Abstract: The communication theory can aspire to become a master discipline that synthesizes related theories and insights and considers them as part of a comprehensive conception guiding research in different fields. In the present paper the communication theory is used to describe the influence of the teacher’s verbal and nonverbal cues in the instructional context. The results in the presented studies indicate that both the proximity and availability of word messages and nonverbal signals affect communication processes. The cited authors discuss the theory underlining the construct of teacher’s immediacy and think that it is something more than responsiveness. The psychological closeness, the physical attractiveness, the sense of humour, the gestures while talking to the class have an effect to the teaching effectiveness. The analysed empirical findings in the paper reflect the gains and losses due to presence of the nonverbal and verbal teacher’s attractiveness during the classroom interactions and seeks to enlarge the discussion of this issue under educationalists.
Keywords: communication, immediacy, teaching, nonverbal, verbal.
Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 8, April 2013, http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464