Step 1: Explicit Teaching & Modelling
Display three versions of the same request and ask students what relationship each version suggests.
Students: Students identify words that sound friendly, respectful, expert or distant.
Learning goals
1. Outcome Overview & Core Concepts
We are learning to explain how language choices signal group identity, relationships, roles and levels of social distance.
Australian Curriculum target: recognise how language shapes relationships and roles
Core concepts
- Language choices are social signals: they can show closeness, shared identity, respect, expertise, authority or distance.
- Group identities are formed and reinforced through shared vocabulary, acronyms, slang, specialist terminology and terms of address.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language names can inform relationships to Country/Place when handled respectfully and accurately.
Success criteria
- Identify language choices that build solidarity or show authority.
- Explain how a term of address, acronym, specialist term or register choice positions speakers and listeners.
- Use respectful evidence when discussing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language names and relationships to Country/Place.
Useful prior knowledge
- Students can recognise audience, purpose and context in a short text.
- Students can compare formal and informal word choices.
- Students understand that language varies across communities and situations.
4-Step Instructional Sequence
4. 4-Step Instructional Sequence
Step 2: Guided Analysis
Use the identity web to connect shared vocabulary with values, behaviours and belonging.
Students: Students explain why a term works inside one group but may exclude outsiders.
Step 3: Collaborative / Independent Practice
Model how a language name can be evidence of relationship to Country/Place without simplifying cultural knowledge.
Students: Students describe what can and cannot be inferred from a map reference.
Step 4: Formative Assessment
Give a short text and ask students to annotate language choices and their social effects.
Students: Students write a two-sentence explanation using evidence.
Check: Choose one language choice from a short text and explain how it shapes a relationship, role or group identity.
Subject-Specific Content & Key Examples
2. Subject-Specific Content & Key Examples
Explaining a language choice
Teacher model: Name the choice, name the relationship or role, then explain the effect on the audience.
- Spot: The phrase 'our chat' assumes the listener belongs to the same group.
- Connect: That shared context creates closeness and solidarity.
- Explain: It would suit a peer, but not a first email to a principal because the role relationship is different.
E1: Group language builds belonging
A group can sound like a group because members share words, shortcuts and address terms that carry shared values and behaviours.
Teacher move: Point to each identity-web node and connect it to belonging, expertise or role.
Ask: Which word would make someone sound like an insider here? Which word might confuse an outsider?
E2: Language names can show relationship to Country/Place
A language name on an authoritative map can help students recognise that language, identity and Country/Place are connected, but it must be discussed carefully and respectfully.
Teacher move: Display the source as a reference, explain that mapped language names are not simple borders, and model cautious wording.
Ask: What can this source help us notice? What should we avoid assuming from the map alone?
Three Ways To Ask
Students rewrite one request for a close friend, a teacher and an official form. They underline the words that changed.
Share: Pairs explain how one changed word altered role, distance or respect.
Curriculum Coverage & Elaborations
Curriculum Coverage & Elaborations
The content description is the required target. Elaborations are useful examples and contexts, not a disconnected checklist.
- E1: understanding that group identities are formed through language that reflects shared values, beliefs and behaviours, and through language choices that engender solidarity such as specialist terminology, acronyms and terms of address; for example, teenage groups and sportspeople have adopted particular words and ways of communicating
- E2: exploring the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Map of Indigenous Australia and identifying language names that inform relationships to Country/Place
Common Student Misconceptions
3. Common Student Misconceptions
- Formal language is always better.: Replace better with better fit. Ask: Who is speaking, to whom, and for what purpose?
- Slang or acronyms are just lazy language.: Show how specialist terms and acronyms can efficiently signal group expertise or shared identity.
- A map label tells the whole story of Country/Place.: Use cautious source language and explain that cultural knowledge needs respectful, authoritative context.
Do not overteach
- Do not turn this into a full sociolinguistics theory lesson.
- Do not require students to memorise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups or treat the AIATSIS map as a simple boundary map.
- Do not judge one variety of English as better; focus on fit for relationship, role, audience and context.
Practice Thought & Formative Assessment
Practice Thought & Formative Assessment
Choose one language choice from a short text and explain how it shapes a relationship, role or group identity.
What a strong response should show: A complete answer quotes or names the language choice, identifies the relationship/role/group identity, and explains the effect on the audience.
Students should transfer the idea to a fresh text or composition rather than reproduce the worked example.
Support, Core and Extend
Support, Core and Extend
Support
Give two versions only and provide sentence stems: This word suggests ... because ...
Keep the concept: Still explain relationship or role, not just formal/informal.
Core
Annotate three short texts for group language, role and audience effect.
Keep the concept: Stay within text evidence and social effect.
Extend
Compare a group insider version with a public-facing version and explain how the writer changes solidarity and authority.
Keep the concept: Deepen explanation without requiring sociolinguistic theory.
🎥 Optional Video Lesson
The SkillrHub lesson remains the primary learning resource. This optional video reinforces the explanation; you can complete the lesson and practice without watching.
Before you watch:
- Pause after each worked example.
- Try the examples yourself.
- Return to the SkillrHub lesson before continuing.
Recommended: The Scale of Formality
Khan Academy — Notice how choices of language can signal the relationship between a speaker and a listener.
As you watch: Why might the same person choose different wording with a close friend and with a school principal?
Load video player Loads YouTube in this lesson. See the video notice below.
Try it: Write the same request to a friend and to a principal. Identify two language choices that signal the different roles and relationships.
Video unavailable, inaccurate or unsuitable for this year? Report a video problem to SkillrHub by email. You can continue with the written lesson and practice resources.
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Curriculum equivalents: Victoria, NSW and international
Curriculum equivalents for How language shapes relationships and roles
Mapped skill: recognise how language shapes relationships and roles
These references identify matching or closely related learning. Curriculum sequence, terminology and depth vary, so teachers should use the mapped skill and lesson difficulty to confirm suitability.
| Region | Curriculum framework | Closest level or code |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | Australian Curriculum v9.0 | AC9E8LA01 · Year 8 |
| Victoria | Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0 — English | VC2E8LA01 · Level 8 |
| New South Wales | NSW English K–10 Syllabus (2022) | EN4-URA-01 · Stage 4 |
| United States (USA) | Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts | Grade 8 |
| Canada (Ontario) | Ontario Curriculum — English | Grade 8 |
| United Kingdom (England) | National Curriculum in England — English | Year 9, Key Stage 3 |
| India | NCERT / CBSE — English | Class 8 |
Australian Curriculum v9.0 is the canonical source for this SkillrHub lesson. Victoria and NSW entries name the closest published state codes or outcomes; international entries are planning references rather than claims of identical curricula.
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Topic reference: AC9E8LA01 — How language shapes relationships and roles
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