Teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension: A cross-cultural investigation

The present study investigates classroom communication apprehension in relation to perceived teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy in Chinese and US college classrooms. The objectives of this study are three-fold: to compare classroom communication apprehension and perceived teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy, and to examine the impact of teacher immediacy on classroom communication apprehension in Chinese and US college classrooms. This study reports three major findings, including (a) Chinese students have a significantly higher classroom communication apprehension than their US counterparts, (b) Chinese student perceptions of teacher verbal immediacy are significantly higher than US student perceptions, but their perceptions of teacher nonverbal immediacy are not significantly different, and (c) classroom communication apprehension is correlated negatively with US student perceptions of teacher nonverbal immediacy, but not with verbal immediacy; classroom communication apprehension is not correlated negatively with Chinese student perceptions of teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy