A Cross-Cultural Study of Student Perceptions of Teacher Immediacy: An Examination of Best and Worst Teachers across Six Cultures

This study examines the levels of verbal and nonverbal immediacy that students associate with their best and worst teachers across six different cultures. Results suggest that, regardless of culture, students perceived “best” teachers to display greater levels of verbal and nonverbal immediacy than “worst” teachers. There was also a main effect for culture, with students perceiving Japanese and Taiwanese professors to use less nonverbal immediacy than Australian, Mexican, Swedish, and U.S. professors. For verbal immediacy, there was a significant professor type (best vs. worst) by culture interaction, such that best professors in Sweden, Taiwan, and Mexico were perceived to use less verbal immediacy than best professors in the U.S. There were also cultural differences related to how much discrepancy there was in the perceived immediacy of best and worst teachers. This discrepancy was greatest for the U.S. and Taiwan for nonverbal immediacy, and for the U.S. and Japan for verbal immediacy. Across both nonverbal and verbal immediacy, the discrepancy between best and worst teachers was relatively small for Mexican students' judgments.