Register Shift in a Spoken Interaction
In a role-play you are a student meeting your Swedish host family for the first time. The host mother says: 'Vad roligt att du är här! Du får känna dig som hemma.' You respond. Later in the same conversation she asks you to help clear the table: 'Kan du ta disken?' You notice that 'du får känna dig som hemma' uses 'du får' rather than a direct imperative, and 'Kan du ta disken?' is phrased as a question. Your assessor is listening for natural, appropriate interaction, not translation.
1. Explain what 'du får känna dig som hemma' and 'Kan du ta disken?' reveal about Swedish interaction style, and how you would respond to each.
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Both phrases soften directives. Du får känna dig som hemma literally uses 'you get to/may feel at home' - a permissive framing that invites rather than orders. A natural response is a warm acknowledgement such as Tack, vad snällt! plus a small self-introduction, keeping the tone light. Kan du ta disken? is a request phrased as a question about ability; in Swedish this is a normal polite way to ask for help, not a genuine query about capability. Responding with a plain Ja, självklart! and acting shows you have read it as a request. The interaction principle: Swedish everyday directives often avoid bare imperatives, so a learner who answers 'Kan du...?' with a literal 'yes, I can' but does nothing would misread the pragmatics. The assessor is testing whether you recognise indirect requests and respond with action plus appropriate warmth.
2. A classmate responds to 'Kan du ta disken?' with 'Ja, jag kan' and stays seated. Diagnose the pragmatic failure.
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The classmate treated an indirect request as a literal question about ability. In context, the host mother is not asking whether the student is physically capable of clearing dishes; she is asking them to do it. Answering 'Ja, jag kan' and not acting satisfies the literal question but ignores the request, which can seem unhelpful or socially tone-deaf. The repair is to say something like Ja, självklart, jag tar det and begin clearing. The broader lesson for the interaction task: Swedish uses question forms and modal verbs (kan, får) to soften directives, so the appropriate response is to infer the intended action. Recognising this pattern - and responding with both words and behaviour - is what the assessor rewards, not literal comprehension alone.