University Foreign Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Professor-Student Rapport: A Hybrid Qualitative Study

Abstract

Research has shown a consensus that positive professor-student relationship makes meaningful contributions to academic outcomes such as faculty effectiveness, increased motivation, enhanced learning, and excellent teaching. Employing a qualitative research design, the authors of this study examine the conceptualization of one specific aspect of faculty-student relationship; namely, rapport, which they believe is particularly salient in college classrooms characterized by effective teaching and a positive interpersonal climate. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with 26 Iranian foreign language professors who were selected through snowball sampling. A hybrid thematic analysis of the data revealed two core themes of rapport antecedents: (1) connectedness, and (2) professionalism and professorial ethics. The two themes and their sub-themes will be elaborated upon in this article. The article concludes by discussing the purposeful insights into the antecedents of rapport to provide concrete aspirational advice on how to potentially improve the higher education process.