Intercultural (mis)communication in teacher‐student interaction

Abstract This article explores communication and miscommunication in Japanese university settings, in English‐medium classroom situations where the students are Japanese and the instructor is a ‘native’, generally Inner Circle, speaker of English. The focus of the analysis is on two aspects of classroom style that are affected by teacher's and students’ divergent norms of interaction and interpretation: (1) turn‐taking behavior, especially student non‐responsiveness represented by an abundance of silence; and (2) forms of address, particularly the names, with or without a title, that students use in calling their teachers. The article is influenced by, and seen as an extension of, Larry E. Smith's work on English for cross‐cultural communication and discourse across cultures.