Teacher immediacy and use of power have surfaced as important instructional communication variables, yet little is known about how they function to effect learning. To offer an explanation as to how teacher immediacy and use of power facilitates learning, a study investigated implicit communication theory. Subjects consisted of 625 undergraduate students who completed questionnaires later subjected to regression analyses. Results indicated that: (1) verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy were associated with learning; (2) teachers who employed positive messages to gain compliance in the classroom were more effective, according to student perceptions; (3) students who felt pleasure and arousal also self-reported more learning; and (4) teachers who employed immediate and prosocial behavior alteration techniques provoked in their students increased feelings of pleasure and arousal. Findings permit greater clarification of the previously established relationship between teacher immediacy and power in the classroom. Specifically, perceptions of power cues are mediated by teacher immediacy behaviors through student emotions. By explaining how teacher and immediacy and power function, implicit communication theory offers increased conceptual coherency. Results suggest that the application of implicit communication theory to instructional variables is potentially fruitful. (Contains 48 references and 12 tables of data.) (RS)