This paper investigates metalanguage and metapragmatic practices concerning high school students' academic language skills. Danish high school is an optional upper secondary education (10.-12. grade) that has preparation for higher education as its main purpose. A growing part of adolescents from lower class homes attends high school education, but in public discourse high school students with working class background are often referred to as "gymnasiefremmede" (eng. 'high school extraneous') - a notion highlighting that they are perceived as unfamiliar with the culture in high school. A central part of the discourses about 'high school extraneous' students is metalinguistic: Adolescents without academic family background will find it difficult to understand and produce the academic language in high school and are therefore less likely to succeed (Ulriksen et al. 2008, Olsen et al. 2012).
Based on interviews, observations and recordings of classroom interaction collected through ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish high school, I investigate the metalanguage and metapragmatic actions of high school teachers and students concerning students with working class backgrounds and discuss how the situated metalinguistic practices relates to broader discourses about the 'high school extraneous' students.
