Training teachers to use verbal immediacy

Previous research clearly demonstrates the positive impacts of using verbal immediacy in the college classroom. This paper explores the issue of training university instructors to increase their verbal immediacy use while teaching. First, a brief literature review recaps recent verbal immediacy studies and the reasons training could be valuable. Next, the training method is outlined and results reveal how university teachers were successfully trained to use significantly more verbal immediacy in their classrooms, compared to a control group of teachers who were not trained. A discussion concludes with the implications for improving college teaching.