7.4 Appropriacy of Teacher Language: Simplicity, Formality, and Using L1
Key Takeaways
- Appropriacy is a three-way match between the audience's level and age, the purpose of the utterance, and the moment in the lesson — never a property of the exponent alone.
- Ungraded language blocks lower levels and over-simplified language patronises higher ones, while cutting an instruction too far makes it ambiguous rather than clear.
- Formality and proficiency are separate dimensions: a C1 class can be addressed informally and an A2 class formally, because simple is not the same as informal.
- Teacher L1 is appropriate for a quick gloss, a beginner instruction, safety or discipline, a subtle concept check and assessment procedures — never as the default medium or in a multilingual class.
- Appropriate sequencing means instructing in the order learners will act, handing materials out after the instruction, checking understanding before release, and never fusing an instruction with a language explanation.
7.4 Appropriacy of Teacher Language: Simplicity, Formality, and Using L1
TKT Module 3 Part 1 asks you to judge whether a piece of teacher language is right for this class at this moment. That judgement is appropriacy, and the syllabus names four dimensions of it: degrees of simplicity, appropriateness of sequencing, degrees of formality, and use of L1. Section 7.2 supplied the functions and exponents; this section is about choosing between them.
No exponent is appropriate in the abstract. Appropriacy is a three-way match with the audience (level, age, expectations), the purpose (what learners must do or feel), and the moment (the lesson stage, and what they know). "Right, get into fours and thrash out a rationale" suits a C1 business group and sinks an A1 teenage class. Exam distractors are accurate English mismatched to one of those three variables.
Degrees of Simplicity
Grading means adjusting vocabulary, structure and speed to the level in front of you (7.1). Appropriacy decides how far to grade — the same function needs a different exponent at each level.
| Function | A1 | B1 | C1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instructing | "Work with your partner. Ask three questions." | "In pairs, ask each other three questions." | "In pairs, interview your partner and note anything surprising." |
| Checking understanding | "Do we write or speak? … Speak." | "So are you writing this, or just discussing?" | "So — discussion, not a written record?" |
| Praising | "Very good! Well done." | "That's a really good point, Ana." | "That's a nuanced way of putting it." |
| Correcting | (gesture) "She go? … She goes." | "Careful with the past form." | "Register problem — can you soften that?" |
| Organising groups | "You: A. You: B. Work together." | "Get into threes, one from each table." | "Form threes with people you haven't worked with." |
Two failures sit at either end. Ungraded language — idioms, embedded clauses, unstressed function words at speed — blocks lower levels: learners cannot access the instruction, so the task fails. Over-simplified language patronises higher levels: "Now. Listen. Look at the paper. Yes?" delivered slowly to a C1 class strips out valuable input and sounds condescending.
A third trap is simplifying into ambiguity. Cutting words is not clarifying. "Write about your friend" is shorter than "Write a paragraph of about eighty words describing one friend", but no longer says how much, or in what form. Appropriate simplicity keeps every piece of information learners need to act, and removes only the language carrying none.
Degrees of Formality
Register runs from formal through neutral to informal, and teachers move along it deliberately:
- Formal: "Could I ask you to turn to page forty-two?" / "Dictionaries are not permitted during the assessment."
- Neutral: "Turn to page forty-two." / "Remember — no dictionaries in the test."
- Informal: "OK, page forty-two, everyone." / "Right, dictionaries away!"
A formal register is appropriate when the situation carries weight or the learners expect it: a business-English class of senior managers, an exam-preparation briefing, a first lesson with new adults, and any warning about assessment rules, where informality makes the rule sound negotiable. Informal language suits energy and rapport: young learners, a warmer, a fluency game, praise during freer practice.
The point TKT tests hardest is that formality and proficiency are separate dimensions. A C1 class can be addressed informally — the natural register between competent adults — while an A2 class in a formal institution may be addressed politely in fully graded language. Simple is not informal: "Please open your books" is simple and formal.
Mismatches fail both ways. Sarcasm with teenagers ("Nice one, genius — try reading the question this time") reads as mockery and models language learners cannot reuse. Stiff phrasing in a warmer ("You will now converse with the individual seated adjacent to you") kills the energy the stage exists to create.
Appropriateness of Sequencing
Section 7.1 treats sequencing as a technique; here it is an appropriacy judgement. Instructions are appropriately sequenced when they come in the order learners will act on them, when handouts go out after the instruction (paper in hands means nobody listens), when understanding is checked before learners are released, and when an instruction is not fused with a language explanation — "Get into pairs, and by the way the past of catch is caught" hands learners two unrelated jobs, so one is lost.
Use of L1 by the Teacher
TKT expects a balanced position, not a ban: L1 is a legitimate tool with a serious failure mode.
| Situation | Appropriate? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Glossing an abstract item (regret) in five seconds | Yes | Faster than a long English definition |
| A complex instruction to absolute beginners | Yes | The instruction is not the learning target |
| Safety, discipline or a welfare matter | Yes | Comprehension must be immediate and certain |
| Checking a subtle concept (used to vs would) | Yes | Confirms meaning; exposes false friends |
| Occasional rapport-building in a monolingual class | Yes | Lowers the affective filter; respects identity |
| Explaining assessment procedures | Yes | Misunderstanding has real consequences |
| As the default medium of the lesson | No | Removes the main source of English input |
| For language learners could follow in graded English | No | Wastes exposure; grade the English instead |
| In a multilingual class | No | Only some learners share it; others are excluded |
| Every time learners look puzzled | No | Trains learners to wait for translation |
Two further factors decide it. Class composition: an L1 gloss only exists in a monolingual class where the teacher shares the language; in a multilingual class the equivalents are pictures, mime and bilingual dictionaries. Institutional policy: some schools run a strict English-only rule, others permit L1 for grammar clarification; appropriacy includes respecting it. Separate translation as a technique — planned, brief, aimed at meaning — from L1 as a habit, an unplanned drift that breeds dependency.
Spot the Inappropriacy
- To an A1 class: "So what I'd like you to do is just have a quick go at the first few." — Inappropriate simplicity: hedged and vague, so beginners cannot find the instruction. Better: "Look at exercise 1. Do numbers 1 to 4. Alone. Five minutes."
- To C1 professionals: "Now. Everybody. Stand up! Very good! Sit down!" — Over-simplified for the audience. Better: "Let's do this one on your feet — find someone from another department and compare figures."
- To teenagers, after a wrong answer: "Wow, someone actually did the homework — shocker." — Inappropriate register: sarcasm humiliates and destroys rapport. Better: "Close — check the verb ending and try again."
A teacher of a C1 class of adult professionals delivers every instruction in short, slow chunks: "Now. Listen. Open the book. Page ten. Yes?" Several learners look irritated. What is inappropriate about this teacher language?
Which use of the learners' L1 by the teacher would TKT normally judge appropriate?
A teacher opens a warmer with a class of B2 teenagers by saying: "You will now converse with the individual seated adjacent to you." Which appropriacy problem is this?