This research intends to examine the roles that professors teaching TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) at the M.A level take on based on Goffman's Footing Theory according to which speaker's role can be classified into three roles of animator, author, and principal. To this end, 218 Iranian M.A students and graduates were given a checklist comprising 21 metaphors representing three roles of animator, author, and principal in both current and ideal situations.The results of statistical analyses indicated that there is a mismatch between the roles professors take on in the current situation and the roles students prefer the professors to adopt. In the end, pedagogical implications of the research findings are discussed.

Keywords