Instructional Communication Research Articles

Influence of lecturers’ verbal and non-verbal immediacy behaviour on perceived affective and cognitive learning in a multicultural context.

The intention of the present study was to determine whether (1) the immediacy behaviourof lecturers whose home language is Afrikaans or English contributes positively to theaffective and cognitive learning of learners whose home language is Afrikaans, Englishor one of the African languages; and (2) whether the form of immediacy behaviourdisplayed by English or Afrikaans lecturers functions differently for learners whose homelanguage is one of the African languages in relation to those whose home language isAfrikaans or English. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire that had separatesections on immediacy behaviour and learning. Positive correlations between theimmediacy behaviour of the lecturers and the affective and cognitive learning of thelearners were observed for the whole test group. The immediacy behaviour displayed bythe lecturers functions differently for learners whose home language is one of the Africanlanguages than for those whose home language is Afrikaans or English. Considering thesefindings, it is imperative that instructional communication in today’s South Africa beincreasingly characterized by a culture-centred approach.

Designing Interculturally: Adopting a Social Justice Research Framework for “Seeing Difference”

This paper suggests adding a social justice framework to the questions that Kostelnick suggests to help students investigate culture in “Seeing Difference.” Using visual rhetoric to teach technical communication is beneficial for students; however, problematic representations of culture may unintentionally appear in visual design and are easy to overlook. Using a social justice framework that promotes a contextual study of culture should allow technical communication instructors to prepare students to investigate the social and political aspects of culture. This paper, therefore, revisits “Seeing Difference” and asks that technical communication instructors guide students to research sociopolitical aspects of culture and visuals to develop designs that are interculturally appropriate.

Learner Reticence at the Time of the Pandemic: Examining Filipino Students’ Communication Behaviors in Remote Learning

Between the uncertainty of a global pandemic, the unfamiliar territory of fully remote education, and the detrimental effects of related crises on the educational system, emerging research on pandemic pedagogy have underscored the universal presences of 1) anxiety in students and teachers, 2) decreased communication opportunities, and 3) challenges with communication technologies –all of which have been found to affect students’ communication behaviors in their remote classes. Learner reticence –students’ inadequate ability in self-expression usually manifested in reluctance to engage in classroom discourse– remains one of the biggest instructional communication challenges most teachers face today. Recent pandemic-related changes in learning delivery have put students at an even bigger disadvantage in terms of self-expression, participation, and discourse since the majority of the difficulties they experience in remote learning involve and are affected by their resources’ capacities to sustain communication with their teachers and classmates. This study investigated the self-perceived experiences of learner reticence of Filipino higher education students. With phenomenology as the main method of inquiry, all participants disclosed experiences of reticent behaviors in their remote classes during the pandemic; individual and personality-based factors were found to contribute the most to the students’ experienced reticence. The participants’ narratives also gave rise to insights on teacher immediacy and interpersonal communication in remote classes.

Teacher Instructional Communication on Biology Learning During a Pandemic at SMA Negeri 10 Depok

The purpose of this research is to find out the teachers’ instructional communication in biology learning during the Covid-19 pandemic at SMA Negeri 10 Depok. This research uses qualitative approach with constructivist paradigm. The subjects of this research are 3 (three) Biology teachers, 1 (one) vice principal, and 3 (three) active students at SMA Negeri 10 Depok. Data collection techniques use interviews, observations, and document studies. The results shows that the implementation of learning at SMA Negeri 10 Depok is carried out in a face to face mode and online structured assignments by using the google suite for education platform. Instructional communication conducted by biology teachers during the pandemic at SMA Negeri 10 Depok was effective this is indicated by the evaluation results which show the achievement of student competencies above the minimum competencies determined by the school and has implemented the steps of instructional communication well including determining content and objectives specifications, measuring initial behavior, determining strategies, organizing instructional units, and feedback.

Expressive Communication Over Time: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Project Core Implementation Model

The purpose of this large-scale descriptive study was to investigate the impact of an implementation model designed to provide U.S. classroom teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources required to provide aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) instruction to their students with extensive support needs and complex communication needs. We followed 49 students with extensive support needs and limited symbolic communication across 2 years in the classrooms of 53 teachers who engaged in ongoing coaching and professional development. At pretest, the students demonstrated an average of 15 of the 80 (19%) expressive skills on the Communication Matrix. Multilevel longitudinal modeling was used to analyze changes in scores over time. The findings suggest there was a statistically significant relationship between time and Communication Matrix scores, with the ends of each academic year associated with statistically significant growth at rates of 3.01% and 12.38%, respectively. Implications for practice and future directions are discussed.

Synergizing learning in and beyond the classroom in study abroad context: accounts from CSL sojourners in China

ABSTRACT Adopting a learning ecology perspective, this study examined sojourners’ formal classroom learning and the interactions between their learning in the classroom and their learning in the community. Data for the study were collected from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations involving 14 sojourners learning Chinese as a second language (CSL) at a Chinese higher education institution. The study found that the CSL sojourners made conscious efforts to create a reciprocal relationship between their second language (L2) interactions in the local community and their instructed learning in the programme, but in doing this they encountered a series of challenges. When these learners encountered challenges in attempting to use local interactions to support their instructed learning, they relied on communicative instruction in the classroom. While much of the in-class instruction that they received did not support their daily communication needs in the local community, several instructional activities involving the local community were identified to play a positive role in the process. These findings suggest that L2 study abroad programmes and classrooms should be reviewed/modified to more systematically encourage students to integrate their learning experiences across in-class and out-of-class contexts and supports from teacher education need to be in place as well.

Student integration: an initial examination of student reports of markers of academic and social integration

The theory of student departure holds that integration is a critical component of student retention and persistence. Integration is an interactive process through which students come to be full members of the university community both academically and socially. To date, this concept has been examined and understood through poor conceptualizations and operationalizations. Instructional communication as a field is ideally situated to explore the concept of integration, which is inherently rooted in communication. Thematic analysis was used to examine student perceptions of their own academic and social integration. Results indicated students felt integrated when they fulfill their role as a student, build relationships among other institutional actors, and engage with the university. Students identified similar behaviors for both academic and social integration.

Perceived Immediacy and Burnout as Mediators of Instructor Misbehaviors and Students’ Task Value

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to examine instructional influences of students’ task value. A total of 382 undergraduate students participated in this survey study. The data supported a mediated model in which instructor misbehaviors (i.e., antagonism and lecturing) indirectly decrease students’ task value through the psychological responses of perceived immediacy and burnout. Therefore, findings of this study indicate that instructors who do not control their antagonism and lecturing behaviors may reduce the value that students see in the course they teach, ultimately hindering students’ learning experience. This study highlights the need for instructional communication training and resources for instructors which could improve psychoemotional experiences for students and improve learning.

Instructor strictness: instrument development and validation

ABSTRACT Three studies (N = 1,346) detail the development of three theoretically grounded instruments operationalizing instructor strictness. Using open-ended questionnaire data (n = 427), study 1 inductively derives an understanding of the instructor behaviors that students perceive as strict. These patterns of behavior are then condensed into a comprehensive item pool designed to measure the relevant constructs. Study 2 (n = 391) evaluates the underlying factor structures comprised by the patterns of strictness identified in study 1 through a series of exploratory factor analyses. Study 3 (n = 528) establishes factorial validity of each new measure through confirmatory factor analyses. Studies 2 and 3 also provide evidence for convergent and concurrent validity between the newly formed measures of evaluative, regulatory, and interactive strictness and relevant variables within the nomological network, including the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) strictness inventory, the QTI admonishing behavior inventory, instructor caring, and cognitive flexibility. The research provides a roadmap to investigate how instructors who enforce classroom rules or demonstrate inflexibility may influence instructional outcomes in nuanced ways. The theoretical and practical implications of the new measures for instructional communication research, as well as future directions, are discussed.

SPORT COMMUNICATION: REVEALING THE USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL COMMUNICATION ON FOOTBALL COACHING PROCESS

ASIFA is one of the most successful international standard football academies in football coaching. This success is inseparable from the communication process between coaches and students during coaching. During this time, research on sports communication highlighted the interaction between coaches and students that had not been widely studied from an instructional communication perspective. Therefore, this research aimed to identify the process of instructional communication between coaches and students in football coaching at ASIFA. This research used a descriptive qualitative method with three data collection techniques, i.e., observation, a document study, and in-depth interviews with coaches, students, and football coaching experts. The research results indicated that the process of instructional communication between coaches and students in football coaching at ASIFA could be identified through six interrelated elements: 1) Context; 2) Source – Sender; 3) Content – Message; 4) Instructional Strategy; 5) Receiver; and 6) Feedback. Through the perspective of instructional communication, it was found that there were conceptual differences between the roles of coaches and students in the coaching process. Practice-based coaching tended to use a rhetorical approach (one-way communication). Meanwhile, non-practical-based coaching used a relational approach (two-way communication). Then, this research contributed by producing a quadrant model of coaching communication in football coaching.

Peran Media Pembelajaran dalam Komunikasi Instruksional Sekolah Vokasi Pariwisata di Jawa Barat

Learning media as a tool to convey messages or information in the instructional communication process should be able to stimulate attention, interest and improve student memory. For this reason, designing and using learning media is important so that the delivery of learning messages can be achieved effectively. This study aims to find out the importance of the role of learning media in the instructional communication process in the field of tourism expertise in several vocational schools, vocational schools and universities in West Java. The research was conducted qualitatively with the aim of obtaining open and detailed data from informants who expressed their opinions about the learning media used by their teachers/lecturers. The key informants consisted of 24 students from six vocational schools and four universities in West Java, while data triangulation was carried out to 10 lecturers/teachers. The results of the analysis of the four aspects studied show: a. Students really feel the benefits and functions of learning media. b. The availability of learning media in three schools is complete and institutionalized, but in the other seven schools it still depends on the initiative of each teacher. c. Student/student responses to learning media greatly encourage the spirit of learning, it is easier to understand and remember learning materials. d. Barriers to the provision of learning media: limited educational background and experience of teachers/lecturers in the field of pedagogy, limited initiative and creativity of certain teachers/lecturers, not yet requiring teachers to provide media in every lesson, limited school facilities, such as internet networks and LCD projectors. This condition illustrates that this tourism vocational school has not fully designed its learning media properly, because there are differences in the availability of learning media between schools and between teachers, including differences in the level of attractiveness, diversity, suitability and creativity of lecturers/teachers in providing and using them. As a tourism vocational school whose graduates must be ready to work with work competencies that include knowledge, skills and professional work attitudes with a hospitality spirit formed in schools through the learning process. There are three schools that have achieved this well, while the other seven schools still need to improve the quality of learning. through appropriate learning media and based on the competencies and needs of the world of work. The results of this study are expected to be an important input for the implementation of West Java tourism vocational schools.

INSTRUCTORS’ AND LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON USE OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN INSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH IN KENYA; A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW

Purpose: Non-verbal communication has strong impact on the behavior of both instructors and learners. As a result, both the learners’ and instructors’ success rely on the effective communication between them in the classroom. The purpose of our study therefore is to evaluate instructors’ and learners’ perceptions on use of non-verbal communication in instruction of English in Kenya.
 Methodology: The paper used a desk study review methodology where relevant empirical literature was reviewed to identify main themes and to extract knowledge gaps.
 Conclusion: From the findings of this study, one may conclude that non-verbal communication helped in effective teaching and learning of English language. The study also concluded that students understand better when their teachers use non-verbal cues in the class. Instructors’ non-verbal communication is one of the best tools for classroom management and control.
 Recommendations: The study recommended that the government should make provision for learning resources which can complement teachers’ non-verbal usage in order to deliver content and knowledge effectively. Also, since classroom communication is a two-way process, teachers should better understand their students’ non-verbal communication. This means that if there is any communication problem in the class, the teacher should be able to adopt better methods of teaching which should also be accompanied with non-verbal gestures.

21ST CENTURY TEACHER AND STUDENTS INTEREST AMONG JUNIOR AND SENIOR STUDENTS AT THE DISTRICT OF MAGDALENA

This study was limited to the 21st-century teacher's teaching practices and the interest of the sixty (60) secondary and senior students in the district of Magdalena. It was focused on the sub- questions; 1) what is the status of the 21st-century teacher in terms of teaching practices as to communication, instruction, critical thinking, knowledge in ICT, and cooperation? 2) what is the level of student's interest in motivation, self-esteem, confidence, aspiration, and persistence? and 3) is there a significant relationship between 21st-century teacher teaching practices and student interest? The following were the significant findings of the investigation: first, the status of 21st century teachers in terms of teaching practices regarding communication instruction, critical thinking, knowledge in ICT, and cooperation were all verbally interpreted as Very High. Second, the level of student's interest in motivation, self-esteem, confidence, aspiration, and persistence were verbally interpreted as High. Lastly, it is interesting to note that there is a strong and positive relationship between the students' interest in motivation, self?esteem, confidence, aspiration, and persistence and the teaching practices in terms of communication, instruction, critical thinking, knowledge of ICT, and cooperation. The correlations are significant. It was concluded that there is a significant relationship between the 21st-century teacher teaching practices and students' interests; thus, the hypothesis is rejected.

Technical communication for civil engineering: academia-industry interdisciplinary needs

ABSTRACT The prevailing civil engineering graduates’ technical writing and oral presentation-related drawbacks have necessitated the design and implementation of demand-driven courses applying interdisciplinary pedagogy. This study investigates civil engineering academia-industry interdisciplinary contents, methods, and situations needed to design technical communication course. The analysis which engaged students, instructors, and professionals from industries employed sequential mixed methods design which grounds the quantitative analysis with exploratory detailed interviews. This revealed that classroom, internship, and industry contexts are essential foundations of interaction for stakeholders. Oral presentation, writing, reading, and evaluating technical documents infused with engineering design processes of initiating, designing, managing, and evaluating civil engineering projects were the contents selected from the needs analyses. Basic skills, rhetoric analysis, ethical and critical issues, and teamwork were the precedence pedagogical frames preferred to establish the methods of technical communication instruction. These interdisciplinary needs analyses imply how technical communication-related courses should be designed to enhance students’ multiple competencies better than solely addressing instrumentally codified skills that deny the author and the discourse community.

Multimodal instructional communication in science and engineering in two university classrooms

Abstract Universities in English speaking countries have been witnessing an increasing number of international faculty who speak English as an international language. However, the universities are mostly guided by the dominant monolingual ideologies and language policies that favor verbal repertoires in standard English even though instructional communication is characteristically multimodal. Against this backdrop, this article focuses on two faculty members in STEM and investigates their instructional interaction. Using multimodal interaction as a theoretical and methodological heuristic, the analysis pays attention to how modes, codes and material objects are ensembled in specific configurations as instructors and students engage in the process of meaning negotiation. The instructors’ instructional practices and perspectives demonstrate the importance of the entanglement of language with diverge semiotic, social and material elements of communication. The findings suggest a need for a broader definition and scope of instructional interaction in STEM.

Against the grain

ABSTRACT This agenda-setting theory essay offers a collaborative response to Sprague, J. (1992). Expanding the research agenda for instructional communication: Raising some unasked questions. Communication Education, 41(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634529209378867 early theorizing on critical approaches to communication pedagogy, developing it to account not only for critical developments since but also to the political precarity increasingly organizing everyday life, especially of the dispossessed and particularly of the Global South (Shome, 2020). Indeed, we argue that the only viable pedagogical route that responds to the precariousness of life in the twenty-first century must be emancipatory rather than reformist. To make our point, we offer a metareview of over a century of literature published in the Quarterly Journal of Speech (1915–1952) and Communication Education (formerly The Speech Teacher; 1952–2021) to reveal the same Western liberal philosophies of education undergirding communication pedagogies generally. In this regard, our agenda-setting essay calls for a paradigmatic shift against the grain and toward emancipatory futurities. Content warning: This essay cites anti-Indigenous, anti-Black, and xenophobic discourse; take good care of yourself as you move through these pages interrogating our disciplinary complicities.

Teacher communication and learner willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language: a structural equation modeling approach

PurposeThis study aims to propose and test a model that examines the potential connections between two teacher situational variables (teacher immediacy and credibility) and three learner affective factors (motivation, attitudes and communication confidence) and to examine how such associations predict learners’ L2WTC (Foreign/second language willingness to communicate) in a language class via a comprehensive communication model to structurally verify the theoretically based associations among these variables.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 214 females and 198 males took part in the study with age range between 19 and 38 years. Participants filled in a verified, translated Arabic version of the questionnaires using an online questionnaire. Data were gathered using questionnaires and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and sequential mediation analysis using bootstrapping methods to identify and verify direct and indirect paths in the model.FindingsThe initial L2 communication structural model showed acceptable goodness of model fit. Teacher credibility and immediacy behaviors only indirectly predicted L2WTC through the mediation of affective variables. Motivation and communication confidence mediated the relationship between credibility and L2WTC, while the association between immediacy and L2WTC was mediated by communication confidence.Originality/valueThe findings of this study have important pedagogical implications globally for professions related to communication instruction, especially with regard to teacher credibility behaviors and particularly for practitioners and beneficiaries in EFL contexts where learners are widely acknowledged for their unwillingness to communicate in foreign language classes.

Language Game of Language Education: Instructional Talk, Pedagogical Aids, and Communication

This research aimed to determine the professional codes in language education using Wittgenstein's concept of a language game. It is a qualitative inquiry by nature as it uses content and textual analysis as its main research methodologies. Specifically, it analyzed the manifestations of professional codes in the teaching and learning process, pedagogical aids or instructional materials, and the communications used in this field of specialization. Furthermore, textual evidence or extraction of manifestations of a certain code of communication was systematically done vis-à-vis the presuppositions of the actions and behavior of the speakers to reveal sets of words, phrases, and elementary propositions or codes of communication. The study found out that the language game of language education is, indeed, distinct from other disciplines in terms of lexicon and locution, syntactical constructions, semantic associations, and pragmatic implication. Essentially, the professional codes in language education in terms of lexicon and locution are described as communication-oriented, education-related, and language-focused. With regard to syntactical constructions, the identified codes of communication were described to have a complex structure and multidimensional functions. In terms of the pragmatic domain, it was found that there was a hegemony of directives and expressives in the field of language education. Nevertheless, to gain a more comprehensive analysis of the language game of this field, documents other than what is utilized in this research and more aspects of analysis should also be considered to fully reveal the language game used in language education.

Pay attention! The influence of coach-, content-, and player-related factors on focus of attention statements during tennis training

ABSTRACT It is well established that adopting an external focus of attention (EF) enhances motor learning when contrasted to an internal focus (IF) or a neutral condition. Despite consistent evidence for this performance-enhancing effect of an EF, recent studies show that coaches predominantly induce an IF in the communication with athletes. It remains, however, unknown whether and to what degree coach-, content- or player-related factors have an impact on the focus of attention during youth tennis training. Therefore, we recorded all statements from 10 tennis coaches during six training sessions with a total of 87 youth athletes aged 18 years or younger. All statements were categorized according to the focus they induced (IF, EF, neutral, best place to hit the ball, mix, no focus) and the form of communication (instruction, feedback). Of the relevant statements (n = 3049), 45.1% promoted an EF, whereas 33.1% induced an IF. Evaluation of coaches-, player- and content-specific features (education, age of coach/player, training content, skill level) showed that more statements with an IF were given when training beginners. The data also show more statements with an EF for instructions (59.0%) compared to feedback (43.0%). Our results contrast with other sports where instructions with an IF predominate. Thus, instrumented sports with external targets (e.g. tennis) might be better suited for inducing an EF. The data also show that coaches are more likely to use IF when communicating with beginners. Consequently, an EF should not be induced in every possible situation, even if this is often communicated so far. Highlights This study shows for the first time that statements that induce an external focus of attention predominate in tennis. This result contrasts with results from other sports and suggests that racquet sports may be better suited for inducing an external attentional focus. This study shows that coaches adapt their communication to the performance level of their athletes. The use of an external focus of attentions predominates when working with tennis players. However, the likelihood of inducing an EF is even higher when working with skilled tennis players when compared to beginners. The way of communication (feedback vs. instruction) influences how coaches phrase their statements to athletes. The analysis revealed that coaches use more statements with an external focus of attentions for instructions compared to feedback.

Online Training to Improve Service Provider Implementation of Letter-Sound Correspondence Instruction for Individuals Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Service providers have limited training in adapting and implementing literacy instruction for individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and therefore, opportunities to participate in phonological-based literacy activities are minimal. An online training was developed to teach service providers how to implement a systematic lesson in letter-sound correspondence (LSC) instruction with high fidelity for individuals who use AAC. The Active Implementation Framework was used to guide the investigation of implementation fidelity and intervention effectiveness after service provider completion of an online training in LSC instruction. Study 1 trained five speech-language pathologists, one paraeducator, and six special educators in schools (N = 12), and Study 2 trained four speech-language pathology master's students. Single case across participant methodology was used for both studies with an implementation fidelity checklist to measure changes in instructional behaviors. Additionally, social validity data from service providers were collected. Preliminary data on intervention effectiveness for individuals who use AAC were collected for three LSCs after service providers were trained. Prior to the online training, service providers implemented LSC instruction with low fidelity. After the training, 11 service providers in Study 1 and all four speech-pathology master's students in Study 2 demonstrated large gains in implementation fidelity. Eight of the nine individuals who use AAC demonstrated improvement in LSC. Access to the online training has the potential to change the implementation behavior of service providers and take steps toward closing the research-to-practice gap surrounding early phonological skill acquisition for individuals who use AAC. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19400741.