Carol

Chapter 33

Writing and Speaking By Douglas Biber and Camilla Vasquez


 * Linguistic differences between writing and speech
 * Writing in it’s most practical sense is the inscription of language. Writers must work with language to transcribe and bring their thoughts and meanings into articulate shape so others can understand them.

There have been many shifts in perspectives in the study of writing and speaking


 * Bloomfield Sapir stressed the primacy of speech over writing; saying that writing was essentially an artifact of spoken language


 * Goody & Watt studied the different types of writing systems in Western and Non Western cultures and the social and cultural implications & of the introduction of technology literacy by analyzing some of the earliest functions of written texts.


 * Olson& Olg are associated with an autonomous view of writing and with characterizations of writing as “detached & self –contained & able to stand as an unambiguous and autonomous representation of meaning”


 * Researchers suggested that the linguistic characterizations of speech and writing are fundamentally different.


 * Devito, Olson& Kay argued language of writing is more explicit, decontextualized and therefore autonomous than speech


 * Other researchers like Chafe & O’Donnell claim writing is more structurally complex than speech with longer sentences and greater use of subordination.


 * Many studies from the 1970’s & 1980’s had little agreement about speech and language


 * One thing they concluded that written language is structurally elaborated, complex, formal, and abstract, whereas spoken language is concrete, context-dependent, and structurally simple.


 * Some studies by Blankenship found no linguistic differences between speech and writing


 * Holiday, Poole & Field, claimed speech is more elaborated than writing
 * 1980’s studies called into question the overgeneralizations about speech and writing


 * Other studies started looking at the diverse functions in particular social contexts

This type of research by Heath, Scribner & Cole has been useful in identifying the relationship between language and macrostructures such as: Power, culture etc. and have provided insights and connections between literacy practice and schooling.
 * More recent research on literacy – particularly anthropological & ethnographic approaches view both oral and literate productions in complex social practices.

This type of research focuses in on a much broader scope of investigation such as what are the patterns of linguistic variation among varieties within spoken mode? Or what kinds of linguistic differences exist among written registers? These types of questions allow for a much more comprehensive framework to address the question of whether there are overall differences between speech and writing. This study By Biber & Vasquez shows these differences.
 * Research on register variation where “register” is used as a cover term to refer to a language variety that is defined by situational characteristics and communicative purposes such as: Lectures, novels, conversation, research articles etc.

(it took 100 years to add page numbers to be added regularly)
 * Writers learn to exploit written text over a period of time

I found it interesting that: Conversations include the use of
 * Speakers ability to use spoken words appears to be more natural across cultures
 * Verbs and verb phrases: 70% of all verb phrases are present tense (know, think, see, want, mean)
 * Adverbs are twice as common
 * Pronouns are four times more common especially (I, You & it)
 * Simple clause features : Who, what, where, when, why questions more common

Writing /Academic Prose {Compared to the word that in conversation may be used in a question such as “Who is that? What was that?
 * 60% of all content words are nouns
 * Adjectives are four times more common in academic prose than in conversation
 * Verbs : be and become
 * The word “That” is ten times more common in writing when included with the words “fact, possibility, doubt, belief, & assumption”

Written texts shows a wider range of linguistic characteristics because the author has more time to compose their writing and has more time to think about what to include in his writing; Whereas language is constrained by the need to be spoken in real time and the need to interact with personal style, situational influences and purpose all play a part in the conversation.

Implications for educators.

How do we as educators help students who are just learning to read and write understand the differences between the written and spoken word:
 * Teachers need to provide lots of examples and modeling of both reading text and writing text.
 * Students need meaningful ways of writing: Cards, letters, notes,
 * Students need opportunities to talk about their writing
 * Students need to know that writing is putting their thoughts and ideas down on paper

Challenges of writing: ESL students often have broken English and tend to have difficulty with writing. How do we help them?

What are things that have worked in your classrooms to help students become better writers?

Is writing speech on paper? Types of writing : poetry, stories, letters, songs, are they speech written down? Is a wordle writing? Is a song speaking or writing? When a child writes random letters and says it is a story and tells you his or her story when looking at the letters is it writing?