Exam Tips: Formal/Informal & Dialectical Variety

When the examiner asks you in what situation or instances would you use formal or informal communication please remember that formal communication is usually used in the professional or business environment; when speaking to teachers, at church, during a job interview etc. Hence it is obvious that Standard English would be the order of the day.

Informal communication, however, is quite the opposite. When speaking to friends at school, siblings at home, etc. the informal type of communication is usually used. You may use slangs and even dialect to communicate. There is no need for you to adhere to the rules or conventions of Standard English.

It is also important that you know about the types 

of

dialectical variety

ACROLECT

The variety of speech that is closest to a standard prestige language, especially in an area in which a creole is spoken. For example, Standard Jamaican English is the acrolect where Jamaican Creole is spoken.

MESOLECT  
A variety of speech that is midway between the acrolect and the basilect (somewhere between Standard English and what some people call the "raw form" of dialect/Creole--the basilect).


BASILECT
The variety of speech that is most remote from the prestige variety, especially in an area where a creole is spoken. This is the "raw" dialect as some people call it. It is the politically and economically weakest dialect becomes the basilect, and often vanishes beneath the pressures of the acrolect.