Instructor immediacy in the Chinese college classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine instructor immediacy in the Chinese and American classrooms, and its relationship with Chinese student learning. Participants were 302 undergraduate university students (140 Chinese students enrolled at Peking University in Beijing, China; 162 American students enrolled at a large Midwestern university). Results indicated that (a) Chinese students who received instruction from Chinese instructors perceived a lower amount of instructor nonverbal immediacy than American students who received instruction from American instructors, (b) Chinese students who received instruction from Chinese instructors perceived a lower amount of instructor verbal immediacy than American students who received instruction from American instructors, and (c) perceived Chinese student affective and cognitive learning is slightly correlated with particular Chinese instructor nonverbal and verbal immediacy behaviors.