Understanding Conversational Text: Invitation and Responses

Objectives

Learning Competency: In this lesson you are going to learn about how to invite someone and how to response someone’s invitation so that you are able to invite and give responses in correct ways.

Learn about it!

The teenagers life is full with interesting things, including the ups and down of social life. Have you ever had a party or your friends invited you to come to their party? How did you invite your friend to your party? When you receive an invitation from others, you have two options: to come or not. If you are available to come, how do you accept the invitation? However, if you cannot come because of one and other reasons, how do you decline/refuse them? At the end of this lesson you are expected to be able to invite someone or accept the invitation or decline the invitation in correct ways.

An invitation has a specific social function, to invite someone to come to an event. There are many ways or expressions that can be used to invite someone. Based on the situation, the expressions of invitation are divided into two. Those are formal situation and informal situation.

Formal invitations can be used to invite someone who older than us or invite someone in formal event like meeting.

Informal invitations can be used to invite our friends or invite someone in informal situation like birthday party.

There are some examples of invitation:
- Would you like to come to my graduation party next week?
- I’d very much like to you to attend the meeting next Saturday?
- Would you care to join our journey to Lombok next holiday?
- Come and join my 15th birthday party!
- You must come to the grand opening of my shoe shop.

If we are attending the invitation, we can accept the invitation by saying:

• That’s very kind of you.
• We’d very much like to come to your graduation party next week.
• What a delightful idea.
• OK!
• Alright.

If we are not attending the invitation, we can decline the invitation by saying:

• Thank you for asking me, but I should go to Bali next week.
• I’d like to. But I have another meeting next Saturday.
• Unfortunately, I can’t. I already have a plan for next holiday.
• Sorry, I can’t.
• I think, I can’t.

There are some expressions that we can use to invite someone in formal situation or in informal situation.

Formal Situation

Inviting Someone

• Would you like to ....
• I'd very much like you to ....
• We should be pleased/delighted if you could ....
• Would you care to ....

Accepting Someone Invitation

• That's very kind of you.
• We'd very much like to ....
• What a delightful idea.
• With the greatest pleasure.
• Thank you very much for inviting me.

Declining Someone’s Invitation

• I'm very sorry, I don't think I can.
• I'd like to, but ....
• I'm afraid I've already promised ....
• Thank you for asking me, but ....
• Unfortunately, I can't ....

Informal Situation

Inviting Someone

• Why don't you come to ....
• Like to come to ....
• Come and ....
• Shall we come to ....
• You must come to ....

Accepting Someone Invitation

• I would/will ....
• That would be very nice.
• OK!
• I'd like to love to come.
• All right (then).

Declining Someone’s Invitation

• Sorry, I can't.
• I'd love to, but ....
• I don't think I can.
• I wish I could, but ....

Keypoints

• Invitation is used to invite someone to come to an event.
• There are two kinds of invitation, those are: formal invitation and informal invitation.
• Formal invitation is used to invite someone who older than us or invite someone in formal event.
• Informal situation is used to invite our friends in informal event.
• There are two kinds of response the invitation:
• Accepting invitation, it we mean that we can attend the invitation.
• Declining invitation, it means that can’t attend the invitation.

Lets Practice!

Choose the correct answer!

 

1.                  You will probably get a formal invitation from ….

a.                   an old friend

b.                  a distant relative

c.                   parents of a friend

d.                  a neighbor

e.                   school principal

2.                  The following does notbelong to the body of a formal invitation: ….

a.                   greeting

b.                  date

c.                   place

d.                  time

e.                   agenda

3.                 "Dear Mr. Manager,"

The part of the invitation is called ….

a.                   closing

b.                  body

c.                   greeting

d.                  heading

e.                   signature

4.                  The followings are the purposes of an invitation, except ….

a.                   to let people know about the event

b.                  to ask someone to attend

c.                   to forbid someone from coming

d.                  to give detailed information about the event

e.                   to ensure the participant to come

 The text below is for questions no 5, 6 and 7

Quino English Course

12 A Quipper Street, Indonesia
Phone: (+62)222456, e-mail: quino@quipper.com

   
To all parents of Intermediate Class and Advanced Class student

Dear Sir,
It is our honor to host annual Quino Family Gathering in socializing the new concept of Quino system.
Quino cordially invites all the parents of Quino’s students to participate in the family gathering.
      Date : Saturday, the twelfth of June 2015
      Time : at nine o’clock to half past twelve o’clock
      Place : Hall of Quino English Course, 12 A Quipper Street
      Agenda : Socialization*
      Dress code: Black tie
The committee extends a warm welcome and is grateful for your involvement.

   

Yours sincerely,

Muara Indah
Quino President

5.                  The recipient of the invitation are/is ….

a.                   students of Quino English Course

b.                  parents of Quino’s students

c.                   president of Quino

d.                  the teachers in the neighborhood

e.                   Quino committee

6.                  The invitation is about ….

a.                   Quino English program

b.                  Quino’s new system

c.                   Quino’s students’ performance

d.                  Family gathering

e.                   Parents-teachers meeting

7.                  How long will the family gathering take place?
Choose one of the following ….

a.                   2 hours

b.                  3 hours

c.                   a whole day

d.                  half a day

e.                   4 hours

Arrange the following into the correct order

8.                  The correct arrangement for the part signature of a formal invitation is ….

a.                      1-2-3

b.                     2-3-1

c.                      3-2-1

d.                     3-1-2

e.                      1-3-2

9.                  The most appropriate phrase to put in a formal invitation is ….

a.                   I wonder if you would like to come to my party.

b.                  Come and join us at the party.

c.                   Let’s celebrate the New Year eve at Puncak Bogor.

d.                  Join us for the party.

e.                   We'd be delighted to have you as our guest at the party.

Complete the following part of an invitation to answer question 10.

It is indeed a pleasure to ... Indonesia 2015 Youth Conference.
We would like to request your honor to participate. This conference ... from 5-7 May 2015. World-known speakers ... key issues for Indonesia Education.

10.              Fill the blanks with the most appropriate word.

a.                   held – will be held – address

b.                  hosted – will be held – will address

c.                   host – will held – will address

d.                  hold – will held – will address

e.                   host – will be held – will address

How to Write Functional text: Spoof

Objectives

Learning competency: express meaning and rhetorical stages of an essay using a variety of language accurately, fluently and acceptable in the context of everyday life in the form of spoof.

Learn about it!

In this topic, you will learn how to write spoof. Read and study the following text.

Do you think the story I told you above is amusing? Have you ever heard a funny story before? We often find many kinds of humor in our daily life, including those delivered through funny stories. A funny story that has a twist, unpredictable moment, in the end is called the spoof.

Definition and Generic Structure

Spoof is a functional text that has an unpredictable part at the end called twist. The twist of the spoof is the element that makes the story funny. The purpose of a spoof is to share a funny story and amuse the readers. Spoof has the following structure:

Language Features

When you tell a spoof, you tell your real past experience. In telling your past experience, you need to use simple past tense, so the action verbs in spoof are written in past form. For example: ate, ran, went, thought, and felt. Moreover, spoof focuses on certain people or animals that become the main characters of the story. The events of the story are arranged chronologically based on the stages you experienced it. Thus, using the adverb of time and place are one of the others features of spoof. To illustrate, a moment later, some days ago, last weekend, back, down, and so on.

Sometimes, we are confused to differentiate between anecdote and spoof since it is rather similar. They are both related to funny stories and used to entertain the readers. However, anecdote is different from spoof. A funny story that has a twist, unpredictable moment, in the end is called the spoof. On the other hand, anecdote does not have a twist. The generic structures of anecdote are abstract, orientation, crisis, reaction and coda.

Keypoints

• The generic structure of spoof: Orientation, Series of events, and Twist.
• The action verbs of the spoof are written in past form.

Understanding Functional Text: Spoof

Objectives

Understanding the meaning of short functional text and monologue form of spoof in the context of daily life

Learn about it!

You have already learned about some kinds of text such as narrative text and recount text. In this lesson, you will learn about how to understand a short functional text of spoof text form.

SPOOF TEXT

Spoof text is a text that tells about a short story which cannot be predicted in the end, but it has funny ending. Spoof text commonly contains funny wordplay which has sense of humor. People use this kind of text to make a joke. So, if you want to make a spoof text, you need to have a humorous style.

Social Function of Spoof Text

Spoof text aims to entertain or humor the readers with a twisting or unpredictable ending. It focuses on humor story than taking a lesson. It is made for entertaining and the funny thing will be found at the end of the story.

Generic Structure of Spoof Text:

Even though the story is short, but it has some generic structures which should be noticed as follows:

1. Orientation
   As in narrative and recount text, spoof text has also orientation which introduces the characters of the story, a place where it happens, and when it happens.
2. Events
   This part tells about the sequences or chronological events of the story. Several events are arranged in chronological way in order that the reader can read it well.
3. Twist
   This is the last part. It is an unpredictable plot which is put in the end of the story to amuse the reader. The readers cannot predict the plot, so the writer put the twist in the end of the story. The story cannot be called as a poof text if there is not a twist. Thus, it can be concluded that twist is the most important thing in making a spoof story.

Language Feature of Spoof Text

In writing a spoof text, you should also pay attention to its language feature.

1. Focusing on participant like as animals, people, or certain things
2. Using action verb (came, decided, got, etc.)
3. Using past tense to tell the past events.
4. Using of adverbial phrases of time and place such as one day, in the hospital, in the store, etc.
5. Telling about the sequences of events in the correct order.
6. Using of direct speech or indirect speech for the conversations.

Do you understand?

Example of Spoof Text:

After reading the story above, some of you may think hard to understand the twist. You need a sense of humor to understand the story to catch the humor in the twist.

Keypoints

To sum up the lesson above, spoof text is:
• A story which has unpredictable and funny ending.
• Aims to amuse the readers through the story.
• Has three parts in generic structures; orientation, events, and twist.
• Uses past tense because it tells about past event.
• Has the important thing in the story to make punch line which is called as twist. It is put in the end of the story.

Instructing Others Formally and Informally

Objectives

Comprehend the way to give instruction to other people formally and informally by understanding the meaning of the conversation.

Learn about it!

In this lesson you are going to learn about instructing others formally and informally. First, we will take a look at several dialogues in which instructions are used in our daily conversation.

Situation 1

Teacher : .... That’s how you give instruction to others in English. Any question?

Student A : Can I say that in a formal situation, Maam?

Teacher : Yes, you can. It is also applicable in a formal situation, but it is better to add the word ‘please’ to make it more polite. Are there other questions?

Students : (no response)

Teacher : Alright, then. Now, please open your book and do exercise 3 in 20 minutes.

The dialogue above is a conversation between a teacher and a student. In the conversation above, the teacher instructs the students to do the exercise from the book. The underlined sentence indicates the instruction given by the teacher for the students.

Situation 2

Moderator : Ladies and gentlemen, the seminar is about to begin. For those who are still outside, please return to the seminar room immediately.

From what the moderator said in the text above, we can conclude that the situation is formal. The sentence indicates that the moderator instructs the participants of the seminar to return to the seminar room by saying “….please return to the seminar room immediately”. The use of the word ‘please’ here indicates that the situation is formal.

Situation 3

Father : Dio, clean your room. It’s quite messy.

Dio : Later, dad. I’ll do it after this show.

Father : Do it RIGHT NOW. Do you hear me?

Dio : Yes, dad. Alright, I’ll do it now.

Father : Good.

In the dialogue, Dio is asked by his father to clean his room. His father instructs him by saying, ‘Dio, clean your room.’ The conversation between father and son above happens in an informal situation.

Based on the examples above, we can see that the instruction is always in imperative. You have already learnt about imperative in the previous lesson. To refresh your memory, imperative can be used to give instruction to others. In imperative, the verb is always in its base form (simple present verb).

In informal situation, it is okay to instruct others directly using the imperative. However, in formal situation several expressions below can be used in order to make the instruction more polite.

• Please ....
• Could you please ....
• Would you ... please
• Would you please ....
• Can you ....

Pay attention to another example below.

Situation 4

Teacher: Aldo, would you clean the board, please?

Aldo : Sure, Sir.

Teacher: Thank you.

In the dialogue above, the teacher instructs the student formally by saying “would you clean the board, please?” The phrase, “would you … please?’ is also used in order to make the instruction less direct.

Situation 5

You watch a television show. It is a cooking show. The chef tells you how to make a breakfast menu.

Chef: Okay, now I’m going to tell you two easy-steps to make a healthy breakfast. You only need a pack of cereal and a bottle of milk. Now, let’s get started. First, put the cereal into a bowl. Then, pour milk into the bowl. That’s it. Your cereal milk is ready! See? It is simple and easy to make.

In the example above, the chef gives the viewer instruction how to make breakfast. As there are several steps, the chef uses the word ‘first’, and ‘then’ to make a sequence. The chef does not add the word ‘please’ or the phrase ‘could you ….’because in a TV show you do not usually use formal language. So, the chef instructs the viewer informally using imperative.

Keypoints

• The key in deciding which expression suits the occassion is by looking at the degree of formality.
• Formal occassions are for example: seminars, conferences, class sessions.
• Informal occassions are for example: talks between friends, some of television show, study group discussion

Lets Practice!