Differences Between Speaking And Writing English

1.0 Introduction.

The intention of this report is to highlight the differences between speaking and writing English in a variety of contexts. Whilst both are valuable forms of communication, the differences between them can be traced back to the origin of humanity. Speech is an inherent genetic capability that most humans are born with the possibility of producing, whilst, as Bright, 2015, explains, writing is a fairly recent invention in our evolutionary story that has rules to be followed (p.1, para. 2). The difference between these uses of language is not simply genetics, but how they are used comparatively in daily life within similar contexts. This can change depending on social status, culture and the relationship between those communicating. How the use of both speech and the written word changes according to need to be either formal or informal is called ‘register’. The contexts that will be explored in this text will be within the classroom and within the family home. The aim of this report is to emphasise that the meaning of words can be changed depending on the situation in which they are being used and by who, and how.

2.0 Classroom context.

An essential part of learning for children within a classroom context, especially in the early years, is how to adapt their language to be in the correct register for use within an educational context. This skill must be explicitly taught by educators, so that every child is able to understand what is expected of them and no one child is at a disadvantage through the misuse of Standard Australian English.

2.1 Speech.

2.1.1- Student to student-

Students communicating with each other in a classroom environment generally use very informal speech in keeping with the vernacula...

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...s likely to be heavily colloquilised and written in a version of restricted code. Generally, the style would be very informal and not employ the use of correct grammar, punctuation or sentence structure. It is in this instance that our writing becomes more like “speech written down” (cite).

For very young children, a note to a parent may not follow any of the correct grammatical rules, but will be understood easily by the parent. For example, a four year old may write ’me love Dad and today I make blow bubbles for kindy’. This type of note is written in a restricted code with no formal structure, but will generally understood by the parental recipient.

Adult-adult- use the example of dinner in oven to explain how writing can be taken out of context to seem angry or terse and say how an x as a symbol could completely change the tone of the piece of writing.