A Study of Teacher Out-of-class Verbal and Non-verbal Immediacy and EFL Students’ Motivation

Teacher immediacy has been increasingly emphasized in the field of foreign language teaching while motivation also plays an important role in English learning. Although there have been a large number of studies related to teacher immediacy and learning motivation, there is a lack of research on the relationship between the two in the context of Chinese universities. Therefore, based on the self-determination theory, this study explores the correlation between teachers' verbal and nonverbal immediacy and EFL university students' learning motivation. The research questions of this study are as follows: (1) Is there a correlation between teacher out-of-class immediacy in online communication and student motivation in China? (2) How does teachers’ behavior impact student motivation? This study adopts questionnaires, investigates 115 Chinese university students' perceptions of teachers' out-of-class immediacy and their learning motivation. The results of the study showed that (1) The use of teachers’ verbal and nonverbal immediacy perceived by students are relatively high. (2) There is a positive correlation between teachers’ immediacy behaviors and students’ learning motivation. Based on the above findings, this study proposes suggestions for optimizing teachers' immediate behaviors and students' learning motivation: in terms of out of class immediacy, teachers should establish the educational concept of student-centered learning, give students affirmation and encouragement through verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors to appropriately reduce the distance between students and increase students' interest in learning.