I'm in the middle of writing a dialogue for an English text book - a short excerpt from the dialogue is as follows: Coach: Your form is not bad, but you have to work on your strength. Athlete: Could you explain (that) in more detail? Coach: You need more core strength to stay well balanced throughout your swing. The questions are, Does "Could you explain in more detail" sound too formal / not formal enough / unnatural or otherwise at all? The target audience live in an extremely hierarchical society, and it's quite hard to find a middle ground to satisfy both the student's wants and needs (re: needing to break away from social norms in their home country in order to understand cultural differences in language) Can you think of any other alternative phrases to politely but not overly formally ask for a more detailed explanation? Appreciate your help and input in advance! :)

English text book - phrase to be used in an example dialogue

English Language & Usage Asked by Ruga on January 3, 2021

I’m in the middle of writing a dialogue for an English text book – a short excerpt from the dialogue is as follows:

Coach: Your form is not bad, but you have to work on your strength.

Athlete: Could you explain (that) in more detail?

Coach: You need more core strength to stay well balanced throughout your swing.

The questions are,

Does "Could you explain in more detail" sound too formal / not formal enough / unnatural or otherwise at all? The target audience live in an extremely hierarchical society, and it’s quite hard to find a middle ground to satisfy both the student’s wants and needs (re: needing to break away from social norms
in their home country in order to understand cultural differences in language)
Can you think of any other alternative phrases to politely but not overly formally ask for a more detailed explanation?

Appreciate your help and input in advance! 🙂

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