The Relationship between EFL Teachers’ Classroom Management Skills and Their Immediacy as Perceived by Their Learners

Classroom management and immediacy have always been the interesting topics for the researchers throughout the time. However, barely has any study been done on both of teacher/learner points of view. This study is a survey type research, investigating the relationship between teachers' classroom management, verbal and nonverbal immediacy as perceived by their students. The sample contained 20 teachers and 244 students taught by the same teachers from three English language institutes in Tabriz. The instruments for the measurement of classroom management was Teacher Classroom Management Self-Reflection Inventory called "The Incredible Years" designed by Webster-Stratton (2012), and the questionnaire for measuring verbal and nonverbal immediacy was designed by Gorham (1988). The Wilcoxon test and spearman correlation revealed that although there was a relationship between verbal teacher immediacy (VTI) and classroom management (CM), but, there was no relationship between CM and nonverbal teacher immediacy (NVTI). Further data analysis showed that teachers VTI was higher than NVTI. The basic tool for interacting with students is the behavioral cues, so for the improvement of NVTI of teachers some pedagogical implications were provided, like including it in teacher training courses (TTC). Finally, some suggestions for further studies are stated for other researchers to conduct more comprehensible studies. Extended Abstract Classroom management and immediacy have always been the interesting topics for the researchers throughout the time. However, barely has any study been done on both of teacher/learner points of view.  This study is a survey type research, investigating the relationship between teachers' classroom management and verbal and nonverbal immediacy as perceived by their students. The sample contained 20 teachers and 244 students taught by these 20 teachers from three English language institutes in Tabriz. The instruments for the measurement of classroom management was Teacher Classroom Management Self-Reflection Inventory called "The Incredible Years" designed by Webster-Stratton (2012), and the questionnaire for measuring verbal and nonverbal immediacy was designed by Gorham (1988). The Wilcoxon test and spearman correlation revealed that although there was a relationship between verbal teacher immediacy (VTI) and classroom management (CM), but there was no relationship between CM and nonverbal teacher immediacy (NVTI). Further data analysis showed that teachers VTI was higher than NVTI. The basic tool for interacting with students is the behavioral cues, so some pedagogical implications were provided for the improvement of NVTI of teachers like including it in teacher training courses (TTC). Finally, some suggestions for further studies are stated for other researchers to conduct more comprehensible studies. 1. Introduction To make a class as effective and productive as possible, we have to manage it with orchestration and coordination of entire classroom processes (Dobrescu & Grosu, 2014). According to Van Petegem, Creemers, Rosseel and Aelterman, (2006), in order to create a classroom in which the students have good feelings, a teacher must manage the conditions of the class and be cautious and make a strong learning environment. Marzano and Marzanos' research (2003) revealed that the action taken by teachers in classrooms is important compared to what educational systems are doing. They believe that learning and teaching can't occur in a classroom which is not managed properly. Talebi, Davodi and Khoshroo, (2015, p.592) believe that teachers' aim is to create positive or negative interactions with herself/himself and the learners. If the interaction is positive, then the learners are more eager to do their duties, do exercises, carry out assignments, and learn enthusiastically. As stated by Mehrabian (1996) for the first time, immediacy is the communication behaviors that “enhance closeness to and nonverbal interaction with another” (p. 203). He believes that by increasing “physical proximity” and “perceptual availability” of the speaker to the listener, the instructor is able to have greater immediacy. There are various studies about the relationship between immediacy and the successful learning in teaching processes. “The relationship of teacher immediacy to student learning has been explored in a series of studies which indicate that a teacher's use of communicative behavior that enhances physical and psychological closeness is positively related to learning outcomes” (Gorham & Christophel, 1990, p.46). The study is going to answer the following research questions: 1- Is there any significant relationship between the learners’ perceptions of their teachers' verbal and nonverbal immediacy? 2- Is there any significant relationship between the teachers’ classroom management skills and the learners' perceptions of their verbal immediacy? 3- Is there any significant relationship between the teachers’ classroom management skills and the learners’ perceptions of their non-verbal immediacy? 2. Literature Review 2.1. Classroom Management Studies have shown that despite the courses for teacher training in most countries, teachers have always had problem with class management in real context of teaching process (Martin, Yin & Baldwin, 1998).  Teachers' point of views and opinions on student behaviors and the interaction between student and teacher shapes the way they behave about classroom management tasks. Moreover, their basic understanding of classroom management and dynamics can affect this important task (Kagan, 1992).  Classroom management is not just merely the physical arrangement. A teacher should manage to teach a subject in a given period of time. Thus without the control in a teaching process, a teacher might not be successful because no one can force a student to learn a subject (Demirel, 2009). 4. Results and Discussion 4.1. Results and Discussion This research had three parts of classroom management, verbal immediacy and nonverbal immediacy. For the accurate results among these three variables, the questionnaires were given to both sides (teachers and the learners). The classroom management questionnaire was filled by the teachers and the immediacy questionnaires were filled by the learners, to see if actually what do they think of the accomplishments of these variables. The previous researches were all one sided as they investigated these variables from teacher or learner point of view. However, the main aim of this research was to mix their ideas and see if there is any relationship between their ideas. Unlike Derkhshani's (2016) study, in which the data analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between nonverbal behavior of teachers and their classroom management, surprisingly, the present research revealed the fact that there is no relationship between these two variables. The reason behind this difference of results may be the process of data gathering in which the present study gathered the classroom management questionnaire from the teacher and nonverbal immediacy questionnaire from learners of the same teacher.  This comparison of the ideas of both sides may result in more accurate conclusions.