Considering Audience, Purpose, & Occasion in Communication

Students are often asked to engage in the practice of code switching both inside and outside the class. Communication with one another is almost second nature to students as they engage in conversation across various mediums and platforms. From conversations with their peers in person during the day, to conversations with friends, strangers and acquaintances on social media platforms, students are constantly in a state of communication. However, students may often lack an understanding of “professional” or “academic” communication, and how to switch to the appropriate “code” when faced with the correlating audience. It is imperative for students to understand how audience, purpose and occasion will often define their mode of communication and affect the way that they communicate with individuals across the various social networks that they may be involved in outside of the school and classroom environment. Students will be involved in tasks that ask them to reflect on the language of communication by interacting with different mediums of texts leading to their final task of creating a written or verbal piece of communication where they will demonstrate their understanding of code switching.