ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the immediacy construct, highlights the origins of the research program, and details contemporary research for understanding significant contributions of immediacy research. It provides a summary of the impact of both verbal and nonverbal immediacy on student affective and cognitive learning, and proposes special areas of research associated with immediacy. The chapter also presents knowledge claims derived from immediacy research, and explains teaching applications, opportunities for research reflection, and directions for future research. Within the instructional context, immediacy is the degree of perceived physical or psychological closeness between teachers and students. Immediacy represents sets of verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors that indicate a teacher's willingness to approach and be approached by students and is influential in reducing the perceived physical or psychological distance between communicators. Researchers interested in immediacy in instruction have expended considerable effort investigating the potential impact of culture.
