A multi‐cultural examination of the relationship between nonverbal immediacy and affective learning

Abstract

Since the late 1970s an expanding body of research has pointed to the importance of nonverbal immediacy for effective teacher communication, particularly in terms of the teachers' impact on the affective learning of their students. Most of this research has been conducted with subjects who have represented a primarily Caucasian, middle‐class U.S. culture. The few studies which have examined other student groups have drawn on students from other subgroups still within the overall U.S. culture. The current research was based on data drawn from the cultures of Australia, Finland, and Puerto Rico as well as the dominant U.S. culture. Each study was conducted in the primary language of the sample studied. The results of this research indicated that increased teacher immediacy was associated with increased affective learning across these diverse cultures. Whether the norms in the culture favor high or low immediacy, if the teacher is comparatively more immediate, the student's affective learning is enhanced.