Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introducing Style Tone and Register
Introducing Style Tone and Register
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.
Getting started
Activity 1
© Oxford University Press 2014: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute 1
2
Moving on
Activity 2
Activity 3
© 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