A literature review reports on three studies concerning the antecedents of student verbal participation in the classroom. In the first study, the following research questions were probed: (1) In what situations are students most willing to communicate in the classroom? (2) What is the relationship between willingness to communicate and a students' self-report of cumulative GPA? and (3) Are there differences in responses to individual willingness to communicate items across academic standings, majors, and genders? Subjects for the study were 111 undergraduate students at a midwestern liberal arts college. Methodology consisted of survey questions. Results showed that students are most likely to talk when they are interested in the topics of the course and discussion, when they are prepared for class, when the class is small, and when they are graded for participation. Statistically significant correlations were not found among the elements examined for the other two questions. The second study (with 111 undergraduates) asked whether teacher verbal immediacy behavior positively related to student willingness to communicate. Methodology was similar to the first study. Results showed that teacher verbal immediacy conceptualized as a global measure correlated positively with overall willingness to communicate. The third study (with 91 undergraduates) examined interaction among teacher immediacy behavior, teacher gender, and student gender. Again, methodology was similar to the first study. Results showed that both verbal and nonverbal immediacy correlated positively with the study's measure of classroom participation. (Contains 20 references.) (TB)