(3.5) Professional Communication Skills — Literacy

The language you use inside the school walls acts as a “hidden curriculum”.

Students imitate how you speak and colleagues judge your competence based on your ability to switch between different communication contexts.

A certified teacher must master Classroom Discourse (the patterns of language used during teaching) and Register (adjusting your language style based on your audience and setting).

1. Classroom Discourse

This refers to the special type of language, interaction, and communication patterns that occur during teaching and learning.

It determines who gets to speak, when, and for how long.

The IRF framework

While effective for quick checks, overreliance on it can make a classroom too teacher-centred.

Strategies for productive discourse

Shift toward Dialogic Teaching—where discourse is collaborative rather than an interrogation.

Uptake questions

Instead of moving to a new student after a response, use the student’s answer to build the next question.

• Example: “If Abuja is the capital, why do you think the government moved it away from Lagos?”

Wait time (3-Second rule)

Pausing for at least 3 to 5 seconds after asking a question before calling on a student.

This increases the quality and length of student responses, giving slower processors time to formulate thoughts.

Scaffolding discourse

Rephrasing or providing sentence starters to help a struggling student articulate their thoughts without giving them the answer.

2. Formal vs. Informal Register

A Register is a variety of language used in a specific social or professional context.

Using the wrong register can make you look unprofessional or unapproachable.

Formal register

This is the standard language of academia, administration and professional communication.

• When to use: Writing report cards, corresponding with parents via email, addressing the morning assembly, writing memos to the principal, or delivering a lesson presentation.
• Key characteristics: Avoidance of contractions (do not instead of don’t), no slang, use of passive voice where objectivity is required, and precise vocabulary.

Informal register

This is the relaxed, conversational, and personal language used with peers or in casual settings.

• When to use: Chatting with a colleague during recess in the staffroom or calming down an anxious student during a one-on-one mentoring session.
• Key characteristics: Use of slang, idioms, shortcuts, contractions, and highly expressive non-verbal cues.

Teacher’s role in “Code-Switching”

Teachers must teach students how to code-switch—the ability to jump from an informal register (talking to friends on the playground) to a formal register (answering a question in class or writing an exam paper).

The Interference Trap

Many students write exams using the informal register of social media text-speak (e.g., using “u” instead of “you” or “btw” instead of “by the way”).

A certified teacher must check and penalize this across all subjects, not just in English class.