Building Awareness of Sociocultural Norms
An interesting part of a language class is observing learners' reactions when they become aware of differences in sociocultural norms, which are what guide pragmatic expression and interpretation. Metapragmatic discussion centers on the linguistic level, while discussion on sociocultural norms focus on societal norms that operate as the basis for the linguistic expression.
A discussion on awareness of sociocultural norms.
Duration: 04:22
As seen in the video, three important factors surface in discussion of sociocultural norms:
- Politeness; attention to "face"
- Sociocultural differences
- Conversational expectations
The goal in discussing these issues is to help the learner build toward adopting or at least accepting the norms of the target language. At the same time, it is important to avoid stereotyping the behavior of speakers of the target language.