Silence in Everyday Conversations amongst Students: A Case of St. Augustine University of Tanzania

Abstract

This paper investigated the role of silence in everyday conversations amongst students of St. Augustine University of Tanzania. It sought to evaluate the role and implications of silence in everyday conversations amongst the students. In order to get appropriate information for the study, focus group discussion, unstructured interviews, and observation were used to collect data.  It employed qualitative approach in data collection and analysis.  The interpretation of data was guided by politeness theory which was proposed by Brown and Levinson.  The findings revealed that most interlocutors tended to keep silent to grasp the content of their discussions and reduce disagreements during conversations.  This was taken as a kind of politeness. However, few respondents were of a contrary opinion and argued that one’s silence during conversations was a sign of being uncooperative and could limit information flow amongst the interlocutors. Generally, the study concludes that silence plays a significant role in the conversation processes in human life.  Additionally, silence among interlocutors depends on the context of a conversation in terms of place and its content.