Investigating Moroccan Teachers of English’s Perspectives on Students’ Silence in the EFL Classroom

From the beginning of history, sounds have played a crucial role in human life as ways of expression and communication. However, nowadays, we are experiencing an excess of speech and a relentless encouragement to expression. This condition encourages us to think about silence. Educators have yet to fully understand the complexity behind silence and how both voice and silence work together to illuminate the learning experiences of students. The present qualitative study aims to examine an under-researched issue within Moroccan EFL classrooms, which is silence. It seeks to explore silence as a means of communication and learning through the perceptions of Moroccan EFL teachers. It investigates the perception and understanding of silence in the EFL classroom, particularly in Oujda, Morocco. (n=32) Teachers of English willingly participated in the study. The findings of this study indicate that classroom silence has both negative and positive connotations depending on the context, situation, and the participants involved. By listening to both voice and silence, Moroccan teachers can come to a deeper understanding of how students learn a foreign language; in other words, their learning needs. The results of this study also confirm the paramount importance that silence can play in the learning process.