🎩 Horizon: The Formality Dial
Opening lesson of the register module. Learners place the same message on a five-setting formality dial (very formal → formal → neutral → informal → slang) and learn to justify every placement by naming concrete markers: contractions, phrasal verbs versus their formal twins, slang lexis and the impersonal passive. In the story, the crew hunts register fingerprints across five versions of one apology, races to place lines on a cardboard dial, and Sam produces a historic mismatch — “Dear Madam, I regret to inform you that I’m gonna be well late tomorrow, lol.”
Lesson Plan
- Four greetings, four audiences
- Where would this line sound ridiculous?
- Can slang be correct English?
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- Contractions (don’t, can’t) read neutral–informal; their complete absence (do not, cannot) is itself a formal marker
- Phrasal verbs sound casual next to their one-word formal twins: put off → postpone, find out → discover, turn up → attend
- The impersonal passive marks very formal register: Students are requested to remain seated / It is requested that…
- Formal request patterns for official audiences: Would it be possible to…? / I would be grateful if you could…
Prerequisites
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