Hello everyone,
When I first started teaching, I thought that my facility in moving back and forth between registers (informal to formal language and everything in between) was easily translated by my students as just that--a facility to move between registers.
They were bewildered. If I used any of their slang, except to comment on it as a foreign language, they were annoyed. If I tried to "dumb down" my language so that they'd understand me better, they thought I thought they were stupid and they were offended.
Over time, I've gradually learned that I need to model formal speech for them. I can make forays into their language--they understand that I understand them--but I can't dwell in their land. They are most comfortable when I am at least half way to full formality. I have to make my usage as good as possible; my spelling must be correct; I even have to use "who" and "whom" correctly.
Now they understand my facility in switching registers. Now they know what I mean when I teach them the difference between colloquial and collegiate speech. Now they really believe me when I teach them. They even laugh at my jokes more. (It's that age old dictum: you're funniest when you don't appear to be trying to be funny.) They love it if I switch to a completely colloquial diction.
In my class, my use of academic language allowed me to require it of my students, and it made it much easier for them to make the transition to college.
At the very least, try to convince them that profanity will not normally help their job prospects.
Embedded in the use of a more formal, academic diction should be hints and clues as to the overall meaning. I tried to give clues or hints to the meaning of a word when I used a large one; sometimes I would translate what I meant into more colloquial language; I'm better at that than I used to be, and my students don't complain as often that I'm dumbing things down to them.
Jeff Combe
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