Abstarct: This qualitative study investigates the discursive patterns of scaffolding employed by language teachers in Iraqi EFL university classrooms and examines teachers' perceptions of how these patterns influence student engagement. Drawing on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, the research analyzes scaffolding as a dynamic, interactional process realized through classroom discourse. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six EFL teachers and analyzed using thematic analysis within an interpretive frxamework. The findings reveal that teachers commonly employ prompting, graduated questioning, reformulation, clarification, and affective support as primary scaffolding strategies. The three core features of scaffolding contingency, fading, and transfer of responsibility—are clearly actualized in teachers' discourse practices, with contingency emerging as the foundational mechanism through which support is adjusted to learners' immediate needs. Teachers perceive scaffolding discourse as significantly enhancing student engagement across behavioral, cognitive, and affective dimensions, fostering increased verbal participation, task persistence, confidence, and emerging self-regulation. However, contextual constraints including large class sizes, time pressure, mixed proficiency levels, and institutional expectations limit the consistency and quality of scaffolding implementation. The study contributes to understanding how discourse-baxsed scaffolding can create more participatory and meaningful language learning environments in Iraqi higher education and offers practical recommendations for teacher education and curriculum development.