Most writers give some attention to the social dimension when they are writing dialog material, although there have been some exceptions. Drill materials, on the other hand, are usually treated as socially neutral. They are not always completely so, of course. Any German, French, Russian or Spanish sentence in the second person must necessarily imply choice as to level of respect, and the same is even more true for many other languages. Some drills may in fact concentrate on the contrast between tu- forms and vous-forms. This is fine as far as it goes, but it is not enough. Even the lowliest substitution drill can be checked for its social implications ('Who might say these things to whom?'). Thus, 'Have you received an invitation?' and 'Have you met the ambassador?' are compatible with each other, but not with 'Have you brushed your teeth?' Any internal inconsistencies should have some clear justification.
The topical dimension ('What are they talking about?')
At right angles to the social dimension, the topical dimension lists the things that the trainee is most likely to want to talk about: greetings and general phrases for getting a conversation started, expressions needed in conducting a class, street directions, diagnosis of poultry diseases, and so forth. Some topics are of interest to trainees of almost all kinds, while others are highly specialized. The problem, for the writer who wants to produce strong materials, is that the trainees' most specialized interests are often the very ones that are most vivid for them. Even for a generally useful topic like street and road directions, the actual locales that excite most interest will vary from one class to another.
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