It is also worth noting that while a question such as the former of the above pair gives the Speaker the opportunity to expand and clarify, it does not give the Speaker confirmation of having been understood. That is the particular strength of the response described in Chapter 6 under Reflecting. Silence Finally, before we begin these activities in language towards action, it is worthwhile thinking about the importance of silence in interaction between two people working together. Nothing in this area is natural, everything is social, and must be thought of in its own cultural context. The cultural background in which I grew up has little time for silence.
Silence is more or less by definition a waste of time.
It is also very embarrassing, and my culture has therefore developed a use of language called 'small talk', which is language-like behaviour meant not to communicate, but to fill up any silence that may occur when people are together. Readers from a background which does not feel threatened by silence have an advantage here. For those readers from a background similar to my own, I want to put in two thoughts about silence that come out of my own culture. Secondly, the jazz musician Miles Davis was supposedly once criticised for not playing enough notes in his solos. I think that expression is important to development, but that expression sometimes needs silence in which to find itself.