1 Introduction

In the United States, as early as the 1910s, communication scholars started researching education and educational psychology. Two different terms of educational research distinguished two additional scholarships. The first one is “communication education,” which aims to find “ways to facilitate the acquisition of communication skills among students” ([67], p. 89). Second, the “instructional communication” field appeared separately and expanded its scope to include all disciplines in the 1970s. The International Communication Association (ICA) founded the Instructional Communication Division in 1972. Since then, instructional communication has been defined as scholarship focused on “discover how communication variables impact the learning process” ([48], p. 17).

In Brazil, the relevance of communication to educational studies was examined only in 1987, when Freire (1987) stated that a teacher’s communication with a student is made possible through dialog. Dialog is the communication that “nourishes with love, humility, hope, faith, and trust. Therefore, only the dialog allows communication. A relationship of affinity between [teacher and student] is then established. Only in this case, there is communication” (Freire 1987, p. 107). A few years later, the term “educommunication” began a new field of study in Brazil. Studies on educommunication can include an analysis of the media or the production of communication materials that can be used as learning tools [1] (Satori and Soares 2005). One type of media examined was the community radio station, which was an essential contributor to informal education [60]. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, this research has resulted in a project named “Educommunication by the waves of the radio” (Educom.radio) that provides training for approximately nine thousand teachers and members of school communities for the use of radio in school activities [37]. “The radio is already a school. It has the gift of transforming life into loudness, penetrating not only the minds of the listener but also his or her sensitivity. Decoding the messages produced by the radio makes the listener produce ideas, create images, fantasies, enrich the spirit, change or consolidate behaviors” ([4], p.15). Gomes [28] observed professionals from the field of communication and education during the process of this training in “radio-school” and found that the radio can work as a learning tool to enhance student–teacher dialog of the kind highlighted by Freire.

In the United States, the relationship between communication and education has led to the development of instructional communication research [68]. Friedrich [22] reported that instructional communication is concerned with how communication affects the teaching–learning process in classrooms across all disciplines and is grounded in communication theory. This field of research involves psychology, pedagogy, and communication studies [52]. Instructional communication focuses on the “learner (i.e., how students learn affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively), the instructor (i.e., the skills and strategies necessary for effective instruction), and the meaning exchanged in the verbal, nonverbal, and mediated messages between and among instructors and students” ([53], p. 149). The field has focused on the role of communication in teaching and learning.

Today, instructional communication research focuses on student and instructor communication behaviors. One of the most studied subjects is communication apprehension. According to McCroskey et al. [48], “communication apprehension may be the most serious learning disability a student can have, both in terms of its severity and its prevalence in approximately 20% of the student body at all levels” (p. 22). On the one hand, some students need more skills to have a high classroom proficiency rate. Some students may behave appropriately but still experience high levels of communication apprehension, which prevents them from participating adequately. Therefore, it is essential to study how communication apprehension affects the participation of students in the classroom.

Many studies on instructor communication behaviors have focused on instructor immediacy [43, 58]. Immediacy has been defined as the extent to which physical or psychological closeness helps enhance certain communication-related behaviors [50]. According to McCroskey and Richmond [61], the study on immediacy linking the fields of communication and education was first performed at West Virginia University to identify teacher behaviors associated with effective classroom instruction. Nonverbal immediacy was a common link found in the educational literature by the communication scholar Janis F. Andersen and colleagues. Their research results supported the hypothesis that immediacy was a significant factor in educational settings [3]. Studies have shown that high levels of teacher immediacy can increase a student’s motivation to learn and increase students’ cognitive retention of material [41]. In addition, teacher immediacy has also been found to decrease classroom communication apprehension [78]. This study fills a gap in the understanding of the value of instructional communication in Brazil.

Teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension have been well researched in the United States [15, 25, 78]. Teacher immediacy has affected communication apprehension in American classrooms [78]. However, there is limited research in Brazil, and many topics have yet to be studied among Brazilian participants. We should extend the research to the Brazilian context instead of relying on previous investigations from other regions as the basis for cross-cultural theorizing.

First, this study examines the relationship between teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. Second, this study compares perceived teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian and U.S. college classrooms. The aim of this study is to contribute to this understanding by examining how teacher immediacy relates to classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian and U.S. college classrooms.

2 Literature review

This literature review examines previous research conducted on two variables of focus in this study: teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. In addition, this literature review explores the theoretical relationships between these variables and how each influences the other. Previous research in the cross-cultural context has also examined this topic.

2.1 Teacher immediacy

Immediacy has been defined as the extent to which physical or psychological closeness helps enhance certain communication-related behaviors [69]. The construct of teacher immediacy has been of widespread interest, and the general conclusion suggests that being immediate is suitable for teachers. Many studies evaluating the immediacy behaviors of teachers in the classroom have been conducted. Teacher immediacy has been positively associated with increased cognitive learning [27] and positive student evaluations of immediate teachers [81]. Immediacy represents the verbal and nonverbal elements frequently mixed and used to communicate the desire to approach another person [76].

Verbal teacher immediacy has been explored in terms of power relationships. Using messages to alter students’ behavior has impacted students' perception of the teacher. Oral positive statements that employ rewards, experts, and referent power have been demonstrated to enhance teachers' immediacy toward students, in contrast to the use of antisocial messages that rely on coercive and legitimate authority [14]. Teachers who verbalize positive results of on-task behavior are perceived to be more immediate than those who verbalize the negative consequences of failing to comply.

Verbal immediacy is associated with effective learning [36]. Verbal immediacy in teaching is mainly expressed through praise for student efforts, humor, self-disclosure, willingness to engage students in conversation, and openness and willingness to interact and meet with students [19].

Another interesting approach is to reduce the distance between teachers and students. Verbal immediacy behaviors reduce psychological proximity and improve students’ performance [15]. Verbal immediacy serves to improve the psychological feeling of closeness among individuals. For instance, using words such as “we” instead of “you” or “me” promotes feelings of closeness and association [29]. Students in such a class are expected to have positive attitudes toward learning and show more interaction with fellow students. Increased interaction among students positively affects their perception of social presence, acknowledging others as real people [15].

Nonverbal immediacy is a psychological feature involving behaviors, such as body posture, eye contact, gestures, physical distance, smiling, and touching. Such nonverbal traits increase sensory stimulation, leading to intense, effective, and immediate interactions [29]. Facing someone, touching, or standing close to someone is the basis for immediacy among individuals. Nonverbal teacher immediacy behavior is associated with cognitive learning. The ability of a teacher to be more vocally expressive, smile in class, and have a relaxed body posture are meaningful behaviors that enhance cognitive learning [26].

A teacher’s nonverbal behavior can improve students' affect or likability of the subject and rapport [11]. Classes can also increase their desire for learning [35]. This was tested by Allen, Witt, and Wheeless [2], who found that the function of immediacy is to increase affective learning, which increases cognitive learning. These relationships suggest that immediacy may increase students’ motivation to study or attend class and their affective and cognitive learning. Immediate behaviors are triggers to generate student arousal, contributing to student learning. When teachers employ verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors, students indicate increased perceptions of learning from the course [51].

2.2 Classroom communication apprehension

Communication Apprehension is the level of fear that a person associates with interacting with others [21]. It is an anxiety that more than 20 percent of people experience, adversely affecting those who have it [66]. According to Colby, Hopf, and Ayres [16], three identifiable effects of high communication apprehension are observed in a person’s communication behavior: communication withdrawal, communication disruption, and communication avoidance. In the classroom, such behaviors can be identified because they appear in particular behaviors, such as talking less, not talking, or having speaking patterns disrupted by vocalized pauses. Previous studies have shown that communication negatively impacts academic performance [10, 38].

Research on communication apprehension, which relies significantly on the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) [45], has found that various academic and social behavioral patterns can be linked to high communication apprehension. In a report, McCroskeyz and Payne [46] discovered that college students with higher levels of communication apprehension were less attractive, less intelligent, and less capable. Even instructors have the wrong perception of students with communication apprehension and often see them as less competent or less intelligent than their fellow students. Such assumptions create a cycle where negative students are poorly marked because they are deemed less intelligent and vice versa, thus making the learning process difficult. Communication apprehension affects behavior since those affected by it attempt to avoid conversation or reduce the time spent in such conversation.

The effects of communication apprehension can be both measured and observed. Communication apprehension can alter student behavior even more than the combination of all other learning disabilities [34]. Communication apprehension can cause a host of problems, such as communication avoidance, withdrawal, and disruption, on the one hand, and excessive or over communication, on the other hand. The effect of communication apprehension can hinder communication learning and the long-term behavior of the people it affects [45]. Campero-Oliart et al. [13] suggested that communication apprehension can also interfere with speech skills and self-esteem.

Susceptibility to communication apprehension may be due to hereditary personality characteristics [15] or external or internal causes, such as unfounded fears and negative self-beliefs [10]. Because individuals with high levels of communication apprehension mainly strive to avoid communication, they experience slowed communication development. However, sometimes, the situation triggers communication apprehension. McCroskey [45] explained that some individuals in a communication environment produce and control situational communication apprehension. If that is the case, then the only way such unpleasant experiences of situational communication apprehension can be bypassed is by withdrawing from or avoiding such communication. Unfortunately, students with high levels of communication apprehension need to communicate to learn. Students who are less inclined to communicate lose out on learning [49].

Communication apprehension was initially perceived mainly from a trait-based view. Characters such as communication anxiety are considered predisposed to communication anxiety that is relatively stable in different situations, contexts, and audiences. However, further studies have widened this construct to include other state-like features. State anxiety is specific to certain situations, contexts, and audiences. For Jin-Young [40], studying communication apprehension from state perspectives allows us to understand different factors impacting student performance. Some students may have low overall communication apprehension scores. However, specific contexts, for instance, the ambiguity of classroom instruction, may promote greater anxiety for some individuals. Therefore, in such a situation, knowing the person's overall communication apprehension score will not provide accurate information about the person's communicative anxiety in a particular context, such as a classroom. Failure to understand how to deal with apprehension will influence communication behaviors to a point where anxieties interfere with communication capabilities and performance.

2.3 The effects of teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension

A few studies have examined the effects of immediacy on communication apprehension [15, 20, 78]. Frymier and Thompson [24] found that verbal immediacy behaviors had significantly more significant effects on the motivation of highly apprehensive learners than nonverbal immediacy behaviors. Instructors who practice verbal immediacy behaviors in the learning environment can reduce students' level of receiver apprehension so that they may learn and participate in classroom tasks more successfully.

Immediate teachers are liked more than non-immediate teachers [62]. The teacher is put on a different level than the student. Higher immediacy implies that the teacher’s higher status will not intimidate the student. As a result, the student might be more willing to ask clarifying questions about the content without fear of the teacher [62].

2.4 Teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in cross-cultural contexts

Immediacy research was initially developed in U.S. classrooms, but its extension has incorporated cultures such as Germany, China, Australia, Finland, Kenya, Japan, Turkey, France, and Puerto Rico [39, 47, 59, 63].

A study involving Japan, Turkey, and the United States indicated that these cultures consider nonverbal immediacy a vital component of efficient teaching; hence, there is a strong correlation between the two variables [59]. American student teachers consider ‘touching’ an essential factor in effective teaching. This study highlighted different perceptions of nonverbal immediacy from one culture to another. However, according to the student teachers, this study also established that its use in efficient teaching is essential.

In a study comparing Asian and Caucasian students, the results indicated that students from Asia perceived their Asian lectures to be more immediate nonverbally than Caucasian American lectures [6]. American teachers and their Asian counterparts seemed equal in effective teaching. However, Asian students positively related nonverbal immediacy behaviors to the emotional, motivational, and general dimensions of effective teaching. These findings emphasized the significance of cultural differences in the views and expectations of suitable behavior of teachers from a multicultural classroom perspective.

Studies have compared apprehensive students in China and the United States regarding communication apprehension. Zhang [78] reported a cultural difference in classroom communication apprehension between Chinese and United States students. Chinese students report considerably higher classroom communication apprehension than do those in the United States—traits of students that may be attributed to unique cultural factors. First, Chinese and U.S. cultures have diverse norms and other issues concerning relationships between teachers and students, as well as their roles and responsibilities. According to Zhang [78], Chinese students owe much respect, fear, and obedience to Chinese teachers, therefore, teachers are regarded as authorities. Although there is comparatively little power distance culture in the United States, student–teacher relationships are casual.

Using teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension as variables, Zhang [78] conducted a study comparing classroom differences in China and the United States. There were three significant findings reported in this study: American students had notably lower classroom communication apprehension than did their Chinese counterparts; the perceptions of Chinese students of teacher nonverbal immediacy were the same as those of American students, while their view of verbal immediacy was greater than the perceptions of American students; and the perceptions of American students of teacher nonverbal immediacy were negatively associated with communication understanding in the classroom but not with verbal immediacy. Understanding of classroom communication is not negatively associated with views of Chinese students’ verbal and nonverbal immediacy [78].

3 Theoretical framework

National culture can be described as collective mental programming that sets one nation's people apart from another [33]. The study of national culture contributes to understanding individuals’ behavior since their decision-making processes can be shaped by their perception of cultural norms within their respective nations [8]. Scholarly research in intercultural studies distinguishes cultures by examining the various characteristics of communication and interaction styles prevalent within each culture [31, 32, 74]. The communication dynamics within a classroom are influenced by various cultural background variables, including beliefs, values, goals, expectations, and predictions about education and teachers [17]. To analyze these dynamics, this study adopts a theoretical framework that incorporates Hofstede's [32] dimensions of national cultures, Hall’s [30] concept of high-context and low-context cultures, and Lewis’s [42] cultural categories of communication.

Hofstede's indicators of national culture, namely, power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term versus short-term orientation, have been extensively examined in social science and cultural comparative studies. These aspects exhibit pervasiveness across different nations, while collectivism, a significant power distance, a strong inclination toward uncertainty avoidance, and a long-term orientation commonly characterize Brazilian culture.

In his study, Hofstede [32] examined Hall’s notion of context, revealing a correlation between individualism and “low-context” communication, as well as a connection between collectivism and "high-context" communication. In a study by Hall [30], various nations were examined and categorized on a continuum ranging from high- to low-context cultures. Among these nations, Brazil, as a representative of Latin America, was identified as having a high-context culture, while the United States was classified as having a low-context culture.

Hall's categorizations of communication also delineated distinctions between Brazilian and American cultures. Linear-active cultures are characterized by their composed demeanor, deliberate nature, and meticulous approach to planning. In contrast, multi-active cultures exhibit a robust emotional orientation and prioritize interpersonal connections, attaching significant importance to feelings and relationships. Individuals who exhibit multi-active behavior tend to be uncomfortable in situations of silence and prefer to obtain knowledge through direct interpersonal communication.

In a study by Ott [56], the author examined the variations in bargaining behaviors by applying Lewis’ categorization of communication. This research aimed to replicate Lewis’ classification of Brazil as a multi-active culture. These theoretical frameworks aid in comprehending the potential influence of cultural disparities on the dynamics of classroom communication between educators and learners. Table 1 summarizes the three theoretical frameworks, examining the cultural differences between Brazil and the United States.

Table 1 Intercultural theories contrasting Brazilian and American culture
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According to the intercultural theories, the cultural differences that are possibly present in the Brazilian and American educational contexts were seen as dimensions and categories. They were used to establish hypotheses to explore the relationship between teachers’ immediacy and classroom communication apprehension.

3.1 Hypotheses

Previous studies have shown that people in multi-active cultures are extroverted and talkative, whereas people in linear-active cultures are introverted and quiet. [9, 42, 56]. According to Hall [30], communication in a high-context culture entails more details in the physical context, resulting in greater use of nonverbal elements. Due to Brazil's high-context culture and multi-active communication style, Brazilian teachers might employ more immediacy behaviors than American teachers do. Crabtree and Sapp [18] found that Brazilian students reported higher expectations regarding teacher immediacy. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

  • H1: There is a cultural difference between Brazilian and American classrooms regarding teacher immediacy and classroom communication.

  • H2: Perceived teacher immediacy will be higher in Brazilian classrooms than in U.S. classrooms.

Examining accounting students from Brazil and Portugal, Albuquerque and Silva [5] found that oral communication apprehension can be influenced by power distance, age, and gender. This suggests that cultural differences between Brazilian and American students may impact their levels of communication apprehension.

Similarly, several characteristics of multi-active and linear-active communication styles may also cause differences in communication apprehension. Some suggest that Brazilians are considered extroverts and talkative and that Americans are introverted and quiet [42, 56]. Ott [56] has found empirical evidence supporting these different communication features among Brazilians and Americans in business negotiation settings.

In addition, previously associated with communication apprehension [7, 75], face saving can also influence communication behaviors in Brazilian and American classrooms. Face is “a claimed sense of self-respect in an interactive situation” ([72], p. 1). Face-saving means taking action to stay clear of public humiliation [73]. In a collective society, all members must behave in such a way as to prevent causing any shame for the other members of the group [64]. Brazilian students may see this environment as less threatening since others share the feeling of avoiding embarrassment. Face saving for individuals, which is usually expected in American culture, may cause a more threatening classroom environment. Therefore, because Americans are more introverted and quiet and use individual face-saving, whereas Brazilians are more extroverted and talkative and use collective face-saving, the following hypothesis is proposed:

  • H3: Student classroom communication apprehension will be higher in American classrooms than in Brazilian classrooms.

Instructional communication scholars have found that teacher immediacy positively impacts student communication apprehension in American classrooms [15, 20, 25]. It has been found that verbal immediacy can decrease anxiety for highly apprehensive students [20, 25]. To replicate previous studies in the United States, the first hypothesis is proposed:

  • H4: There will be an inverse correlation between teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in American college classrooms.

This study examines how cultural differences affect classroom communication, but it also looks at how teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension are related in both countries studied. Tassoni [71] discovered that Brazilian students appreciated being close to their teachers. This interaction helped to lessen anxiety and encouraged creativity. The impact of teacher immediacy may lower communication apprehension in Brazilian classrooms. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

  • H5: There will be an inverse correlation between teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian college classrooms.

4 Methods

First, this study examines the relationship between teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. Second, this study compares perceived teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian and U.S. college classrooms. A causal-comparative research design [77] was used to determine whether student classroom communication apprehension is lower in Brazilian classrooms than in U.S. classrooms and whether perceived teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy is greater in Brazilian classrooms than in U.S. classrooms. This section is structured to provide details about the methods. Next, we will discuss the participants, instruments, procedures, and data analysis.

4.1 Participants

The population identified for this study comprised students enrolled in accredited undergraduate levels at large universities in Brazil and the United States. A total of 221 undergraduate students participated in this study. Teachers were not included in the sample. Limiting the study to students enrolled in courses with similar disciplines minimized the selection threat to internal validity that arose from using non-equivalent groups and uncontrolled diversity among participants [12]. Participants for this study were chosen through a nonprobability convenience sample where randomization in obtaining participants was not present, and participants were asked to participate because they were available [77]. Access to all sections used in this study was granted through the permission of the instructor.

4.2 Setting

Accredited undergraduate-level courses were used in this study. A Southeastern American university and a Northeastern Brazilian university offered the courses. Students earn four hours of college credit for each course. Participants for this study were selected from nine sections of COMM 150: Oral Communication and one section of COMM 176: Argumentation. This specific type of course was chosen because the course is a common requirement for all majors, which is essential for the generalizability of the findings.

4.3 Instrumentation

A questionnaire consisting of previously validated scales measuring teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension was developed (see Appendix). The 15-item Chinese Teacher Immediacy Scale (CTIS) [79] was used to measure perceived teacher immediacy behaviors. This 5-point Likert-type item series measures three immediacy dimensions: instructional, relational, and personal. The scale was reported to be reliable, and in a previous study in which the scale was used to conduct a cross-cultural test of three models of immediacy-learning, confirmatory factor analysis estimated the scale's reliability as ranging from 0.92 to 0.95 [79]. This scale was chosen because Brazil is a collectivistic country such as China. Although the United States has an individualistic culture, extensive research has shown that the CTIS has adequate factorial, construct, convergent, and discriminant validity in U.S., German, and Japanese cultures [80]. This means that this scale works equally well in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Tests were conducted to test the reliability of this scale in this study, Cronbach’s alpha was 0.89.

The Class Apprehension Participation Scale (CAPS) [54] is an adaptation of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) for the classroom context [44]. The scale comprises 20 Likert-type items measuring communication, participation, and confidence. A previous study [78] found good reliability, justifying the use of this scale (ranging from 0.90 to 0.93. Reliability tests were conducted for this study,the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.92.

4.4 Procedures

The California State University Los Angeles Institutional Review Board-Human Subjects (IRB) approved the research protocol in accordance with the 2018 Requirements (2018 Revised Common Rule) per 45 CFR 46. The surveys were dispersed throughout the classrooms. Specifically, students were approached during class and asked to participate in the study. All students received a copy of the survey questionnaire that contained a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study. Participants were asked to sign a consent letter to participate in the study. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study. For the U.S. sample, extra credit was offered for participation. An alternative extra credit assignment was available to students who decided not to participate in the study. In Brazil, universities do not allow extra credit as an option for participation. To achieve a diverse sample of teachers, students were asked to answer the questionnaire referring to the teacher of the class they had immediately before the current class. For the U.S. sample, questionnaires included the original scale items in English. For the Brazilian sample, the researcher, a native Portuguese speaker, translated the questionnaires into Portuguese; a professional translator then translated the participants’ responses into English. This method has achieved great semantic verifiability for translating surveys into other languages [77].

4.5 Data analysis

One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data because MANOVA considers the correlation among the dependent variables while controlling for the overall alpha level [70]. There are different conventions for determining the number of participants per cell to conduct a MANOVA. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was conducted to test the null hypothesis and verify that the MANOVA was the appropriate test to be performed. A. Pearson product-moment correlation was used to analyze the relationships between the scales of immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian and American samples [77].

5 Results

To determine cultural differences in teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian and American college classrooms, the data were analyzed with multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The independent variable was national culture, and the dependent variables were teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. Bartlett's test of sphericity (9.05, df = 1, p < 0.005) indicated that MANOVA was warranted. Overall, the first hypothesis supported that there is a cultural difference between Brazilian and American classrooms in terms of teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. Table 2 presents the means and standard deviations for the dependent variables by national culture.

Table 2 Descriptive statistics teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension by national culture
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A significant difference was found between Brazilian and American students when jointly considering the variables of teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension; Wilks Lambda = 0.894, F(2,218) = 12.97, p < 0.05 partial ƞ2 = 0.11. A separate ANOVA was conducted for each dependent variable. A significant difference between Brazilians and Americans on teacher immediacy was found: F(1,219) = 6.73, p = 0.01, partial ƞ2 = 0.030 with Brazilians (M = 4.30) and Americans (M = 4.12). A significant difference in classroom communication apprehension between Brazilians and Americans was also found; F(1,219) = 22.43, p < 0.05, partial ƞ2 = 0.09 with Brazilians (M = 3.15) and Americans (M = 2.66).

The second hypothesis stated that perceived teacher immediacy would be higher with Brazilian students than for U.S. students. As predicted, the MANOVA results displayed a significant univariate effect for teacher immediacy. This finding supports the first hypothesis.

The third hypothesis predicted that American students would have higher classroom communication apprehension than Brazilian students. The MANOVA results revealed a significant univariate effect on classroom communication apprehension. Therefore, the third hypothesis was also supported. The fourth hypothesis predicted that there would be an inverse correlation between perceived teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension both in Brazilian and American college classrooms. Pearson product-moment correlation was used to analyze the relationships between classroom communication apprehension and teacher immediacy. An alpha of 0.05 was utilized to determine the statistical significance of the results. Table 3 presents the zero-order correlations among these variables in Brazilians and Americans.

Table 3 Correlations for teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension
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A significant negative correlation was found between American students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension; r(121) = − 0.193, p < 0.5. The fourth hypothesis was supported. The correlation between classroom communication apprehension and Brazilian students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy, r(100) = − 0.096, p = 0.34, was not significant. Thus, the fifth hypothesis was not supported.

6 Discussion

This study examines the relationship between teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension and compares these variables in Brazilian and American college classrooms. The study produces four significant findings: (1) Brazilian students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy are higher than American students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy; (2) American students have higher levels of classroom communication apprehension than Brazilian students; (3) classroom communication apprehension is significantly correlated with U.S. students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy; and (4) classroom communication apprehension is not significantly correlated with Brazilian students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy.

6.1 Teacher immediacy

This study predicted that teachers’ perceptions of verbal immediacy in Brazilian classrooms would be higher than those in U.S. classrooms; hence, this would result in higher immediacy in Brazilian classrooms than in U.S. classrooms. This hypothesis was supported. There are many cultural differences between Brazil and the United States. Brazilian culture is considered collectivistic, with a large power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation [33]. American culture is considered individualistic, with a small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, and short-term orientation [33].

In addition, higher levels of teacher immediacy in Brazil can also be attributed to the higher cultural context compared to the United States. Compared with American students, Brazilian students might be more accustomed to nonverbal communication to decode information from their instructors. Santilli et al. [65] found that Brazilian students indicated a more significant association between instructor immediacy behaviors and their perceptions of instructor expertise than American students. As members of a high-context culture [30], Brazilian students may depend more on nonverbal cues such as immediacy behaviors to derive information about their instructors. Brazilian instructors who employ immediacy behaviors may enhance student perceptions of competence and facilitate increased student learning [65].

As identified in the Lewis communication categories, Brazilian students had higher perceptions of nonverbal teacher immediacy. This finding corroborates the traits previously found that placed Brazil in the multi-active communication category. Brazilian instructors may have a considerably higher propensity than Americans to participate in facial gazing and touching, for instance. This finding reinforces the association between the empirical evidence from the findings in this study and the theoretical framework.

6.2 Classroom communication apprehension

Another hypothesis in this study was that student communication apprehension would be higher in American classrooms than in Brazilian classrooms. The results from this study confirmed this hypothesis. Again, cultural dimensions in the theoretical framework help explain this difference. Americans exhibit high levels of individualism [32]. Individuals in American culture are more focused on their careers than on the well-being of the group. Americans favor directness in interaction, are usually unpleasant with indirectness, and sometimes miss nonverbal signs [31]. Americans are prone to individual face-saving, whereas in Brazil, there is collective face-saving. This means that Americans must individually take action to avoid embarrassment since no one else will care if the person experiences public humiliation. A possible example of this in a Brazilian classroom is a teacher asking a question to a student, and the student does not know the answer. Some classmates may whisper the answer to help the student avoid embarrassment. Brazilian students are also less likely to experience teasing or bullying while saying something wrong in the classroom since there is a shared feeling of avoiding humiliating others.

Some traits suggested by Lewis [42] may also explain the higher levels of classroom communication apprehension in American students. Conversation interruptions are sporadic in linear-active communication. Americans rely on auditory screening, particularly when they want to concentrate [31]. To respect this sense of auditory screening, American students may feel threatened to speak up. In contrast, Brazilians commonly reject auditory screening and thrive on being open to interruptions and in tune with what goes on around them [31]. Lewis [42] also found exaggeration of speaking rather than listening: “Brazilian listening habits tend to be somewhat erratic; they interrupt each other with ideas of their own, each individual wanting to make his or her contribution” ([42], p. 18). In Brazil, rule-breaking partially explains an interrupting style of communication, which is referred to in Portuguese as “jeitinho.” The “jeitinho Brasileiro” usually takes action or actions to seek alternative ways or actions. According to other cultures, doing this could be impossible, such as in auditory screening and knowing the appropriate moment to listen and speak. The jeitinho can be considered “enlisting a fellow human being to help one circumvent the rules because of one’s circumstance; the “jeitinho” is a way of humanizing the rules that consider the moral equality and social inequalities of persons in the society” ([31], p. 78).

6.3 The relationship between teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension

A significant negative correlation was found between American students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. This means that teacher immediacy in American classrooms reduces the anxiety of highly apprehensive students. This finding supports this hypothesis and replicates previous research on immediacy [15, 20, 78]. However, contrary to expectations, classroom communication apprehension was not significantly correlated with Brazilian students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy. Thus, the fifth hypothesis was not supported.

A plausible explanation for this finding is the equivalence of the concept of immediacy in Brazil. Like American students, Brazilian students may need help understanding immediacy [65]. Zhang [79] raised concerns about the transferability of the American teacher immediacy concept to other cultures. The interpretation, evaluation, and prediction of teacher immediacy are culture-bound, and the teacher immediacy scale used in this study was created for application in Chinese classrooms. Although the cross-cultural validity of this scale has been previously tested in several countries [80], the scale is not warranted in Brazilian classrooms. The conceptualization of teacher immediacy in Brazil may differ, causing Brazilian students in this study to perceive teacher immediacy differently. Therefore, the measure of immediacy used in this study may require more sensitivity to accurately measure the relationship between immediacy and classroom communication apprehension.

7 Conclusion

This study examined the relationship between classroom communication apprehension and teacher immediacy in Brazilian and American college classrooms. The findings from this study support the validation of the theoretical framework, as presented by Hall [31], Hofstede [33], and Lewis [42]. The cultural differences in teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension between Brazil and the United States align with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and provide empirical evidence for the applicability of these dimensions in educational settings. Brazilian classrooms had higher levels of teacher immediacy, consistent with Lewis’s concept of multi-active cultures in which people are oriented and animated [42].

In addition, this study compared teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension in Brazilian and U.S. college classrooms. A significant negative correlation was found between American students’ perceptions of teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension. This means that teacher immediacy in American classrooms reduces the anxiety of highly apprehensive students. However, the same results were not found in Brazilian classrooms, indicating the need for further investigation. This study suggests that developing an equivalent Brazilian instrument will provide more accurate results for this relationship.

Cross-cultural communication research involves comparing and contrasting the communication patterns of people of one culture with those observed in people from different cultures. In this study, the communication variables measured were teacher immediacy and communication apprehension. As mentioned previously, Brazilian culture is considered collectivistic with a large power distance, strong uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation [33], while American culture is considered individualistic with a small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, and short-term orientation [33]. As members of a high-context culture, Brazilian students may depend more on nonverbal cues such as immediacy behaviors to derive information about their instructors. Brazilian instructors who employ immediacy behaviors may enhance students’ perceptions of competence and facilitate increased student learning. Therefore, cultural differences are expected to serve as an essential factor affecting immediacy and apprehension.

7.1 Implications, limitations, and directions for future studies

The study of instructional communication patterns can facilitate our understanding of teacher‒student interactions. This study contributes theoretically by adding interesting findings to instructional communication research and practically by showing teachers and educators the effects of their behaviors in the classroom. Highly immediate teachers will have less apprehensive students. Moreover, as Paulo Freire suggested, more immediacy can be obtained via dialog; dialog is the communication that “nourishes with love, humility, hope, faith, and trust” ([23], p. 107).

Some limitations of this study should be mentioned. First, demographic information could be an additional variable to provide additional analysis. Further investigations must be conducted to verify the influence of gender and ethnicity in Brazilian and American classrooms. Second, the inconsistency of several different class sizes and genders of teachers and students in Brazil and the United States was also not examined in this study.

The use of a Chinese instrument instead of the development of a Brazilian equivalent was also another limitation. Although the instrument's reliability was acceptable in both cultures, it is possible that some behaviors interpreted as teacher immediacy behaviors for Brazilian students were not included in the scale.

In addition, the findings of this study are derived from self-reported data collected from participants through surveys. The survey method relies on participant memory of behaviors that may not be typically noticed consciously and may, therefore, differ from actual immediacy behaviors [3]. A qualitative methodology employing observation in addition to self-reports of immediacy behaviors could be employed. Future studies could also use multimodality data to capture various emotional and motivational aspects of learning from students’ perceptions [55].

This study opens up some new directions for future studies. Future studies may include different dimensions of national culture, or measurements for these dimensions could also be included in the survey design to provide more accurate results of a representative sample of cultural differences [57].

More research is necessary to examine the impact of cultural and contextual factors on classroom communication apprehension and teacher immediacy behaviors. Creating new instruments and cross-cultural instrument equivalence could be one direction for future studies.

Much remains to be determined on how teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension affect Brazilian classrooms. Future studies could also explore how teacher immediacy and classroom communication apprehension impact Brazilian students in terms of motivation and student achievement.