A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of Speech Acts in Pakistan’s National Education Policy 2025

Kalsoom Jahan; Ammara Afzaal; Uzma Safdar

doi:10.71281/jals.v3i4.541

Authors

Dr. Kalsoom Jahan Assistant Professor, Department of Sciences and Humanities, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, FAST, Lahore, Pakistan
Ammara Afzaal Lecturer Applied Linguistics, University of Lahore.
Uzma Safdar Lecturer Applied Linguistics, Department of Sciences and Humanities, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, FAST, Lahore, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71281/jals.v3i4.541

Keywords:

AntConc, Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Educational Policy, NEPDF 2024; Pakistan; Speech Act Theory.

Abstract

This study investigates the discursive construction of ideologies and social cognition in Pakistan’s National Education Policy Development Framework 2024 (NEPDF 2024) through a corpus-based critical discourse analysis grounded in van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach (1993, 1998)and Fairclough’s three-dimensional model (1995). Drawing on Searle’s Speech Act Theory and van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis, the research examines the linguistic choices within the policy text that perform communicative actions and construct ideological meanings. A corpus of the NEPDF 2024 document was compiled and processed using AntConc as the sole analytical tool. Frequency, concordance, and collocation analyses were conducted to identify recurrent performative and modal structures that signal key speech acts. These linguistic patterns were then classified into five major categories: directives, commissives, assertives, expressives, and declarations. The findings reveal that the policy predominantly relies on directive and commissive speech acts to construct institutional authority, articulate governmental commitments, and legitimize reform agendas. The policy crafts a discourse of modernization, accountability, and national development, positioning the state as the primary regulator and guarantor of educational transformation by using these three speech acts. The study contributes to corpus-assisted policy discourse analysis and offers insights into the way language performs institutional and ideological work in contemporary educational policy in Pakistan.