English Language Arts · 8th Grade · Language and Style · Weeks 19-27

Formal vs. Informal Language

Students will differentiate between formal and informal language and understand when to use each in various writing and speaking contexts.

• Common Core State Standards
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.3.a

About This Topic

The ability to shift between formal and informal language is one of the most practical communication skills a student can develop, and 8th grade is a pivotal year for building this awareness. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.3.a asks students to use language that is appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience. Formal language operates at a different register: it avoids contractions, slang, and casual sentence constructions, and it signals to academic audiences that the writer is operating within the conventions of formal discourse.

Many students have an intuitive sense of when to be formal but lack the vocabulary to describe what they are doing. Naming the register distinction gives them a framework they can apply consciously in revising and in preparing for different speaking contexts. The key instructional insight is that neither formal nor informal language is inherently superior: both serve different communicative purposes, and a skilled communicator knows which to use and why.

Active learning approaches that put students in real or simulated communicative contexts, such as writing the same information for two different audiences, are especially effective. Students who revise the same message for a text to a friend and a letter to a principal understand register shift at a level that no definition can provide.

Key Questions

1. Differentiate between formal and informal language, providing examples of appropriate contexts for each.
2. Analyze how the choice of formal or informal language impacts the tone and audience perception of a text.
3. Construct a passage that demonstrates appropriate use of formal language for an academic audience.

Learning Objectives

• Identify key characteristics of formal and informal language registers in written and spoken English.
• Compare and contrast the use of contractions, slang, and sentence structure in formal versus informal communication.
• Analyze how word choice and tone influence audience perception in academic and casual writing samples.
• Construct a short paragraph using formal language appropriate for an academic essay introduction.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of language choices in a given text based on its intended audience and purpose.

Before You Start

Parts of Speech and Sentence Structure

Why: Students need a solid understanding of grammar, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and how to construct complete sentences, to effectively manipulate language for different registers.

Identifying Audience and Purpose

Why: Understanding who they are writing or speaking for and why, is fundamental to making appropriate language choices.

Key Vocabulary

Formal Language	Language used in serious or academic settings. It typically avoids contractions, slang, and colloquialisms, and uses more complex sentence structures.
Informal Language	Language used in casual, everyday conversations with friends and family. It often includes contractions, slang, idioms, and simpler sentence structures.
Register	The level of formality in language, which changes depending on the audience, purpose, and context of communication.
Contractions	Shortened forms of words, such as 'don't' for 'do not' or 'it's' for 'it is'. These are common in informal language but usually avoided in formal writing.
Slang	Very informal words and phrases, often specific to a particular group or subculture. Slang is generally inappropriate for formal contexts.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Formal language just means using bigger or more impressive words.

What to Teach Instead

Formal language involves register features beyond vocabulary: sentence structure, avoidance of contractions, elimination of slang, and adherence to grammatical conventions. A student who replaces 'a lot' with a sophisticated synonym but keeps contractions and casual sentence construction has only partially shifted register. Showing students exemplar texts that are formal without using rare vocabulary helps clarify that precision and structure drive register, not just vocabulary complexity.

Common Misconception

Informal language is always less correct than formal language.

What to Teach Instead

Register appropriateness is about context, not correctness. Casual language is appropriate and skillful in texts, conversations with friends, and some creative writing contexts. The goal is not to replace informal language with formal language but to know which serves the situation. A student who cannot shift registers for different purposes is actually less communicatively flexible than one who controls both fluently.

Active Learning Ideas

Workshop: Same Message, Different Register

Give students a scenario such as explaining why they missed a deadline and ask them to write the same message twice: once as a text to a close friend and once as a formal email to a teacher. Pairs exchange and score each version on a provided register rubric before discussing what specific word choices and structural features mark each register.

30 min·Pairs

Inquiry Circle: Register Sort

Provide groups with 30 sentence strips drawn from a mix of social media posts, news articles, academic essays, and formal letters. Groups sort them into two or three register categories without being given the labels in advance. Groups compare their sorting decisions and discuss which sentences were hardest to categorize and why.

25 min·Small Groups

Think-Pair-Share: Revision for Register

Present five informal sentences and ask each student to revise them to formal academic language. Pairs compare their revisions, noting where they made different word choices, and discuss whether both revisions are equally formal. The class identifies the highest-quality formal revision for each sentence and discusses what makes it work.

20 min·Pairs

Role Play: The Press Conference

In groups of three or four, students practice answering the same question in two different contexts: once as themselves talking to a friend and once as a professional being interviewed. The group provides feedback on whether each performance hit the right register, identifying specific word choices or sentence structures that shifted the register up or down.

30 min·Small Groups

Real-World Connections

• A journalist writing a news report for a national newspaper must use formal language to maintain credibility and reach a broad audience, avoiding slang or overly casual phrasing.
• A student applying for a scholarship or college admission will write a formal essay, carefully choosing words and sentence structures to present themselves professionally to the admissions committee.
• A lawyer presenting a case in court uses formal language, including precise legal terminology and structured arguments, to communicate effectively with the judge and jury.

Assessment Ideas

Exit Ticket

Provide students with two short paragraphs on the same topic, one formal and one informal. Ask them to identify which is which and list two specific linguistic differences they observe, such as the presence of contractions or slang.

Quick Check

Present students with a list of sentences. For each sentence, have them indicate whether it is an example of formal or informal language and briefly explain why, referencing specific word choices or sentence structures.

Discussion Prompt

Ask students to imagine they are writing an email to their principal requesting a new library book. Then, ask them to write a second email about the same book request, but this time to their best friend. Have them share and discuss the differences in their language, tone, and sentence structure for each audience.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I explain formal language without making students feel that their everyday language is wrong?

Frame register as code-switching, the skill of adapting your communication style to your audience and context. Just as bilingual speakers shift between languages fluidly, strong communicators shift between registers. Emphasize that knowing when and how to use formal language is a skill they are adding, not a correction of how they already speak. Most students accept this framing readily and recognize that they already code-switch in daily life.

What specific features of language mark the shift from informal to formal register?

The most consistent markers are: avoidance of contractions, elimination of slang and colloquialisms, use of complete sentences rather than fragments, subject-verb agreement in formal constructions, third-person perspective in academic writing, and vocabulary that is precise and domain-specific rather than general. Students who can name these features can apply them systematically rather than relying on intuition alone.

How should I handle register differences that come from students' home languages or dialects?

Acknowledge that different dialects and language varieties have their own formal and informal registers, and that formal Standard American English is the convention expected in academic contexts but not a marker of intelligence or cultural value. Your task is to add formal academic English as an additional register, not to replace students' home language. This framing reduces anxiety and supports genuine code-switching skill.

How does active learning make register instruction more effective than direct instruction alone?

Register is fundamentally a contextual skill: it cannot be learned from rules alone because the same words can be appropriate in one context and inappropriate in another. Active learning strategies that place students in different communicative contexts, such as writing for two audiences or role-playing formal and informal versions of the same conversation, give students direct experience with the situational nature of register. Students who have practiced switching registers in class apply that skill in real communicative situations.