A Functional Review of Research on Clarity, Immediacy, and Credibility of Teachers and Their Impacts on Motivation and Engagement of Students

Abstract

The interpersonal communication behaviors of teachers have been substantiated to affect motivation, engagement, and success of students in the academic arena. Aiming to provide a systematic review of some teacher-related constructs in this domain, the present article was a bid to explain the crucial pillars of clarity, credibility, and immediacy of teachers in juxtaposition with theories and models of motivation and engagement of students. More particularly, this article presents some theoretical underpinnings to justify its claims using the ideas of positive psychology, the broaden-and-build theory, the rhetorical/relational goal theory, social cognitive theory, the attachment theory, some popular motivational theories, and the engagement theory. These theories signify the importance of clarity, credibility, and immediacy of teachers in the classroom and depict their association and impact on motivation and engagement of students. Later, the arguments are defended through a quick glance at the available empirical studies on each of the constructs. Afterward, the findings and implications of this review article are discussed. Finally, research gaps and future directions are presented for avid researchers to make new explorations.

Fostering EFL/ESL Students' State Motivation: The Role of Teacher-Student Rapport

“…Proposed by (as cited in Zheng, 2021 ) to perceive how the cycle of instructional correspondence works, the rhetorical/relational goal theory is a hypothesis in the domain of instructional correspondence. In light of this theory, teachers and learners in the class have rhetorical and relational objectives that they wish to accomplish.…”

Toward the Impact of EFL Teachers' Self-Efficacy and Collective Efficacy on Students' Engagement

“…Given the pivotal function of teachers in enhancing students' engagement (Stephens, 2015 ), several scholars have attempted to examine the effects of teacher-related factors on learning engagement. However, the majority of these studies have focused on teachers' interpersonal factors and their associations with student engagement (e.g., Derakhshan, 2021 ; Zhang, 2021 ; Zheng, 2021 ). Hence, a small number of studies have explored the impact of teacher personal factors such as self- and collective efficacy on students' academic engagement (e.g., Van Uden et al, 2013 , 2014 ; McDavid et al, 2018 ).…”

“…In this regard, several studies have been carried to examine the role of student-related factors (e.g., Skinner and Pitzer, 2012 ; Yin and Wang, 2016 ; Zhen et al, 2017 ) and context-related factors (e.g., Chong et al, 2010 ; Raftery et al, 2012 ; Chen et al, 2019 ; Teng and Wang, 2021 ) in students' level of engagement. Additionally, some empirical and theoretical bodies of research have been dedicated to the role of teacher-related factors in students' learning engagement (e.g., Gibbs and Powell, 2012 ; Van Uden et al, 2013 , 2014 ; Dewaele and Li, 2021 ; Jiang and Zhang, 2021 ; Zheng, 2021 ). However, a significant portion of studies on teacher-related factors have investigated the effects of teacher interpersonal factors on students' engagement, hence, the role of teachers' personal factors such as self-efficacy and collective efficacy as potential antecedents of student learning engagement has remained elusive in educational research.…”

Exploring Effective Teacher-Student Interpersonal Interaction Strategies in English as a Foreign Language Listening and Speaking Class

“…It maintains that human beings are born with an inherent need to establish a close emotional bond with others. It is at the core of children’s developmental psychology and maturation and argues that the attachment of a child to a caregiver produces a type of behavior that can later become autonomous ( Zheng, 2021 ). Attachment is believed to be an emotional link among people which can influence their relationships, experiences, and task/work involvement.…”