A Critical Review of Sibel Tatar’s Article “Why Keep Silent? The Classroom Participation Experiences of Non- Native- English-Speaking Students”

Abstract

This study explores Sibel Tatar's contribution to the field of language teaching and learning. The main focus is to understand the functions and interpretations of silence from learners' insights through the prism of multidimensional factors such as learners' cultural, psychological and contextual perspectives to ensure a smooth teaching and learning. Tatar's interview with Turkish learners made us understand that there's more to silence than the word's literal meaning suggests-it is revelatory. Turkish learners have their own interpretations for their silence and to them, silence is logical. This study basically addresses the needs of the Turkish students and will help instructors to comprehend the background of learners' silence. Undoubtedly understanding the underlying causes of silence can come in handy in teaching. It also aims to elaborate the impact of learning behavior in the field of second language acquisition. It unfolds silence as an effective learning process. The study traces out the significance of learners' silence and found both silence and activity as quintessential learning tools. In order to clarify the connection of silent learners with their society and culture, I have taken ideas from Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory of cognitive development and quoted from different other journals and books of the related areas. I have tried also to justify the meaning and function of silence in Tatar's study based on my classroom observation in secondary schools and in tertiary level institutions. I have compared among the findings of learners' silence from many studies, analyze them and evaluate learners' needs.

Oral participation practices in classroom among university students in Afghanistan

“…As can be seen in Table 4, the most dominant factors that affected oral participation of the students are the class-size related factors and teachers related factors. It is in line with the study conducted by Khatun [39]. Teachers' related factor affecting classroom participation 60.00%…”

“…Such techniques might be a traditional way of interacting in the classroom that rooted back from their school level. In line with answering questions to the teacher, Khatun [39] asserted that the quality of oral participation is influenced by the instructors' questioning strategy. Furthermore, the majority of students orally participate in the classroom discussion, debate, and giving a presentation in the classroom, and such participation might be due to their background studies, or the way they are taught at school.…”

“…They possess fewer teaching experiences, and command on their subject caused students to be passive in the classroom. In this regard, the negative results on students learning of hiring contract-based teachers can be detrimental to students' performance in the long run [39].…”

Enhancing Learning Participation of International Students in the Classroom Using Social Media: The Case of International Students in the Uk University

“…The accented English of international students was a factor that has affected their communication success, and the false of accented English could be a major cause of miscommunication. In addition to this, when students feel their language abilities are insufficient in terms of expressing themselves clearly in the presence of other international students, they tend to remain silent as a facesaving strategy (Khatun, 2019;Tatar, 2005). The silence students could be a sign that student wants to avoid a direct face-to-face communication due to their insufficient English language abilities.…”