On Classroom Silence

Just like speech, silence is one of the mediums of human communication. Silence and speech are both signs in essence. But the characteristics of mistiness and scene dependence decide its dual character: Silence may be the handicap of communication and it can also express much abundant meanings. Classroom silence also has its dual character: Classroom silence is the muster of both the handicap and effective intercourse between the teacher and the pupil, and it's the muster of both meaning generating and meaning dissociating.For making teachers form the division to different classroom silence and avoid passive classroom silence efficaciously, we classify classroom silence several species according to the body of classroom silence, function, spontaneity, the location in the conversation and its language character. Then, based on the classification above, we elaborate the function of the classroom silence from the teacher and the pupil aspects respectively.The paper explores the cause of classroom silence from the teacher, the pupil, the classroom surroundings and culture factor. In the aspect of teachers, classroom silence is highly correlated with teachers' communication style, teaching organization form, teaching style, teachers' expectation and aggrandizement to pupils, and the relations between the teacher and the pupil. In the aspect of pupils, classroom silence is correlated with pupils' self-concept, gender-language character, learning style, temperament and personality character, learning habit. In the aspect of classroom surroundings, we expound classroom atmosphere and class size. And in the aspect of culture, we discuss the relation between pupils' classroom silence with face-saving consciousness, authority-opinion, examination culture, social gender role, and the identification to tradition culture.