What is Metalanguage: In linguistics

Literature in language teaching mainly discusses learners' transfer of speech act expressions from their mother tongue to English without suggesting many ways to raise learners' awareness of producing English speech acts appropriately. The most common solution is the “prescribed” strategies presented in interlanguage studies. On the premise that language classroom inputs can be enhanced with complementary metalanguage instruction, this chapter proposes Minimal English pedagogical scripts developed based on the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory for Vietnamese learners of English. The chapter covers the NSM basic concepts, including the newly introduced Minimal English, explains NSM component phrases in scripts, and illustrates cultural and cognitive differences between English native speakers and Vietnamese learners in performing two speech acts, namely request and compliment response. Pedagogical scripts for making requests and compliment responses in English are recommended, accordingly. The chapter also suggests pedagogical script templates for other English speech acts.