Defining Silence

The problem of silence in second language acquisition begins with a problem of language itself, specifically a question of meaning: what is silence, and more precisely what is the silent period, within the second language acquisition process? The terms are not as transparent, nor is the question as easily answered, as they at first appear. There are clues within SLA research itself about the elusiveness of the silent period as a subject of study, but second language research has reached no clear consensus on the more specific issue of the meaning of the term silent period, or on the larger question of what actually constitutes silence in the context of second language acquisition. This lack of consensus has the potential to be problematic for, while difference among different researchers is not unusual – since research, like much of human endeavour, is an interpretive act – to undertake an investigation without setting out what is being investigated would be to flounder immediately. And so I begin this chapter with an exploration of some of the ways in which the silent period is constructed by language acquisition researchers, and some of the problematic aspects of those constructions, followed by an examination of the question of silence writ large in language learning.

Like its progeny silent period, the term silence seems at first blush quite unambiguous. Silence in general is simply the absence of sound; in language it is the absence of speech.