Metalanguage
Are aspects of language, grammar and technical vocabulary being foregrounded?
High metalanguage instruction has high levels of talk about talk and writing, about how written and spoken texts work, about specific technical vocabulary and words (vocabulary), about how sentences work or don't work (syntax/grammar), about meaning structures and text structures (semantics/genre), about issues how discourses and ideologies work in speech and writing. Teachers tend to do a good deal of pulling back from activities, assignments, readings, lessons, and foregrounding particular words, sentences, text features, discourses, etc.
Low metalanguage instruction has little explicit talk about talk and writing, about how written and spoken texts work, about their features, characteristics, patterns, genres and discourses. There is an emphasis on simply doing text-based activities, without any pulling back and talking about curriculum and evaluation of texts.
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Low meta-language: the teacher proceeds through the lesson, without stopping and commenting on his/her own or students' use of language.
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Initial or periodic use of meta-language: at the beginning of the lesson, or at some key juncture, the teacher stops and explains or gives a mini-lesson on some aspect of language, e.g., vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, genre.
- Consistent use of meta-language: the teacher provides ongoing and frequent commentary on language use, perhaps using jokes, puns, ironic comments on her/his own or students' language, points out how differing sentences, text types and discourses actually work, compares and contrasts them, and shows how language can be used to constitute texts, knowledge and power.
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A year 11 English class was being introduced to the concept of 'discourse'. The teacher asked the students to examine how medical, legal and mechanical languages operate within particular contexts to construct speakers, listeners and subjects. The students gave some concrete examples of these and described how power operates in each situation and is closely aligned with knowledge.
By reversing the speaker and the listener, students were able to consider alternative discourses and to examine how power relations can be disrupted. There was consistent use of meta-language throughout as the teacher and students examined how discourses constitute texts, knowledge and power.
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