Silence in Second Language Learning

A Psychoanalytic Reading

This text examines the under-researched and often troubling phenomenon of silence in second language learning through a triangulation of SLA research, memoirs and language learner diaries, and psychoanalytic concepts of anxiety, ambivalence, conflict and loss. It moves beyond the view of silence as the mere absence of speech, inviting the reader to consider it as both a psychical event and a linguistic moment in the continuous process of identity formation.

Chapter 3 Looking and Looking Again: Memoirs of Second Language Learning
When I hear my voice, I just hate it ... It is not simply that my ears hate my mouth,
or my mouth hates my eyes. The inner conflict inhabits my entire being.