Intercultural perspective about professors’ nonverbal behaviour: The voice of three groups of university students
Three groups of undergraduate students (N=25 from Canada; N=21 from Italy; N=13 international on an exchange in Italy) were invited to express their opinions on a survey investigating types of professors’ nonverbal behaviour (e.g., walking around the classroom) during class. This study is inspired by the literature on the concept of “immediacy,” which defines the verbal and nonverbal behaviours that can help decrease physical and psychological distance between interlocutors (Mehrabian, 1967). Within educational settings, immediacy can promote learning and motivate students to participate (e.g., Frymier et al., 2019). Considering today’s international movement of people that end up studying or teaching in world areas different from their original culture, along with the common use of English as the Lingua Franca (Kecskés, 2013, 2019), this study aimed at exploring the variation of students’ opinions about their professors’ nonverbal behaviours (e.g., Kendon, 2017), to discuss the effects that it may have on the relationship between instructors and students. This presentation offers insights into the nonverbal profile of an instructor that can travel more or less successfully interculturally, and it discusses the pedagogical implications.
References
Frymier A. B., Goldman, Z. W., & Claus, C. J. (2019). Why nonverbal immediacy matters: A motivation explanation. Communication Quarterly, 67(5), 526-539.
Kecskés, I. (2013). Intercultural pragmatics. O.U.P.
Kecskés, I. (2019). English as a lingua franca: The pragmatic perspective. C.U.P.
Kendon, A. (2017). Pragmatic functions of gestures: Some observations on the history of their study and their nature. Gesture, 16(2), 157-175.
Mehrabian, A. (1967). Orientation behaviours and nonverbal attitude communication. Journal of Communication, 17, 324-332.