Mini-Lesson
Pragmatic Cues and Conventions
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Key Concept

Language must reflect the situation, the purpose of a situation, and the audience.

Teacher-Learning Strategies

Whether we realize it or not, we all speak and write differently depending on where we are and who we are addressing.

Task One: Explain It

To begin, have students take a piece of paper and divide it down the middle (vertically) so there are two sides.

Ask students to choose a sport in which they are skilled. Once they have chosen a sport, their job is to explain one element of that sport (ex: volleyball pass, basketball shot, getting up on water skis, curling shot, etc.) to a friend by writing the instructions down on one side of their paper

Once the students have explained the skill to a friend, ask them to write down, on the other side of their paper, an explanation for the same skill as they would give it to a seven year old child.

Remind students that when they are explaining a skill, they must use language that is appropriate for the person and the situation.

For example, you may tell a friend that in order to execute a proper forearm pass in volleyball you will need to:
- get into a ready position
- put your feet one slightly ahead of the other shoulder width apart
- join your hands together so that your thumbs are parallel to each other
- bend your knees and extend your arms out from your body so that they are parallel with your thighs
- keep your back straight and your eye on the ball

In order to explain this same skill to a seven year old, you will need to consider:
- what words might a seven year old not be familiar with?
- what other words might you be able to substitute or describe in more detail?
- does the seven year old have different volleyball terminology (i.e. would they be more likely to call the forearm pass a bump?)?

Task Two: The Differences

Once the students have finished their explanations, they should get into groups of two and try out both explanations with their partner.

As partners, they will help each other to compare the two explanations. They will look for differences and similarities.

They want to answer the question: Why are there two explanations for the same skill?

Once the students have had a chance to consider how their audience changes the way in which they speak, use the following as a handout or an overhead to explain the different levels and registers of language(.doc) or (.rtf).

Task Three: The Examples

After students have an understanding of the terminology associated with levels and registers of language, you may want to look at the following to provide examples of different registers:

• Newspaper (Formal)
  The New York Times
  The Washington Post

• Magazine (Consultative)
  Sports Illustrated
  Teen Magazine
  Reader's Digest
  

Suggested use for the above mini-lesson

Consider discussing levels and registers of language before having students complete any of the following activities:

Obituary
Award Nomination
Panel Discussion
Essay
Cover Letter
Resume