THE METAPEDAGOGIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE: LANGUAGE FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING (Cases from the Nepalese context)

The metalingual (also called 'metalinguistic') function of language is a well- discussed concept in the literature of functional linguistics. It is often conceived as a purpose in which language is used to define or talk about language itself. Similarly, the purpose in which language is used for teaching in general is explained as the 'instructional function'. However, it has not yet explicitly been recognized by the literature that language is used for teaching language itself- a concept termed in this article as the 'metapedagogic function'. As the 'cases' explored from the Nepalese context reveal, language is very often used metapedagogically by adults from the family to the social context. This article also investigates how adults informally shape and contribute to children's first language (L1) acquisition, more particularly the appropriate use of language in its actual social context, in most casesand to the language awareness of other adults in some other cases.As the future directions, it also indicates towards investigating the potential applications of the informalL1 assisting strategies toL1 and L2 learning in the classroom.