VietTESOL International Convention 2026

Teacher authority plays a central role in tertiary EFL classrooms; however, this concept remains difficult to define as it involves both institutional control and pedagogical relationships. On one hand, authority helps teachers guide learning, manage classroom activities and assess students. On the other hand, EFL classes demand interaction, risk-taking, and active language use from learners. This creates a tension between teacher control and learner participation. Therefore, based on the view that classroom authority is complex, context-based (Pace & Hemmings, 2007), and teachers’ beliefs shape classroom decisions (Borg, 2003), this qualitative study explores how tertiary EFL teachers understand classroom authority and how they interpret student behavior. Semi-structured interviews with 12 EFL teachers were used to collect data, and they were then analysed using thematic analysis. The study focuses on how instructors interpret silence, minimal participation, questioning, native language use, phone use, and task avoidance - behaviors that can be interpreted in various ways as respect, compliance, indifference, or defiance. The study argues that authority in the EFL classroom is not simply institutional power, but it is also constructed through specialized language skills, pedagogical competence, assessment activities, and trust in the teacher-student relationship.
Keywords: teacher authority, respect, student behaviour, EFL classrooms, teacher cognition