CONSTRUCTING TEACHER AUTHORITY THROUGH PRONOUN SHIFTS, MODALITY, AND DIRECTIVES: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT LECTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR
Date
2026
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR
Abstract
This study examines the teacher authority construction through pronoun shifts, modality and directives strategies in classroom discourse at the Department of English, University of Peshawar. The current study draws on the theoretical frameworks of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It investigates how teachers employ linguistic resources to establish, maintain and negotiate authority during lecture interaction. During this study a analysed qualitative research design was adopted and lecture data from four teachers were to identify patterns of pronoun use, modal expressions and directive forms. The analysis explored how teachers strategically shift between first person singular, first person plural and impersonal constructions to position themselves as experts, members of shared learning community, or representatives of disciplinary authority. Likewise, epistemic and deontic modal expressions were used to express certainty, obligation and institutional expectations, whereas directive strategies ranged from direct commands to indirect and collaborative forms that managed classroom participation. The findings demonstrated the function of these linguistic features as an integrated system of authority construction, enabling teachers to balance institutional control with student engagement. The frequent use of inclusive pronouns combined with deontic modality created a shared responsibility as well as teacher authority. The study concludes that teacher authority in university classrooms is not only based on the institutional status but is actively constructed through strategic linguistic choices. By providing a deep analysis of university teacher lectures in Pakistani higher education context, this study contributes to the field of discourse analysis, educational linguistics as well as teacher student interaction. It provides practical insights for reflective teaching practices and education.