The present study aimed at figuring out the Iranian EFL teachers\\\' amount of using authoritative and persuasive discourse in regard to their roles in public and private schools, both in teachers\\\' and learners\\\' perception. Participants were 200 teachers and 200 students of public and private schools from different cities of Iran. They were asked to fill out the questionnaires designed by the researcher about teachers\\\' roles. Then 20 teachers and 20 students from public and private schools were interviewed to say their opinion about teachers\\\' roles and discourses. Results of the analysis of data showed that there is no significant difference between the amount of using authoritative and persuasive discourse among Iranian EFL teachers in public and private schools. It is also indicated that, according to teachers\\\' idea, regardless of the contexts, they believe themselves as having more persuasive discourse while in students\\\' perception their teachers use more authoritative discourse.

Keywords