ESOL Wt/L1.4a Choose language suitable for genre, purpose and audience

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Wt/L1.4a: Use language suitable for genre, purpose and audience

• Identify the appropriate register for genre, audience and form of communication, and use appropriate lexis, mode of address and type of structures suitable for the situation.
• Know and use a range of lexical phrases, and use collocation appropriately. Example: ‘I am interested in applying...' ‘I would be grateful if you could send me...' ‘..opportunities for promotion..' (
• Consider register and begin to consider the connotation of lexis when selecting from words of similar meaning 
• Develop understanding of the need to be more explicit in written English than in speech, detailing important information as appropriate to the situation. to compensate for being unable to point, show, etc. 
  Example: To start the machine, press the start button, which you will find on the right hand side of the front panel, immediately below the button marked ‘OK'…

Related Adult Literacy link: Wt/L1.4 Use language suitable for purpose and audience
Related Functional Skills English link: FE L1.24 Use format, structure and language appropriate for audience and purpose

Examples of application and level

• Write texts using language appropriate to the form of communication and situation.
  [postcard] Hello everyone! Arrived home on Tuesday - all my family were at the airport to greet me! Food and weather fantastic!! Having a great time. See you all back at college, Juana 
  [formal reply to invitation] Dear Ms Peters, Thank you very much for your kind invitation. Unfortunately, my family and I will not be able to accept as we have a prior engagement. With very best wishes, Mary Carad

Sample activities

• Prior to starting a writing task, learners discuss the purpose, audience and appropriate register. Learners can evaluate each other’s writing and redraft as appropriate.
• Learners identify the purpose, audience and register of a range of texts and identify the key features of the text that indicate the register, e.g. type of vocabulary and collocation; mode of address; type of structures. Learners compile lists of key features for each type of text, e.g. phrases for making requests in a formal letter, an informal letter, a note.
• While following the transcript, learners listen to someone giving instructions, and then read an instructional text on the same subject. They identify the similarities and differences, focusing in particular on the way the writer has had to be more explicit than the speaker and how they have achieved this. In pairs, learners are then asked to give instructions to each other orally, then write the instructions.

Source: Department for Education and Skills (2001) Adult ESOL Core Curriculum, DfES (2001)