Open your own evidence
Retrieval · Lessons 1 and 2
Return to two lines you saved: one from your three-message baseline and one from an authentic source in Lesson 2.
Describe how each line constructs a relationship before today’s feature labels are supplied.
- Read or say each line once. Name the audience, purpose and channel you inferred.
- Circle one lexical choice, box one grammatical choice, and mark the word you made most prominent when speaking.
- Complete two stems: “This choice helps because…” and “I cannot infer ___ from this feature alone.”
- Keep the lines visible. You will reanalyse them after the form phase.
Four voices around one editorial change
Shared facts · Original fictional material
A contributor named Maíra has asked Voices of Harbour Street to restore the accent missing from her public credit. Her audio recording is unchanged. The caption must be corrected by 17:00, and the person responsible must confirm completion.
A · Close collaborator
Hey — quick heads-up. Maíra wants the accent back in her name. Can you fix the caption by five and give me a shout when it’s done? The recording itself is fine.
B · Internal project group
A quick update for the caption team: Maíra has asked us to restore the accent in her display name. Please correct the caption by 17:00 and confirm in the task log when it is ready. The audio recording is unchanged.
C · Administrative record
Please note that the contributor’s display name is to appear as Maíra. The public caption is to be amended by 17:00, after which confirmation should be entered in the task log. No amendment to the audio recording is required.
D · Analytical commentary
The requested diacritic is not decorative: retaining it allows the caption to reproduce the contributor’s chosen written form. The correction therefore warrants explicit editorial attention, whereas the recording requires no intervention.
Choose the observation best supported by the four texts. They perform related but different jobs, so do not treat D as a sendable version of the deadline message.
1. Which text assumes the most shared context between writer and recipient?
2. Which text makes both the responsible group and the confirmation location explicit?
3. What does C foreground by using is to appear, is to be amended and should be entered?
4. What makes D analytical rather than an administrative instruction?
A register is a bundle of choices
Lexis, grammar and discourse in this unit
| Working profile | Recurring resources | What the profile does not require |
|---|---|---|
| Informal / familiar | Shared-context wording; contractions; direct questions; conversational chunks and phrasal expressions; coordination | Vagueness, errors, slang, or missing task information |
| Neutral / public-facing | Explicit participants and actions; conventional polite requests; accessible definitions; active and passive clauses chosen for clarity | A personality-free voice or the removal of every contraction |
| Formal / administrative | Conventional framing; precise institutional collocations; modal remoteness; agentless clauses when procedure matters more than operator | Maximum sentence length, constant passives, or ornamental nominalisation |
| Academic / analytical | Defined scope; stance and qualification; clause embedding; abstract nouns tied to an explicit line of reasoning | Impersonal prose, certainty, or complexity without a reasoning job |
Lexical marking is contextual. Give me a shout strongly suggests a familiar relationship here; confirm in the task log fits the project’s neutral operational voice; no amendment is required belongs to an administrative record. Individual words do not occupy permanent boxes. Phrasal verbs such as carry out and set out, for example, also occur in formal prose.
Match each feature from A–D to the job it performs there. The answer describes this context, not every possible use of the form.
Weak forms, full forms and prominence
| Context | Likely choice | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| We can UPDATE the caption. | Unstressed can may weaken to /kən/. | The action carries the new information. |
| We CAN update it, but we CAN’T replace the audio. | Can is prominent and normally full /kæn/. | Ability is explicitly contrasted. |
| Change it from Maira TO Maíra. | To may take its full form /tuː/. | The destination form is part of a correction contrast. |
| Send it to the HOST and the EDITOR. | Unstressed to and and may weaken to /tə/ and /ən/. | The recipients, rather than the linking words, carry prominence. |
Choose the delivery analysis that fits the intended information structure. The transcriptions are broad reference forms, not accent targets.
1. In “We can UPDATE the caption,” what is the most likely treatment of unstressed can?
2. In “We CAN update it, but we CAN’T replace the audio,” why is can likely to be full?
3. Which delivery best signals the correction “Sunday, not Saturday”?
4. Does a prepared formal briefing require full forms for every can, to and and?
5. An informal correction uses full /tuː/ in “from Maira TO Maíra.” What does the full form do?
L1-transfer lab · Test your own repertoire
Use the two saved lines from the warm-up and one sentence from A–C. Deliver each for its intended audience, then deliver it for a different relationship.
Identify whether you can vary prominence, chunking and weak/full forms deliberately without losing intelligibility or performing a different accent.
- Underline the content word carrying the main new information in each version.
- Circle can, to or and where present. Notice whether it weakens, remains full for contrast, or stays full without a clear information reason.
- A listener names the intended relationship and cites audible evidence. If they cannot, change one delivery variable and repeat.
- Record one actual pattern for Lesson 6. Do not generalise the result to a language group or turn one attempt into a permanent diagnosis.
Hold a neutral line, then shift it
Complete the internal project notice with the neutral option that fits its explicit audience and purpose. The other options belong to a different relationship or discourse job.
A quick for the caption team: Maíra’s display name needs to include the accent. Her recording unchanged. Please the public caption by 17:00 and completion in the task log. If the style guide is unclear, the coordination team. Thank you for the written credit carefully.
Rewrite for the stated relationship. Preserve the name form, unchanged recording, 17:00 deadline and confirmation requirement whenever they appear. The model demonstrates one coherent bundle.
Over-administrative → neutral internal notice
Please be advised that rectification of the contributor nomenclature is to be effected prior to 17:00, subsequent to which notification of completion is required.
Distant → familiar private response
Your request concerning the restoration of the accent has been received. No amendment to the recording will be undertaken.
Loose chat → concise administrative record
Maíra wants her name fixed, so can someone sort it out by five and tell us when it’s done? The audio’s fine.
Make the same correction land twice
Production lab · Private reply and archive briefing
Maíra has asked for the accent to be restored in her public credit. The audio is unchanged. The caption must be corrected by 17:00, and completion recorded. Send one private reply to Maíra and one spoken briefing to the archive manager.
Preserve all four facts while creating two distinct relationships through an explainable lexical, grammatical and phonological bundle.
- Plan for two minutes. Copy the four facts into a checklist, then choose one lexical and one grammatical resource for each relationship.
- Write a 55–75-word private reply and a 65–85-word archive note in four minutes. Keep both respectful; familiarity and formality are not opposite levels of care.
- Deliver each version aloud in three minutes. Mark the main prominence, one likely weak form and any full form used for contrast or correction.
- A partner identifies the audience, checks every fact and cites one lexical, one grammatical and one audible cue. Use the final two minutes to revise the weakest cue.
Evidence grid
| Control | Private reply | Archive briefing |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Maíra; accent restored; audio unchanged; 17:00 deadline and completion record | The same four facts |
| Relationship | Direct acknowledgement and appropriate familiarity | Accountable, concise record for a responsible colleague |
| Form | A coherent lexical and grammatical bundle | A different coherent bundle, without ornamental complexity |
| Sound | Prominence and weak/full forms serve the message | Chunking and prominence make procedure and contrast recoverable |
Diagnose the bundle, not the accent
Choose the feedback that identifies the control problem accurately and preserves a useful error-log entry.
1. The private reply says thanks and uses contractions, but it omits the unchanged recording. What is the priority?
2. The archive briefing is concise, active and clear. It contains no passive. What should the listener conclude?
3. The learner reduces can in an ordinary affirmative clause but uses full to in a correction contrast. What does this show?
Save one repair target
Compare today’s two deliveries with your Lesson 1 baseline.
Write one evidence-based pattern for Lesson 6, or record that the sample does not yet establish one.
- Use this form: context → intended relationship → observed cue → listener effect.
- Separate lexical, grammatical and pronunciation evidence before deciding whether they form a recurring bundle.
- If the pattern occurred only once, write “test again” rather than “error”.
One choice never carries the whole register
Choose the statement that will support register shifting in Lesson 4.
1. Which description best captures productive register control?
Standing informal-input bridge
Use one legally accessible The Allusionist episode concerned with register and one London Review of Books essay. Select one 15–25-second spoken stretch and one written sentence. Mark the content words that carry the argument, then identify one lexical or grammatical cue working with that prominence. Record time stamp or paragraph opening rather than reproducing the source.