Metalanguage for enabling immigrants and refugees: Relevance of Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Minimal English

Abstract

We should seek every possible method for educating immigrants and refugees and facilitating communication for them – especially during the current difficult times due to the spread of a killer-pandemic (i.e., Covid-19). To this end, I discuss the role which “metalanguage” could play in this regard, with reference to Natural Semantic Metalanguage/NSM and Minimal English/ME (e.g., Goddard & Wierzbicka, 2007; Goddard & Wierzbicka, 2018). This mainly theoretical contribution will demonstrate how NSM and ME can be powerful pedagogical tools for ethnopragmatic instruction and a mitigator to cross-cultural misunderstanding in intercultural/ international communication. The main merit which I claim is raising awareness about the significance of this well-established project in applied linguistics and demonstrates how it can tie in with the immigrant-and-refugee situation.