Teach, Talk, Trust: A Pragmatic Analysis of Teacher–student Communication in Pakistani Efl Classrooms

Classroom communication involves more than speaking and listening. Teachers and students use language to ask questions, give instructions, correct errors, show respect, and express uncertainty. These actions can shape how classroom messages are understood and how students take part in lessons. This paper examines pragmatic strategies in teacher–student communication in selected Pakistani English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. It focuses on speech acts, politeness, questioning, feedback, implied meaning, and their relationship with interpersonal interaction and student participation. The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive design. It proposes classroom recordings, observation notes, and, where possible, interviews or student reflections as sources of evidence. The analysis is guided by speech act theory, politeness theory, communicative competence, and classroom discourse research. Existing studies provide useful evidence about teacher talk, questions, feedback, textbook speech acts, and classroom politeness. However, more context-specific analysis is needed to examine how these features work together in actual Pakistani EFL exchanges. Because no completed classroom dataset was supplied with the source paper, the examples and outcomes in this shortened version are illustrative and provisional, not confirmed empirical findings. The study may help teachers reflect on how their language choices create opportunities for students to ask questions, explain ideas, and participate in classroom activities.