When the officers of the Battle School speak in the slang of the children, they use only small phrases that both show the relationship that has grown between the two sides and at the same time not using so much slang as to become part of them. Ender seems here more like the officers, and the author uses this attribute to show the that Ender is more officer like and more capable than the other children. The minimalistic use of slang, that mimics and slightly exceeds the children's use of slang, shows the boundaries between mature commanders and the rest of the child students. Ender, unlike most of the Battle School children, only uses non-standard English when he is  trying to fit in with the other children. The author has used this technique to show the maturity and superiority of Ender over the other children.
The officers in the story that are not employed at the battle school show a level of pomposity and elitism when they speak. General Pace speaks in a very pompous style.
General Pace's style of speaking is the style of a politician. He uses so many passive constructions in his berating of Col. Graffe that he takes the agency of the entire problem away from the would be perpetrators and gives it almost exclusively to Col Graffe. This is the speech of a politician whom politics has trained to take a real problem and blame it on any section of the population that he sees fit. General Chamrajnagar speaks in standard English when he first begins his conversation with Col. Graffe. His speech uses the same level of passive and constructions and contractions that are located in normal speech. However, when he begins to speak about his beliefs and his specialty, he speaks without any contractions and uses more passive constructions. It seems that he mimics standard speech to bond with those he considers less than himself. He comments on Col Graffe's lack of starship command experience: "They are entering into the mysteries of the fleet, Colonel Graff, to which you, as a soldier, have never been introduced."  Also, he says: “You have the soul of a stone, Colonel Graff, but I sing to a stone as easily as to another singer.” Officers are supposed to be a level above other soldiers, and the author uses language to show the rank and status of all of the characters, especially the high ranking officers.
The use of non-standard English is Enders Game serve many purposes. The “normal” children in the story sound and speak like normal American children. When the adults are not around; they fill their speech with slang, name calling, childish rhymes. Ender and the other gifted children are all geniuses and are as capable of speaking and understanding the speech of Earth's elites as are any of the adults in the story. However, they often, revert to the use of childish rhyming and cursing because it helps them to cope. Some of the children also use types of pidgin English. They seem to use non-standard English to bond with one another and also as a means to connect with the normal childhood that they have been denied. The officers of the novel exhibit all of the signs of the speech of politicians. They use excessive amounts of passive constructions to manipulate agency. The Battle School officers are an exception. They speak standard English, while in times of tension, mimic the rhyming slang of the Battle School cadets. The author's use of varying speech patterns for the children and the adults in Ender's Game gives the story a more realistic feel, and makes believing that the children of Battle School are geniuses much easier. Had the children of battle school only spoken the language of adults and never used the speech of children, it would have made all of the characters no more than cardboard cut-outs of adults and made the book seem like a long monologue written by the author. Varying speech patterns between the many and multi-faceted characters gives the dialogue in this book a more authentic feel, and it ultimately succeeds in convincing the audience that sacrificing the liberties of gifted children for the greater good is warranted.
