“I am Well-versed and Skillful in Teaching English”: Self-praise Strategies on Instagram Bios of Iranian English Language Teachers

Abstract

Looking at self-praise through the lenses of face-to-face (hereafter FTF) conversational norms and social etiquette, one can find solid evidence that it has been severely censured for its potential to pose a threat to the positive face of the audience. However, with the dawn of technology and social networks, self-praise has enjoyed an often-occurring practice online considering that people make use of Social Networking Sites (hereafter SNSs) such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to share favourable information about themselves; hence, casting their achievements and skills in a positive light. This study attempts to identify the self-praise strategies Iranian English language teachers employ to present themselves as skilful and experienced on their Instagram bios. To do so, 120 Instagram accounts belonging to English language teachers from Iran were randomly selected. Subsequently, their bios were read carefully to analyze the self-praise-carrying utterances and the employed strategies. The results of the analysis point to the predominant use of various indirect strategies by the users to form a positive image of themselves. The scarcity of direct self-praise hints at the existence of awareness on the part of the users of the potentially risky and delicate nature of the speech act in question.