The role of verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy: The perspectives from primary school teachers

Abstract

The paper focuses on the construct of teacher immediacy, which has become an important component of classroom communication and has demanded a great deal of attention over the last decades. Teacher immediacy involves various communication behaviours that make sense of the interpersonal closeness between the teacher and the pupil. Many studies have dealt with the construct of immediacy in instructional communication, especially in the context of student learning. In the most research studies, the results indicate that teacher immediacy could significantly promote affective and cognitive learning and increase student motivation. The aim of this study is to describe the experience of primary school teachers with the use of immediacy in their classrooms. The first part of the study focuses on defining verbal and nonverbal immediacy. The results and conclusions of previous research studies are also presented. The second part presents the results of a qualitative study. Data was gathered through interviews with primary school teachers. The results of the study indicate that teachers actively influence interactions within the educational process through the use of verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviour. However, teachers perceive some obstacles that reduce their degree of immediacy. This offers new questions related to the teacher's social and communication competencies.