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Lesson · Grade 6 · English Language Arts

Formal and Informal Language

  • Grade 6
  • English Language Arts
  • 1 min 12 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC6-EN-20

Maya tells a friend she will miss class in a relaxed message, then writes the same message to her teacher, and the two versions sit side by side so the markers of each variety light up: contractions, casual words and exclamation marks on one side, full words, precise words and a polite greeting and ending on the other. A box under each text names the variety and who it suits, and the video ends on the point that neither one is wrong, so you match your language to the reader and the situation.

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

Formal and informal language: what is the difference?

Maya will miss class tomorrow, and she needs to tell a friend and her teacher.

Transcript

What the lesson says

Formal and informal language: what is the difference?

Maya will miss class tomorrow, and she needs to tell a friend and her teacher.

First she sends a quick message to her friend.

This is informal language, the relaxed kind we use with friends and family.

Notice the contractions, the casual words like grab and thing, and the double exclamation marks.

Now she sends the same message to her teacher.

This is formal language, the careful and polite kind for teachers, employers and strangers.

Can't becomes cannot, thing becomes appointment, and there is a polite greeting and ending.

The message stays the same, and only the variety of English changes.

So ask who will read it: friends get informal, teachers and strangers get formal.

Neither one is wrong, because each fits its own situation.

Formal or informal: match your language to the reader and the situation.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 6

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: language varietiesBC6-EN-20

Previous: What Makes a Good ParagraphNext: Canadian and American Spelling: Two Ways, Both Correct

British Columbia, Grade 7

English Language Arts, Language features, structures, and conventions: language varietiesBC7-EN-23

Previous: What Makes a Good ParagraphNext: Canadian and American Spelling: Two Ways, Both Correct

This lesson is also listed in Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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