Skip to main content
Common Core ELAGrades 11–12Speaking & Listening

SL.11-12.6: Adapt Speech and Command Formal English

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.6 · Cluster: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas.

Spin for a SpeakerAll 41 Grades 11–12 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See grades 11-12 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations.)

Common Core State Standards, Grades 11-12, Speaking & Listening · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What SL.11-12.6 Means in Plain English

Juniors and seniors read the room and shift how they talk: loose and quick in a study group, precise in a seminar, fully formal before a hearing or an interview panel. Formal means complete sentences, standard grammar and usage, no filler, and words chosen for those listeners.

Ninth and tenth graders (SL.9-10.6) adapted speech from a class debate to a mock interview. Grades 11 and 12, the last band before college and career readiness, expect that command to hold under pressure, with the grammar and syntax of the grades 11-12 Language standards, in settings that count.

SL.11-12.6 I Can Statements

  • I can tell when a setting calls for formal English.
  • I can turn a casual explanation into formal testimony.
  • I can keep my grammar and word choice formal under pressure.

SL.11-12.6 Worked Example

Joaquin has two minutes at a public hearing. The first version is how he explained the problem to friends; the second is how he should say it to the board.

Prompt

Joaquin works until eleven at a grocery warehouse, and the last Route 6 bus home leaves at 10:15. Give his two-minute testimony asking the county transit board to add a later weeknight run.

Not YetHey, so, um, basically the last bus is at 10:15, which is honestly kind of ridiculous? Like, me and a bunch of people at the warehouse get off at eleven, and we’re just stuck. You guys should totally add a later one, it would be a huge win for everybody.The facts are all there, but the register is a hallway conversation: filler (um, like, basically), slang, “me and a bunch of people” as a subject, a complaint that trails off as a question, and nothing that tells the board who is speaking.
Meets the StandardGood evening, members of the board. My name is Joaquin Reyes, and I work the evening shift at the Eastgate grocery warehouse. My coworkers and I finish at eleven, but the last Route 6 bus leaves at 10:15, so each of us either pays for a ride or walks more than two miles home in the dark. I am asking the board to add one run at 11:20 on weeknights. Thank you for your time, and I would be glad to answer any questions.Same facts, new register: a greeting to the board, a name and a stake, “my coworkers and I” as a standard subject, figures stated plainly, one specific request and a formal close, all inside the two minutes the board allows.
Moves to Use
Name the setting and the listeners before choosing a register.Cut filler and slang, and finish sentences instead of trailing into questions.Use standard usage where listeners notice it most, such as “my coworkers and I” as a subject.Open with who you are and why it matters to you; close with one clear request.

Common Mistakes with SL.11-12.6

Formal means fancy

“I humbly beseech this august body to reconsider the temporal parameters of bus service.”

Try this: Teach formal as complete, standard and precise, not inflated, and have students cut any word they would not say to a respected adult.

Formal only in the opening line

“Good evening, members of the board,” followed by “so basically it’s kind of a mess”

Try this: Record a practice run and have the student mark every lapse into casual speech, then rehearse just those sentences.

One voice for every setting

A student who sounds the same at a lunch table, in a seminar and at a scholarship interview

Try this: Have students deliver one message three times, to a friend, a seminar and an interview panel, and name what changed each time.

Where SL.11-12.6 Fits

Comes BeforeSL.9-10.6Adapt speech to settings from a class debate to a mock interview, using formal English when indicated.
AlongsideL.11-12.1Treat usage as a convention that shifts and is sometimes contested, and settle disputes with a usage guide.L.11-12.3Vary syntax for effect and make language choices that fit the context.
Comes NextSL.11-12.4Carry the formal register through a full presentation that answers opposing views.

Practice SL.11-12.6

Random Name PickerFree ToolSpin for a speaker, then spin a setting (hallway, seminar, hearing), and the speaker adapts the same message on the spot.SpeakerSetting
Spin a Name

Quick Check

  1. Name three features that make the weak version too casual for a hearing.
  2. What does the strong version add at the opening that the weak version lacks?
  3. Why is “my coworkers and I finish at eleven” correct in formal English?

SL.11-12.6: Other Names

SL.11-12.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.6

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.