What is it about?
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is a plain-language approach to describing meaning and cultural information. Many people have suggested that it can be used for teaching rules of interaction in language classrooms, but no one had tested it before. I worked with students in English language classrooms to see if they liked using NSM to learn about having conversations in English. They did like it, but they also had some good suggestions to make it easier to understand. This paper discusses both what the students liked about NSM, as well as some of their suggestions for improvement.
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Why is it important?
Teaching students about the rules of interaction, and the reasons why these rules exist is very difficult, because there aren't any really structured ways of talking about this information. For migrants to new communities, knowing about these rules can help them to feel a better sense of belonging in their new home, and lessen the culture shock. Rather than only discussing potential applications, this article proposes methods and strategies for practical application in classroom contexts. This paper shows that the NSM approach works in classroom contexts, and that this information is needed by English language students.
Perspectives
This article builds on my Masters thesis, and is followed by my PhD thesis. With this article, I want to show that NSM is not only a great tool for semantic analysis and cross-cultural comparison, but is applicable in language teaching, to the benefit of both students and teachers. I am very passionate about improving learning about culture—in particular hidden culture—in language education. I hope that the reader sees the need for including this information in language classrooms, and is inspired to try the NSM approach in their own teaching.
Lauren Sadow
Australian National University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Can cultural scripts be used for teaching interactional norms?, Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, October 2018, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/aral.17030.sad.
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