The Importance of Appropriacy in English Conversation

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Grammatical range is the number of different grammatical forms that you can use to express yourself. The key indicators are the variety of words used, the adequacy and appropriacy of the words used. Your grammatical resource is your shelf in the language supermarket in your head. In English, our spoken vocabulary can be quite informal, quite friendly, and relaxed. So it doesn't mean using very formal language or using very specialist terms but using the sort of everyday English that most people use in conversation.

How do we know when someone's English is good? Is it just about having a "British accent", knowing lots of big words, or speaking with no errors? In fact, there is a lot more to it than that. IELTS can show us how someone's level of English is assessed by looking at a wide range of skills and sub-skills and there is a lot more to it than making no errors while speaking with a "British accent". This episode should help you consider your own level of English level, get some perspective on what language competence really means, and hopefully cause people to think twice when making snap judgements about other people's English.

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