What are examples of metalanguage for text response?

[soccerboi]

I'm studying twelve angry men at the moment and my teacher told me to try to use more metalanguage. What exactly does she mean? Words like values, themes etc???

[Hutchoo]

Metalanguage is simply language that talks about language.
It bases it self on many things, for example, semantics, syntax, lexicon etc.
It's studied in English Language (VCE).

Essentially, your teacher is telling you to analyse the actual language that is used, how it's used etc. You could talk about how there are formal/informal relationships between characters based purely on how they communicate.

Informal speech would be something like: "Hey mate, how are ya?", whereas formal speech would be something along the lines of: "Hello, how are you sir?".

[lexitu]

Analysing the language that the author has used. This might require looking at how their writing (in a novel) has plugged into values being communicated to the audience, for example. I.e. how does the author use language to convey meaning to the audience.

E.g. (without being specific to Twelve Angry Men):
Such and such uses irony frequently and this helps draw out the multiple meanings for the audience...

 

[dilks]

Strictly speaking metalanguage means language about language. In the context of a text response I don't think this quite makes sense. Here are some examples of what I think your teacher might be looking, not all of which are examples of metalanguage:

Juxtaposition, antithesis, deconstruction, socio-political context, foreshadowing, metaphor, symbol, subversion of the reader's expectation, prolepsis, analepsis, alliteration, irony, metafiction, character foil, romantic irony, past-tense, first-person narrative,
stream-of-consciousness, etc.

These aren't great examples, since I got half of them from briefly reading some of my essays, but it should you a sense of the general flavour of what I presume your teacher means. I sincerely doubt she wants you to analyse how the language is being used, using the term metalanguage was probably just a gaff by her, she probably just wants you to talk about the techniques that are being used by the author.

[teacher28]

Your teacher is referring to the criteria relating to "understanding of the ways in which the author creates meaning".   

VCAA ENG/ESL Assessment Advice (SAC) Reading & Responding: "use appropriate metalanguage and draw on textual evidence to support analysis".

The word "metalanguage" seems to have broadened in meaning to denote the jargon that we use to discuss the elements of a piece of literature, e.g. theatrical techniques such as "soliloquy", "set", or "off-stage" and literary devices like "metaphor", "tone", "characterisation" and so on.

The analysis aspect comes into play when you recognise the ways in which the author uses these devices, and employs other elements of style, for a certain effect.

For Twelve Angry Men, since it is a play, you can, in fact, focus on the language, for example, Juror 7's penchant for hyperbole, ("This is the hottest day of the year") and Rose's use of the vulgate register in 7's comments ("Goddamn" and "bullsh*t").

You can also make reference to staging and other theatrical devices employing the jargon of theatre in order to fulfil the requirement.

[binders]

If you are unsure of the meaning of some bit of metalanguage, you can look up brief explanations here:
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/figures/Flowers.htm

for example, prolepsis
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/figures/P/prolepsis.htm