Students’ motives for communicating with their instructors

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ motives for communicating with their instructors. Students were first asked why they communicate with their instructors. Based on their responses, a questionnaire was constructed that included these reasons and their interpersonal communication motives for communicating with their instructors. The results of a factor analysis identified five underlying reasons students communicate with their instructors: relational, functional, excuse, participation, and sycophancy. A canonical correlation analysis examined the relationship between these five reasons and participants’ trait interpersonal communication motives. Students who communicate with their instructors more often for all of the interpersonal communication motives tend to communicate more with their instructors to relate and participate, and to a lesser extent to offer excuses and for sycophantic reasons. The students who communicated for the interpersonal communication motive of control tended to communicate more in excuse making as well as to participate and for sycophantic reasons.