions
and remain silent. In this statement the passiveness is negative. This finding is in agreement
with Mustapha and Rahman (2011) who find negatively passive students were those who
were very quiet because they were not concerned about their studies and were not interested
in what went on in class.
“The situation when students don’t give respond from the stimuli that given. If we ask them, they don’t answer or they don’t involve in teaching and learning activity. Even if I give them the material, they just
accept it without asking what we would do with this material. They don’t involve critical thinking.”
The last opinion related to negative attitude is explained in the sixth excerpt. The teacher said silent students don‟t give response from the stimuli. It explains that the teachers
try to make students speak and to be more active but even when the teachers ask the silent
students, they just remain silent. The teacher also states that they don‟t involve critical
thinking.
The last opinion is one teacher who said that silent students are neutral which is
explained in excerpt seven.
Excerpt 7: Interview with Miss. Little (August, 2012)
“Silent students means they just sit in the class either they listening the lesson or not. That’s it just kept silent, I don’t know whether they understand or not.”
The last excerpt explains that the reason for the silence cannot be known for sure. The teacher said, if students are just silent she doesn‟t know whether the students understand or
not. As a result, here the teacher said she doesn‟t really understand what the students‟ silence
means. Because of her statement, it can be categorized as neutral.
From those statements above, we can conclude that teachers of English Department
have different opinions of silent students. The data say from the positive point of view,
teachers say silent students are students who understand the material. Whereas the second
data group from positive opinions, believe that being silent can be interpreted as the time
when students understand the materials and the time to think how to answer the questions.
Silence also can be one of the strategies in the learning process. The result is similar with
Furusawa (2005) and Kato (2001) who say silence is one of learning styles and learning
strategies.
Aside from the positive opinion, the negative opinion states that silent students are
about students‟ passiveness is supported by MacKinnon and Manathunga (2003) who state
those who interact less or prefer listening, are correspondingly categorized as „passive‟ or „negative‟.
From the teacher who was neutral about silent students‟ phenomena, it indicates silence
sometimes cannot be judged because the teacher said that she doesn‟t really understand about
the students‟ silence. The statement can be categorized as open opinion or flat opinion related
silent students.
2. The reason why students’ silence happened
Another important point of this study is the reason why students‟ silence happened in
the teaching and learning process. From the interview I did with English Department lecturers
I found different reasons. There are four reasons:
No Reason Explanation
1. Teacher Teachers have a contribution in making students remain silent.
2. Students Students are confused, shy and afraid to answer the questions
from the teachers.
3. Peers Students tend to be silent in the class because they are afraid to
be called or to be thought of as a “show off”.
4. Classroom situation Large classroom can influence students‟ silence.
There are four teachers who say the same reason about the causes of silence. Four of
them agree that it is because of the teachers. The excerpt eight until eleven explain about their
reasons.
Excerpt 8: Interview with Miss Bening (July, 2012)
“The students are silent because maybe the teacher is just too dominant in the class.”
Excerpt 9: Interview with Miss Panda (September, 2012)
Excerpt 10: Interview with Mrs. Kara (September, 2012)
“In my opinion, teachers give a lot of contribution in making students become silent. It is like the
teaching style.”
Excerpt 11: Interview with Mr. Robert (July, 2012)
“Some classes are more lecture-centered.”
In conclusion, from the statements above, the teachers say one of the reasons silence
happens is because teachers are too dominant or the style is teacher-centered.
The second reason why students keep silent in the class is from the students
themselves. The reason why the students keep silent in the class is because they make
themselves become silent. There are three teachers who have the same thoughts which are
explained in excerpt twelve until fourteen.
Excerpt 12: Interview with Miss Panda (September, 2012)
“Another reason is because the students confused or they are shy or afraid. Afraid because they have to take a risk if they answer it wrong, so it will be better if they remain silent.”
Excerpt 13: Interview with Miss Kitty (October, 2012)
“I think the students afraid to make mistake. The students believe that their answer is correct but actually wrong, so they choose to be safe by keeping silent.”
Excerpt 14: Interview with Miss Rias (September, 2012)
“It can be that all of the students in the class are passive because their learning behavior is like that.”
Therefore from the opinions above, the teachers say students are afraid to make
mistakes so they choose silence. Moreover, a study carried out by Brick and Lui (1994) as
cited in Ping (2010) found Chinese students feared appearing foolish by making mistakes
as simple as grammar or pronunciation imperfections if they actively participated in
class. In other words, students prefer to be silent in order to avoid making mistakes. The
connections between Chinese students with Indonesian students are they are from eastern
countries and they have similar cultures. Both Chinese and Indonesian students have a
perspective that silence means respect and it will be good if they just remain silent rather than making mistakes. In addition, the same prior study found the reasons of students‟ silence,
they fear of making mistakes and lack confidence, (Flowerdew et al., 2000; Jackson, 2001a,
The third reason why students keep silent in the class is because of their peers. Two
teachers said that peers can cause students to become silent. It can be seen from Miss Panda
and Miss Kitty statements:
Excerpt 15: Interview with Miss Panda (September, 2012)
“Maybe in the class there is a student who dominates the class, too much speaking so the other students will feel lazy to answer. It can be that one student show off, so the other students will keep silent.”
Excerpt 16: Interview with Miss Kitty (October, 2012)
“Some of students may think that if they answer the questions, the others will think it is kind of show off. So, they remain silent.
The data from Miss Panda and Miss Kitty are supported by Liu and Littlewood (1997)
citied in Ping (2010) who argue Chinese students prefer less frequent participation and brief
responses in class so as to avoid dominating the discussion and to avoid being labeled as a “show-off” by their Chinese peers. It means, students tend to be silent in the class because
they are afraid to be called or to be thought of as a “show off”. Once again, because Chinese
students and Indonesian students are relatively similar in culture and learning behavior, the
previous research from Chinese students can be compared to Indonesian students as well.
The last reason is because of the class situation.
Excerpt 16: Interview with Mr. Robert (July, 2012)
“Related to students being silent, it depends on the type of the class. Some classes are large in nature, so it is more difficult to engage them in lively discussion or interactions.
The statement from Mr. Robert is supported by Meyer (2009) who argued class size,
gender, cultural differences, and disabilities could also influence student participation and
silence. Therefore, from the data above, it shows that he believes that the large class can influence students‟ silence.
3. Strategies of dealing with students’ silence.
Due the importance of the topic of students‟ silence, some teachers have to prepare
some strategies to avoid it. The strategies are needed for teachers, especially for those who
believe silent students are an obstacle in the teaching and learning process. A strategy is
not respond to the teacher when being asked to do so. From the interviews that I did, I found several strategies of dealing with students‟ silence. There are three big points of the
strategies. The first is the use of good media tools, second is the high expectation from
teachers and the last strategy is the use of English in teaching. The details of those strategies
will be explained by the data below.
The first strategy is using media tools to immerse learners in an enjoyable way to
learn English. There are two teachers who have the same idea related to this strategy. The
first teacher is Mr. Robert who said:
Excerpt 17: Interview with Mr. Robert (July, 2012)
“Young learners can be asked to analyze what they have seen or heard from audiovisual material to
make they become more engaged.”
The second opinion is from Miss Panda who says:
Excerpt 18: Interview with Miss Panda (September, 2012)
“I think, pre-teaching is very important to stimulate students. Usually I open pre-teaching using pictures and sometimes I bring my laptop, I will show some pictures and video. If the pre-teaching is interesting,
I think the rest of the lesson the students will be free to speak”
From the data above it is clear that teachers believe media tools make students more
active in the teaching and learning process. Mr. Robert and Miss Panda said audiovisuals can
make the students become more stimulated in learning English. Besides, another statement
from the teacher also clearly explained that pictures and videos are example of media tools
that can be used to make students become interested in participating in class discussion.
The second strategy is the expectation from the teachers. It means that teachers must have a high expectation of students‟ participation in class. In another major study, Pawan
(1995) cited in Mustapha and Rahman (2011) found that professors‟ expectations of
students have a way of influencing students‟ behavior in class. As a result, the expectation
from the teachers can make students put a lot of effort in participating. The data below will
explain about the second strategy. The data stated by Mrs. Robert, Mrs. Kara and Mrs. Rias.
Excerpt 19: Interview with Mr. Robert (July, 2012)
“I think it is important to set high expectations for students, so that they are always willing to improve
Excerpt 20: Interview with Mrs. Kara (September, 2012)
“I have to think that student’s active participant is important in the class. So I have expectation to the students.”
Excerpt 21: Interview with Mrs. Rias (September, 2012)
“From the beginning of the class I explain to my students that I have expectation for them. If they
speak, I will appreciate it.”
Based on the data interview it reveals that some of teachers use expectations to make
students more active. Besides, Mrs. Rias also said that expectations can make students speak
and she appreciates it.
The last strategy is the use of English in the teaching process. The findings will be
explained in excerpt 22 and 23 bellow:
Excerpt 22: Interview with Mrs. Bening (July, 2012)
“If the students don’t answer my questions I will use alternative questions. I have to prepare yes or no
questions. So, I will ask with the same point but the questions will be changed into yes or no question.”
Excerpt 23: Interview with Mrs. Rias (September, 2012)
“For the example, the material is too hard for the students and they are confused how to answer, I will
challenge them with the questions related to the material with yes no questions.”
In general, the teachers clearly said that by using yes and no questions or making the
questions simpler can be examples of the strategies in dealing with students‟ silence. From
Mrs. Bening, she said that she will change the complicated questions into alternative
questions but still the point of the question is similar. In addition, Mrs. Rias also has the same
point when she finds the questions are too hard; she will simplify it so the students can
answer it easily. Interestingly, this correlation is related to the previous study by Ping (2010)
who found when teachers use English, they modify its complexity and content so that
students understand and can participate in classroom activities. In other words, the third strategy can be used for students‟ silence in order to make them participate in the classroom
by answering the questions from the teacher.
CONCLUSION
teachers are mostly from Eastern perspectives. I just interviewed one Western teacher and
nine teachers are Eastern teachers. In this investigation, the aim was to assess teachers‟
perspective of silent students in English Department Salatiga. In order to gain the data I
conducted interviews with some of the teachers of English Department.
This study has shown that there are three main opinions related to silent students. The first finding was teacher believes that students‟ silence is positive attitude because the teacher
thinks that while students are being silent, it means they understand the materials given. The
second opinion is the teacher considers that silence can be interpreted as one learning
strategy. The next statement from the teacher is she believes that students who do not want to
answer the questions in front of class, it does not mean they are not capable to, but they just
do not want to show it in front of the class. The next opinion about silent students is three
teachers believe that silent students have negative attitudes. They think silent students are
students who just sit down in the class, do nothing, do not care about the lessons, do not answer the questions and they do not involve critical thinking. The last opinion is students‟
silence can be considered as neutral by one teacher. The teacher perhaps believed that she did
not really understand what a silent student means, so she could not judge the students‟
silence.
The second major finding was teachers‟ opinion of the reason why students‟ silence
happens in the learning and teaching process. The findings show four main reasons and it will
be explained in form of table below.
No Reason Explanation
1. Teacher Teachers could be one of the factors in contributing to students‟
silence, especially teacher-centered.
2. Student Students are shy and afraid to make mistake while answering
the class.
3. Peers Students are afraid of being labeled as a show off if they answer
or be active in the class.
4. Classroom situation Nature of class can affect on students‟ silence. For example is
the class size.
The third major finding was the strategies of dealing with students‟ silence. A few of
the teachers believe that using audiovisual like pictures and video can encourage students to
participate more. Aside from using audiovisual as a strategy, other teachers believe that
giving high expectations to their students was one of the best strategies in dealing with students‟ silence. The last strategy is the use of English by simplifying the questions. Some
teachers believe by simplifying the complicated and hard questions, students will answer the
questions directly.
The evidence of teachers‟ opinion about students‟ silence from this study suggests
that some teachers and students have to be more aware about students‟ silence. The
awareness of students‟ silence is important for the teachers because it can create a good atmosphere in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, when the teachers find students‟
silence in their class, they know the thing that should they do because they have shared their beliefs related to students‟ silence. Moreover, both teachers and students have already known
how to cope with the nature of students‟ silence. For teachers I hope that they do not judge
the students by whether the students speak or not in front of class. Whereas for the students I
hope that they can be more active in class. Besides, I also hope that teachers who are dealing with students‟ silence will be able to use a better strategy to solve this controversy, especially
understand the terms and situations of the students‟, they will make a good atmosphere in
class. Hopefully, this study can be a contribution to the teachers‟ perspective of students‟
silence in English Department, Salatiga particularly, and in Indonesia or east countries, in
general. More broadly, research is also needed to determine interesting statements from one
of the teachers who said silence as passive and negative. The interesting topic comes out about students‟ silence is that it does not involve a critical thinking. It is interesting because
students may have a critical thinking even though they are silent in class. One of the teachers
explained that silence and critical thinking have to be one set because while they are silent in
the class, the teacher feels that they are actually thinking about the lesson.
The most important limitation lies in the fact that I only investigated teachers in
English Department Salatiga. Further study perhaps can investigate teachers from other
faculties or it will be better from another university in Indonesia because there will be more variation of teachers‟ perspective and many different strategies used. In addition, a next study
is also needed to investigate the statement from one teacher who said class size, gender, cultural differences can be one of factors influencing students‟ participation. In conclusion
the result of this study has an implication to the improvement of education, especially in
teaching and learning process.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I want to say thank you for my savior Allah SWT because finally this
thesis could be finished. I wish to express my gratitude for my supervisor Mrs. Danielle
Donelsons Sims, M.A who was giving her best to help and support me. Thank you so much
Danielle. Also I would like to say a big thank you for my examiner Miss soon to be Mrs.
Sesilia Rani S. R, M. Hum for her advices, comments and assistance so that this study could
strength, advices and support to me. For my dearest friends in ED who also gave me big
supports. Thanks guys. I would like to say thank you to all my best friends forever, Devi,
Sukma, Hera, Dita and Ristiono who always gave strength for me. I wish to express my love
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Appendix
Interview Questions
1. How long have you been teaching English?
2. What do you think this silence from your students‟ means?
3. How do you feel about students‟ silence?
4. What do you think about the relation between students‟ silence and students‟
passiveness?
5. Why do you think so? Could you share your stories? Your experiences or your
beliefs?
6. What will you do when there‟s silence in the classroom?
7. What strategies do you use to make students to be more involved and engaged in the
lesson?
8. How do you feel when your students don‟t answer your questions in the classroom?
(Bahasa Indonesia)
1. Sudah berapa lama anda mengajar Bahasa Inggris?
2. Bagaimana perasan anda jika menemui “students‟ silence” di kelas anda?
3. Apa yang anda ketahui tentang “students‟ silence”?
4. Menurut anda, kenapa “students‟ silence” bisa tejadi diproses pembelajaran?
5. Bisakah anda menceritakan pengalaman anda mengenai “students‟ silence”?
6. Menurut anda kapan terjadi “silence” di kelas?
7. Apa saja stategi yang anda lakukan untuk membuat murid-murid terlibat dan tertarik
dalam pembelajaran?
8. Apa yang anda rasakan ketika murid-murid anda tidak menjawab pertanyaan yang
anda berikan?
9. Apa yang anda rasakan ketika murid-murid anda menjawab pertanyaan yang anda
