【正文】 ral silences.Sociocultural silence are those related to the characteristic manner in which entire social and cultural orders refrain from speech and manipulate both psycholinguistic and interactive silences (Bruneau 1973:36). When a teacher enters the classroom, students may turn to be silent immediately .The silence speaks, “We recognize and acknowledge your position by our silence.” Thus, teachers operate with discipline codes. So it suggests that people use silence to show respectful acceptance for a social status. Silence is the expected response in many places, objects and events, such as Churches, courtrooms, libraries, hospitals, schools, funeral, battle sites, etc.(2) Kurzon’s classification of silenceWith the adoption of Grice’s distinction between natural and nonnatural meaning, Kurzon (1995:3541) classifies silence into two categories as intentional and unintentional silence. Intentional silence refers to silence intentionally used as a strategy, while the unintentional silence is caused unintentionally, because of extreme anxiety, embarrassment or panic (Kurzon 1995:42). Kurzon(1992:37) gave 3 modal interpretations of silence: Internal (willingness): I will/ shall not speak. 1) Intentional: External: I must/ may not speak.2) Unintentional: “I cannot speak” or “I am not able to speak”.The intentional silence is internal for the silent person that means the speakers decide not to voice by themselves. On the other hand, external silence with the meaning of “I must/may not speak” implies an external reason that forces the person not to voice. Unintentional silence is supposed to be explained as “I cannot speak” or “I am not able to speak”, which can be resulted from psychological inhibitions that may prevent students from speaking out their ideas in class. Relationship between silence and speech In order to expand the framework for students’ participation and have better understanding on how students perceive and approach learning in EFL class, the parative analysis should be made between binary thinking about the speech and silence in EFL class and the existing philosophical literature on the relationship between speech and silence.Some creative works on speech and silence outline fundamental philosophical thoughts about the important role that silence plays in munication. Silence, like speech, can function as a means through which meaning and knowledge are constructed (Acheson 2008b). Thus, rather than regarding silence negatively as the absence of speech, silence ought to be recognized as an embodied and active, not passive, gesture (Acheson 2008a). In fact, silences can serve municative functions (Acheson 2008aamp。(3) plete quiet because nobody is talking。 class engagement。通過研究，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)造成英語課堂沉默現(xiàn)象的原因不僅在于老師的教學方式、態(tài)度以及學生的態(tài)度、個性、動機等方面，同時還會受到其他因素的影響，這些因素已經變成提高英語課堂效率的阻礙因素，甚至還會造成更大程度、更廣范圍的惡性循環(huán)。蘇州科技學院本科生畢業(yè)論文AcknowledgmentsI am grateful in the first place to my supervisor Professor Wang Yun, who has supported me all the time during the process of writing this paper. I appreciate her patience and cautiousness. I would not have acplished this thesis successfully without her consistent help. What’s more, I would like to acknowledge my schoolSuzhou University of Science and Technology for granting me the precious chance to further my English study．In my process of writing and pleting this paper，I have benefited a lot from the people around me. I want to thank you for the sterling help of my friends. Besides I want to thank the authors of books and papers that provide me with plenty of information and references.Last but not least, I will give my gratitude to my family members, who have supported and encouraged me all the time.iv摘 要隨著英語課程改革，將學生作為課堂核心這一要求的提出，使得越來越多的教育學者關注英語課堂學生沉默現(xiàn)象。因此，解決課堂沉默問題是很必要的，不僅需要從師生雙方探究原因，還要聯(lián)系實際，最終打破沉默堅冰，構建和諧高效的英語課堂。 empirical investigation ContentsIntroduction 11. Theoretical background and literature review 2 The definition of silence 2 The characteristics of silence 2 Positive silence 3 Negative silence 3 Classification of silence 4 Relationship between silence and speech 5 The current situation of silence study at home and abroad 6 Studies at home 6 Studies at abroad 72. An empirical study of students’ silence in EFL classroom 8 Research questions 8 Research methodology 9 Research subjects 9 Research materials 9 Research procedure 9 Data collection and analysis 10 Data collection 10 Data analysis 10 The findings 11 Teachers’ aspects 11 Students’ aspects 12 Other aspects 123. Some implications and suggestions for students and teachers 13 For students 13 For teachers 14Conclusion 15References 17Appendix1: 19Appendix2: 21蘇州科技學院本科生畢業(yè)論文Students’ Silence in EFL ClassroomIntroductionIn recent years, the phenomenon of students’ silence has attracted researchers’ attention. Most of them have studied the factors that influence students’ participation, such as teachers’ talk in ELF class, teachers’ questioning methods, etc, but few researches have explored from students’ psychological perspective which is actually far more worthy of investigation.Due to the new requirements of College English Requirements (2007:25), the pedagogical tendency in EFL class emphasizes on students’ roles and aims to create a studentcentered teaching environment. Thus, many teachers have introduced various means to encourage students’ participation. It provides students with more opportunities but also much pressure. Students may employ silence as the form of municative engagement and only a small proportion of students actively participate in class. On the other hand, many teachers consider silence as the opposite action or even the enemy of speech and few teachers have taken proper measures to resolve the problem. The misunderstanding or inplete understanding of silence may lead to a vicious circle in ELF class. Meyer (Kevin 2009:16) p