2
Introducing style,
tone, and register
A brief scheme of work
Some of the hardest things for a student to grasp at the beginning
of an AS Level English language course are the concepts of style,
tone, and register. To make this still more complex, a teacher will
want to make it clear from the very beginning that style and content
are intimately connected, that the way we say or write something is
central to its meaning and forms a crucial part of its reception by a
reader or listener.
This lesson will need about an hour, though it could take significantly
longer. This lesson will be used as an anchor for discussions
throughout the year, so it is worthwhile spending the time and not
rushing towards the implicit, language-based content.
What you need
Ideally your students should not be in school uniform!
You will need the equivalent of a dressing up box, preferably with a
range of clothes from the very formal to the very informal – from a
dress suit to swimming trunks. You should also have a collection of
photographs of different “styles” of dress adopted by teenagers. By all
means use a child’s cut-out doll book if that seems more appropriate.
Getting started
Activity 1
Spend some time asking students to describe what they mean by
style in clothes. Then give them some photographs and ask them
to talk about their impressions of the various wearers and the
“messages” that the clothes give off. This should build awareness
of the fact that everyone makes choices about clothes each day,
just as they do about language each time they open their mouths
or start to talk.
© Oxford University Press 2014: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute
1
2
Moving on
Activity 2
The idea here is to assemble different costumes that are
ridiculous because they don’t quite match: a dinner suit jacket
with shorts, for example, or posh hats and trainers. Each student
could adopt one outfit and then explain why it doesn’t quite
“work” or why he or she has decided to put such jarring items
together for effect. In doing so, students are automatically led to
talk about style.
Activity 3
Once you have established the idea of style, choose a couple of
students and ask them to choose additional items of clothing.
Ask the others to comment on whether this change makes
things more or less informal, more or less fun. By doing this,
you are establishing clearly how different combinations change
the “tone” of what is worn. This is your moment to talk about
levels of formality, ranging from street style to funerals (see page
36) and it leads automatically into students grasping ideas about
how they dress (and speak) in a register unless they deliberately
choose to flout the rules. And, of course, if they do that, they are
aiming for a particular effect, much as a writer might do with
words. By now, students should have a firm grasp of what you
mean when you use the words style, tone, and register.
You might now want to take time to look at a number of examples
of different registers of written communication, ranging from school
reports to text messages.
Moving to a higher level
While you have the dressing up box out, you might also want to
extend your ideas still further. Do this by focussing on one sort of
clothes – shoes or hats would be good. Once students have noted
that there are wide varieties, each of which changes the tone or
register of an outfit, you can then ask them to talk about these items
as having a function. On the whole, shoes go on the feet, hats go
on the head. Now start to develop the idea that clothing has an
underlying “grammar” where certain items have a particular function,
no matter what they look like. The same is true in sentences, where
© Oxford University Press 2014: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute
2
2
‘looked’, ‘beheld’, ‘gazed’, and ‘glanced’ all serve the same grammatical
function (as verbs) but their use changes both the meaning of
the sentence and its tone and register. Each word is more or less
synonymous but the effect – as with a different pair of shoes or a
different hat – is not the same.
Results
By now, students should have internalized a series of words and
have a solid sense of a series of central concepts. Moreover, you have
introduced the idea of grammar as something that is a living entity,
not the stuff of a foreign language textbook. Most important of all,
your students will understand that style and register are not the
costume of thought, they are an integral part of its articulation.
© Oxford University Press 2014: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute
3