Teacher immediacy, classroom social climate, and learner engagement: A multilevel study of speaking participation in Jordanian EFL classrooms

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to test a multilevel explanatory model linking teacher immediacy to learners’ speaking participation in Jordanian English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms through classroom social climate and learner engagement. Although teacher immediacy has been repeatedly associated with positive affective and cognitive outcomes, most language-learning studies still analyze immediacy and engagement at a single level, overlooking the nested nature of classroom life (students within classes and schools) and the possibility that teacher behaviors shape not only individuals but also shared classroom climates. We propose and operationalize an innovative mixed-method measurement strategy for speaking participation that combines (a) student-reported engagement and climate perceptions with (b) behavioral speaking indicators extracted from classroom audio using a semi-automated pipeline, validated by human coders. Data are modeled using multilevel (hierarchical) regression and a cross-level mediation logic in which teacher immediacy (class level) predicts classroom social climate (class level), which predicts learner engagement (student level), which in turn predicts speaking participation. The paper contributes to both instructional communication and applied linguistics by (i) treating speaking participation as an observable behavioral outcome rather than an attitudinal proxy, (ii) separating within-class from between-class engagement effects, and (iii) offering a reproducible analysis workflow and reporting template that anticipates common reviewer concerns about causality, measurement validity, and clustering. Illustrative analyses (using a synthetic dataset to demonstrate reporting) show that higher teacher immediacy is associated with more supportive classroom climates, higher engagement, and higher rates of voluntary speaking turns. Practical implications include evidence-informed immediacy micro-skills for EFL teachers and climate-building routines that reduce anxiety and increase learners’ willingness to speak.