Le courriel formel : quel registre et quelle structure
In a Unit 2 writing task, students must write a formal email of about 150 words in French to a French town hall (la mairie) to request information about a youth sports programme. A student, Julien, drafts an email that opens 'Salut, ça va ?', uses 'tu' throughout, includes only one paragraph, and ends 'À plus'. His content is otherwise relevant, and his grammar is mostly accurate. The task descriptor specifies that marks are awarded for appropriacy of register and text structure as well as for language accuracy and range. Julien argues that his email is 'correct French' and that the friendly tone makes it more engaging.
1. Assess Julien's draft against the criteria for register and structure, and state the consequence for his mark.
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Julien's draft is inaccurate at the level of register and structure, even though his grammar is largely correct.
Register: A request to a mairie is a formal, public-administration context. 'Salut', 'ça va ?', 'tu' and 'À plus' are informal (tutoiement) and inappropriate. The correct choice is vouvoiement and formal formulas, e.g. 'Madame, Monsieur', 'Je vous prie d'agréer, Madame, Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées'.
Structure: A formal email needs a subject line, an opening formula, a body with a clear purpose and request, a closing formula, and a signature. A single paragraph lacks this organisation.
Consequence: Because the task explicitly assesses register and structure, he loses marks in those categories regardless of his grammatical accuracy. 'Correct French' is not the same as appropriate French; register is part of communicative competence.
2. Explain why register is treated as a distinct criterion rather than a matter of personal style, using examples from the setup.
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Register is socially constrained, not a free stylistic choice. French marks relationships through tu/vous, through greetings, and through formulaic openings and closings. Choosing 'tu' with an institution signals either intimacy that does not exist or a failure to recognise the context; either reading is a communicative error, not a preference.
The recipient (a mairie) is an institution, so the expected norms are predictable: 'Madame, Monsieur', 'vous', a polite request ('Je me permets de vous écrire afin de...'), a formal closing. A friendly tone does not make a formal request more engaging; it makes it less credible and may seem disrespectful.
Treating register as a separate criterion reflects that appropriacy is a component of communicative competence alongside accuracy and range. A learner who controls grammar but misjudges register has not fully met the task.