The association between immediacy and socio‐communicative style

Abstract

The very strong association of immediacy with positive instructional outcomes has led some to question whether teacher immediacy amounts to anything more than being responsive with students. The present study demonstrates that a measure of teacher immediacy is strongly associated with the Socio‐Communicative Style of the teacher—both the assertiveness and the responsiveness components. It is concluded that it is theoretically justified to teach pre‐service or in‐service teachers to engage in immediate behaviors as means of increasing their communication competence and probably teaching effectiveness. The impact of immediacy observed in the classroom environment is seen as likely to be generalizable to other communication contexts.