Say it before you study it
Speaking · C1 entry diagnostic · No model yet
A community recording session has moved from Saturday at 11:00 in the library to Sunday at 15:00 in the arts room because the library will be closed for maintenance. Existing recordings remain scheduled, and each recipient should confirm attendance by Thursday and mention any access requirement.
Give the same update twice: first to a close friend who planned to attend, then to the cultural services team whose representative planned to attend.
- Begin within the first minute. Take 20 seconds, then speak to your friend for about 45 seconds.
- Reset the relationship, not the facts. Speak to the cultural services team for about 45 seconds and ask it to confirm by Thursday whether a representative can attend and whether that person has any access requirements.
- Write down your opening, your request and your closing from each attempt. Mark anything you changed deliberately.
- Keep both attempts. They are baseline evidence for Lessons 3 and 6, not a test result.
The facts stay; the social situation moves
Shared situation · Original fictional classroom material
Voices of Harbour Street is collecting short audio memories about belonging. Its launch session has moved from Saturday at 11:00 in the library to Sunday at 15:00 in the arts room because the library will be closed for maintenance. Existing recordings remain scheduled. Each recipient needs to confirm attendance by Thursday and mention any access requirement.
A · Informal · Message to Rafa, a close friend
Hey Rafa — quick heads-up: the recording session’s been moved from Saturday at eleven in the library to Sunday at three in the arts room, as the library’s shut for maintenance. Your recording stays scheduled. Can you let me know by Thursday if you’re still up for it? And give me a shout if there’s anything you need to use the room. See you!
B · Neutral · Message to the volunteer group
Hello everyone. A quick update about the Voices of Harbour Street launch: the session scheduled for Saturday at 11:00 in the library will now take place on Sunday at 15:00 in the arts room. The library is closed for maintenance. Recordings already on the schedule are unaffected. Please confirm by Thursday whether you can attend, and let the coordination team know about any access requirements. Thank you for adapting to the change.
C · Formal · Message to the cultural services team
Dear Cultural Services Team, I am writing to advise you of a change to the Voices of Harbour Street launch. Owing to the library’s scheduled closure for maintenance, the session has been moved from Saturday at 11:00 to Sunday at 15:00 in the arts room. All previously scheduled recordings will proceed as planned. I would be grateful if you could confirm by Thursday whether a representative will attend and advise us of any access requirements that person may have. Kind regards, The coordination team
Match each observation to message A, B or C. A message may be used more than once. Base every answer on visible language, not on the idea that one version is inherently better.
A Close friend
B Volunteer group
C Cultural services team
1. Uses a phrasal expression to check continued willingness.
2. Names the event before giving the changed arrangements to a mixed group.
3. Frames confirmation as an indirect request with I would be grateful if…
4. Closes by recognising that recipients must adjust their plans.
5. Uses contractions and assumes a shared understanding of who is speaking.
6. Uses owing to to package the reason inside a prepared institutional message.
7. Requests information about access through the everyday phrase anything you need.
Four variables, not three fixed costumes
A first diagnostic lens
| Variable | Question to ask | Evidence in the three messages |
|---|---|---|
| Relationship | How much shared context and social distance is there? | quick heads-up / Hello everyone / Dear Cultural Services Team |
| Purpose | Is the writer updating, requesting, documenting, reassuring — or several at once? | All three update and request; C also creates a formal record. |
| Channel | Is this a chat, a group announcement, an email, or prepared speech? | The openings and closings fit different written channels. |
| Desired response | What must the recipient know or do next? | Confirm by Thursday and communicate access needs or arrangements. |
Working labels, not sealed boxes. Informal, neutral and formal describe the overall fit between a cluster of choices and a situation. A short word can occur in a formal message; a complete sentence can occur in an informal one. The diagnostic question is what relationship the choices construct here.
Match each wording choice to its most plausible effect in this situation. These are contextual tendencies, not permanent labels attached to individual words.
Pronunciation diagnostic · One clause, two deliveries
Say “Could you confirm that the room is available?” first as part of a prepared institutional briefing and then as a quick question to a familiar colleague.
Make a deliberate delivery change while keeping every word and the request itself unchanged.
- In the prepared version, decide which information deserves prominence and whether you keep function words relatively full.
- In the familiar version, allow natural linking or reduction if it occurs in your own speech; keep room and available intelligible.
- Your listener identifies the setting you intended and names the sound evidence they heard. Save the observation without judging either delivery as more correct.
Change the relationship; protect the proposition
Rewrite each line for the stated audience. Preserve the facts and requested action. The model is one defensible version, not the only possible answer.
Institutional email → close friend
I am writing to advise you that the session has been moved to Sunday at 15:00. I would be grateful if you could confirm your attendance by Thursday.
Close friend → volunteer announcement
The library’s shut, so we’ve had to shift the whole thing. Give me a shout by Thursday if you’re still up for it.
Volunteer announcement → institutional email
The recordings already on the schedule are unaffected. Please tell us about any access requirements.
Choose the best diagnosis. Several sentences are grammatically possible; the question is what changed and whether that change serves the situation.
1. A message to a close friend says, “Please be advised that the venue has been amended.” What is the main problem here?
2. A formal email says, “The session is now on Sunday at 15:00.” Which diagnosis is strongest?
3. A volunteer notice changes confirm by Thursday to reply soon. What has happened?
4. A learner uses full forms in both spoken versions but changes prominence, pace and phrasing appropriately. What does this show?
Three recipients, one accountable update
Baseline production · Spoken and written evidence
You coordinate Voices of Harbour Street. Send the same event update to Rafa, the volunteer group and the cultural services team. Use only the established facts; the project is fictional.
Produce three recognisably different versions that preserve the session change, reason, recording status, Thursday deadline and access request.
- Plan for three minutes. Make a five-fact checklist and choose an opening, request and closing for each relationship.
- Write three compact messages in six minutes: 45–65 words to Rafa, 60–80 words to the volunteers, and 75–95 words to the cultural services team.
- Deliver each message aloud in four minutes as though the recipient were listening. Change phrasing, prominence, pace or degree of reduction deliberately; do not perform a different accent.
- Use the final two minutes to label one lexical, one grammatical and one pronunciation choice you made. Save all three messages and the labels for Lesson 6.
Five facts that cannot drift
- Saturday 11:00 → Sunday 15:00.
- Library → arts room.
- The library maintenance closure caused the move.
- Existing recordings remain scheduled.
- Recipients confirm by Thursday and communicate access needs.
Separate range from control
Choose the feedback that identifies an observable strength or next step without turning this first sample into a level verdict.
1. All three versions sound different, but the message to Rafa omits the Thursday deadline. Which feedback is most useful?
2. The formal version is accurate and concise. It uses Please confirm… rather than I would be grateful if…. Which feedback fits?
3. The three written openings differ, but all spoken versions have identical prominence and pace. What should be recorded?
Baseline record · Keep for Lesson 6
Compare your three versions without rewriting all of them now.
Record one demonstrated choice and one unresolved register decision in each mode.
- Written: quote one phrase that fitted its audience and one phrase whose fit you are unsure about.
- Spoken: describe one deliberate delivery change and one place where the three versions sounded alike.
- Content: tick each of the five facts in each version. Repair only an omitted or changed fact now.
- Name the evidence, not your level: write “I changed… because…” and “I need to test whether…”.
Carry one listening question forward
Choose the principle supported by today’s evidence.
1. What makes a register shift successful?
Standing informal-input bridge
Use one legally accessible The Allusionist episode concerned with register and one London Review of Books essay. For the next lesson, collect two exact choices that suggest who each speaker or writer imagines their audience to be. Include surrounding context; do not classify an isolated word as permanently formal or informal.