Student Comfort With Instructor Immediacy Behaviors

Authors

  • Anthony T. Machette University of Oklahoma Author

Keywords:

classroom communication, nonverbal communication, immediacy

Abstract

The benefits of instructor immediacy have been well researched over the past 40 years. This study investigated students’ comfort with instructors’ nonverbal immediacy behaviors. University students reported their comfort with three nonverbal communication behaviors: haptics, proxemics, and kinesics. A series of paired-sampled t tests suggested a significant difference in student comfort, with students reporting haptic behaviors as being significantly less comfortable than proxemic and kinesic behaviors. An ANOVA revealed that students are significantly less comfortable with male instructors using haptic behaviors when compared to female instructors using the same behaviors. These results are discussed in the context of university teaching.

Published

2024-04-23