The relationship between student communication motives and information seeking

Relationships among perceived instructor verbal approach and avoidance relational strategies and students' motives for communicating with their instructors

“…The relational-task interpretation of the five communication motives noted in Myers et al (2002a) was not well supported in this study, however. Although the results do suggest that the participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic motives do serve relational purposes, it is possible that these five motives serve task purposes as well.…”

“…First, the three dominant motives that students use for communicating with their instructors are functional, relational, and participatory (Martin et al, 1999). Second, the functional, relational, and participatory motives are positively related to such student outcomes as cognitive and affective learning, class motivation , and information seeking behaviors (Myers, Martin, & Mottet, 2002a). Finally, it appears that students' motives for communicating with their instructors may be influenced more by those students' own communication traits than by how they perceive their instructors using communication in the classroom.…”

“…Because the functional communication motive serves a task goal and not a relational goal (Martin et al, 1999;Myers et al, 2002a), it was hypothesized that the correlations between students' functional communication motive and perceived instructor use of approach and avoidance relational strategies would be significantly smaller than the correlations between students' relational motives to communicate and perceived instructor use of verbal approach and avoidance relational strategies. To confirm these correlational relationships, the following hypotheses were tested: H3: The relationship between students' functional motive and perceived instructor use of verbal approach relational strategies will be significantly smaller than the relationships between students' relational motives (i.e., relational, participatory, excuse-making, sycophantic) and perceived instructor use of verbal approach relational strategies.…”

“…Since the verbal approach and avoidance relational strategy construct assesses verbal messages that people use to enhance or retard relational development (Mottet & Richmond, 1998), and since Myers et al (2002a) found some evidence to suggest that the relational, participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic motives in particular serve a relational versus an instrumental or task purpose, the following two hypotheses were tested: H1: Perceived instructor use of verbal approach relational strategies will be positively correlated with students' relational, participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic motives to communicate. H2: Perceived instructor use of verbal avoidance relational strategies will be negatively correlated with students' relational, participatory, excuse-making, and sycophantic motives to communicate.…”

The Effect of Teacher Confirmation on Student Communication and Learning Outcomes

“…For instance, students high in communication apprehension are less likely to communicate for functional, participatory, and relational motives (Martin, Valencic, & Heisel, 2002), whereas student assertiveness is associated positively with the functional, participatory, and excuse-making motives (Myers et al, 2002a). Additionally, students who communicate for the relational, sycophancy, and participatory motives report using more indirect and observing information-seeking strategies, whereas students who communicate for the functional motive rely on the overt information-seeking strategy (Myers, Martin, & Mottet, 2002b). Students' Machiavellianism is associated positively with the functional, excuse-making, and sycophancy motives (Martin, Myers, & Mottet, 2006).…”