EFL Teachers’ Verbal and Nonverbal Immediacy: A Study of its Impact on Students’ Emotional States, Cognitive Learning, and Burnout

Abstract

Effective teacher–student interaction is an essential element of an ideal classroom which promotes the opportunity for expanded learning and stimulates the connections between students and teacher. The focus of the present study is on an instructional communication element that is teacher immediacy. It is defined as the mutual sensory and psychological stimulation between teacher and students. It can be verbal or nonverbal. Verbal immediacy is characterized as stylistic differences in expression from which like–dislike is inferred and includes using humor or personal examples, getting feedback, or even calling students by name. Nonverbal immediacy encompasses behaviors such as appropriate eye contact, the use of gestures, movement about the classroom, smiling, and vocal variety. In particular, the present study sought to explore the impact of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ perceived verbal/nonverbal immediacy on students’ self-actualization, stress-control, and self-esteem. Moreover, it examined the role of EFL teachers’ immediacy behaviors in students’ cognitive learning and emotional exhaustion, which is a burnout subscale. To this end, 206 EFL students participated from selected universities of Mashhad, a city in northeast of Iran. The respondents were asked to complete five inventories about themselves and the previous EFL teacher they had had classes with. The results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that teacher immediacy behavior had a positive significant impact on all student-related variables: stress tolerance (β = .65, t = 7.59), self-actualization (β = .69, t = 8.02), self-esteem (β = .63, t = 7.71), burnout (β = .31, t = 4.05), and cognitive learning (β = .45, t = 6.08). The highest impact was exerted on self-actualization and self-esteem.