Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

Chapter 3: Oral and Written Language Relationships, in Kucer’s Dimensions of Literacy

Introduction

Both oral and written discourse are expressions of language and share certain features: dual structures and rule-governed systems. Writing is not oral language expressed through print. These two expressions of language are not interchangeable. The purpose and situation for written language may differ from oral language. (48)

The Language Expressions and Physical, Processing and Situational Factors

Oral language is found in here-and-now situations. Interaction is typically face-to-face (unless technologically supported, as by phone). Unless recorded, spoken language is instantly perishable. However, once a statement is expressed, it cannot be taken back. (49)

Written language, in contrast, is more permanent. The writer does not have to be in the presence of the reader. In fact, the reader may not have been born. The writer is able to draft, evaluate, discard ideas and expressions. He can revisit his writing, so he does not have to remember all that has been written. The reader is free to decide where and when to read the text. Since the writer is not accessible, the reader can generate meanings and situational contexts not intended by the writer. The differences between the perishable spoken language and permanent nature of written language impact the audience/reader/listener, as seen in Tables 3.1 and 3.2. (49-50)

TABLE 3.1. Oral and written language and the physical context (49)

Oral Language Written Language

Here and now Over space and timePerson-to-person Long distance audienceImmediate communication Delayed communicationInstantly perishable; no record of the meaningsexchanged

Permanent as desired; a record of the meaningsexchanged

TABLE 3.2. Processing demands in oral and written language (50)

Oral Language Written Language

Speaker controlled Reader controlledRe-processing: listener must ask for clarification or repetition

Re-processing: reader can re-read and/or re-think atanytime

linear RecursiveMore demands on attention Fewer demands on attentionMore demands on memory Fewer demands on memory

The listener processes what he hears, but speaker is in control. There are times when the listener can ask for something to be repeated or to clarify/revisit a previous point. In addition to oral feedback, listeners can give non-verbal communication, such as nodding in agreement, looking

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

puzzled, etc. However, there are times when negation between the speaker-listener is not possible, such as when listening to speeches. (50)

In writing, the reader has much more control, as he can determine the reading processing speed, re-read, rethink, or skip ahead. [When reading academic texts, readers currently take notes / annotate/ highlight the text or e-book]. (51)

There are situational considerations to be considered, whether the text is spoken or written language. For example, in addition to the degree of familiarity, power or dominance between the interlocutors, topic and purpose affect the language used. See Table 3.3. (52)

TABLE 3.3. Situational parameters that impact the internal features of the language used. (51)

Parameter Examples

Characteristics and social identities of the participants Degree of expertise or knowledge, culture, socioeconomic status, gender, occupation, religion, age

Relationships among the participants Known or unknown, friends, enemies,acquaintances, colleagues, power relationships(subordinate, superordinate, equal) , living or deceased, familial

Topic or subject of the text Content of the textPurpose, intention, or goal of the participants Instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal,

Heuristic (experiential) , imaginative, informativeDegree of planning Planned vs. unplanned

There may be lack of planning in oral and written discourse. Dinner conversations can be unplanned. Writing to a friend (via snail-mail or hand delivery) and email are other examples. See Table 3.4 for the examples of discourse that lie on a continuum of planned discourse. (52)

TABLE 3.4. Planned and unplanned discourse (52)

---------------------------Unplanned Discourse---------------------------Planned Discourse ------------------------------

Examples

Oral Written Oral Written

Table conversations Personal letters andnotes

Lectures Academic articles

Party conversations Instant messages and chat rooms

Speeches Newspaper articles

Planned discourse allows the speaker/writer to consider word choice, use rhetorical (oratorical) devices. Sometimes written notes may be used when giving lectures or speeches. (53)

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

(Also, audio visual devices may display print, such as in a PowerPoint, and may be utilized with an oral presentation.)

When written discourse is read aloud, the reader-listener may or may not find it helpful. The listener has to make sense of a written text within the contextual constraints of a spoken language situation. (53)

Oral and Written Language Distinctions

Oral and written language production differs mostly in their internal systems of discourse modes. In general, both language modes can and do serve all functions of language. However, written language is more conducive for expository text. Narrative text type is a favorite oral production mode, as it contains time-ordered structures and relationships that can be recalled by the listener. Originally narratives were all rendered orally, although they can be delivered in an oral or written text. (54)

Note the differences between spoken and written language in Table 3.5. Spoken discourse is less complex, less conceptually dense, more redundant (chaining or repetition of meanings), and has shorter sentences, contains more morphologically simple word forms and vocabulary. Written discourse tends to be more semantically dense than oral language and syntactically more complex as it contains more embedded dependent clauses and phrases.

TABLE 3.5. Oral and written language distinctions (55)System of language Oral Language Written Language

Pragmatic Can serve all functions Especially useful for the informational function

Text type Especially useful for narratives and poetry

Especially useful for exposition

Genre Especially useful for short stories, folk/fairy tales, and “notes”

Especially useful for research papers, novels, and longer texts

Text structure Especially useful for time-ordered structures

Higher incidence of stretches of disconnected discourse

Especially useful for attribution

Lower incidence of stretches of disconnected discourse

Semantic Less conceptually dense; chaining of ideas across sentences

Less words per sentence More redundant; more

repeating of ideas

Greater conceptual density packing or embedding of more information into each sentence

More words per sentence Less redundant; more

elaboration rather than repeating of ideas

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

Syntactic Less embedding of dependent clauses and phrases

High density of conjoined main clauses

Higher incidence of sentence fragments

More use of the standard Subject-verb-object pattern

More embedding of dependent clauses

High density of subordinate clauses

Higher incidence of sentence fragments

Less use of the standard Subject-verb-object pattern

Morphemic Less varied vocabulary Less use of technical terms Less use of nominalizations

and adjectives Less use of content words

More varied vocabulary More use of technical terms More use of

nominalizations and adjectives

Greater use of content words

Phonologicalorthographicgraphophonemic

Rule-governed sound patterns

Variable pronunciations

Rule-governed spelling patterns based on both sound and meaning

Standardized spelling

Graphemic Ear/sound Approximately 44 sounds

Eye/letter 26 letters

The Link among Letters, Sounds and Spelling

Chapter 2 dealt with the three kinds of signs: icons, indexes, and symbols. See 2.1 p. 20.

Chinese is a logographic language, where written characters represent ideas or morphemes. Speakers of various oral Chinese languages share a written language. Japanese, on the other hand is a syllabic language, where each individual sign represents a syllable in spoken language, but also uses some logographics. English uses an alphabetic system. Individual letters are related to the basic sounds (phonemes) of the spoken language. Groups of letters make a syllable in English whereas one character/symbol represents a syllable in Japanese. Braille, a writing system for the blind, is based on an alphabetic system; see Figure 3.1, p. 58. (However, I have provided a clearer Braille alphabet figure, downloaded from the internet for this discussion.)

Some European languages, such as Spanish and German are transparent alphabetic languages, the correspondence between the letter and the sound are fairly consistent. (I have read others who refer to this as “sound-symbol faithfulness”.) Russian, French, and English are opaque alphabetic languages; there is not a one-to-one relationship between letters and sounds.

The challenge with an opaque alphabetic language is that there are more individual sounds in the spoken language that must be somehow systemically represented with a limited number of letters. Several attempts have been made to account for letter-sound relations in English. Rules were made and exceptions were found. See Table 3.6, “Variations in letter sound relations”. I have re-typed it and changed the specific sounds in question in red font, to readily view the relationships.

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

FIGURE 3.1 The Braille Alphabet (58)

A B C D E F G H

I J K L M N O P

Q R S T U V W X

Y Z(above Braille image varies from the one on p. 58 in the text.) Modified from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/braille/print.shtml

TABLE 3.6. Variations in letter-sound relations in English (59) One letter represents several different sounds.

<c> /cat/ [k] /ice/ [s] One group of letters represents several different sounds.

<gh> /rough/ [f] /through/ [-] /ghost/ [g]

<ph> /telephone/ [f] /haphazard/ [p] [h] /shepherd/ [p]

One sound is represented by several different individual letters.

/j/ <gem> <jeep>

/q/ <queen> [k] <king> [k]

/c/ <nice> [s] <see> [s]

One sound is represented by individual as wellas groups of letters./f/ <telephone> <fun> One sound is represented by a group of letters.

/ch/ <choice>/th/ <the>

/e/ <eat>/t/ <butter>

Some letters represent no sounds.<k> /knee/ {k is silent} /know/ {k is silent}

<g> /gnome/ {g is silent}<p> /pneumonia/ {p is silent}

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

TABLE 3.7. Letter-sound relationships (59) Based on Smith (1994a)Consonants Vowels Total

Letter-sound Correspondences

83 128 211

Rules 60 106 166Exceptions 23 22 45

Clymer (1996) studied the relation between letters and sounds. He identified 45 phonic rules or generalizations that were taught to children in four basal readers. Clymer found a lack of consensus among the publishers. He developed a word list based on the four basals and the words in the Gates Reading Vocabulary for Primary Grades. The list contained 2,600 words. Each relevant generalization was applied to all of the words. The degree to which the generalization generated the correct pronunciation was compounded as a percentage, “the percent of utility”. The findings were presented in Table 3.8, pp. 61-64. Clymer (1996) concluded that if the criterion of 75% application is set to determine the usefulness of any generalization, only 18 are helpful: 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 44, and 45. (See the handout of Table 3.8).

Others have looked at the pairing of vowels. According to Johnston (2001), five vowel pairs that represent one long sound are worth teaching because of their high degree of regularity :<ay>, <oa>, <ee>, <ai>, <ey>. She also recommends the teaching of the vowel combinations : <a_w>, <i_e>, and <u_e>. See Table 3.9, “Vowel pairs regularity” p. 65 and Table 3.10, “Patterns for Final e”, p. 66. (Many linguists use the International Phonetic Alphabet to describe sounds.)

Some researchers, (Venesky, 1980), have proposed a revision of the English spelling system. (66). Table 3.11, “Examining English orthographic patterns”, on p. 67, explores two spelling problems. The first column, Group One, is made up of homophones, words which sound alike but are spelled differently. An example pair is “feat-feet”. The second column, Group Two, consists of words containing identical parts. These parts represent different sounds but are spelled the same. The <s> in <dogs>, <cats>, and <horses> make three different sounds: /z/, /s/, and /uz/.

If you were able to make up a spelling rule for each column, you may discover that English orthography is not based on the alphabetic principle. Meaning is very important. Spelling in English is influenced by sound and meaning. The general rule in English is that when words sound alike but have different meanings, the words are spelled differently. English orthography accommodates meaning rather than sound ( Chomsky, 1970; Strauss, 2001, 2003; Wolf & Kennedy, 2003). (67)

Over-reliance on sound may inhibit the reader’s ability to understand. In the phrases <eyes sea too feat> versus <I see two feet> are a pair of examples. Another confusion not mentioned in the chapter is how pauses makes a difference. (68). An example pair is <I got up late> versus < I got a plate.>

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

Having a spelling system that is not exclusively based on sound has advantages. Media exploit the mismatch in advertising, newspapers, etc. Cartoonists and comedians use it for humorous effect. (68-69).

Use of a spelling system that is not exclusively based on sound has other advantages: regardless of dialect, the spelling will be the same. English speakers use the same written language, though they speak different dialects. (69)

Lindfors (2008) studied the variability of spoken English. Some oral examples are found on p. 69. Regularity: Reverse the subject of a sentence and the firs verb element when statements are

changed to questions (He is going. Is he going?)Irregularity: Does not work with simple verbs: ( He came to visit Did he come to visit?)

Regularity: Past tense is marked with either /d/ (waved), /ed? (melted) or /t/ (walked)Irregularity: Past tense of /see/ /saw/; /think/ /thought/

Regularity: Plurality is marked with either /s/ (cakes) or /z/ (spoons), or /ez/ (houses)Irregularity: Plural of /man/ /men/, mouse /mice/ or /deer/ /deer/

Regularity: Comparative forms usually add /er/ to adjectives: /lovely/ /lovelier/, /pretty/ /prettier/, /big/ /bigger/, /small/ /smaller/Irregularity: /good/ /better/, /bad/ /worse/

Brief History on the Development of the English Spelling System, pp. 69-71.

Old English (450-1066) had no silent letters. Then Romans introduced an alphabet that was based on Latin. Between 1066 and 1500 (Middle English), letter-sound relations become complicated. Table 3.6 reflects the variability. Groups of letters rather than one single letter came to represent a single sound, as a result of the influence of the French language.

The invention of the printing press eventually brought standardization in spelling, however, spelling varied between dialects. The London dialect was decided upon, but the printers, who were from Germany and Holland, were not proficient English speakers, so some strange, divergent spelling was produced. Example is spoken /yottee/ was spelled /yacht/. Reformers wanted English to imitate French or Latin; the word /dette/ was changed and spelled /debt/. Silent letters crept in, as in the word <bite>. With the shift in pronunciation, the final /e/ was no longer pronounced, although it was retained in spelling.

During the period of Modern English (1500-1700), English orthography was impacted by scientific and geological discoveries. Greek and Latin vocabulary were used for the new words. Dictionaries in the US and England stabilized the orthography.

The military, economic and cultural presence of the British and Americans throughout the word gave rise to borrowing words from various languages. Sometimes the spelling was changed to reflect English pronunciation as in <savvy> from Spanish <sabe> and other times the original spelling and sound (to a degree) were kept, as in <tortilla>.

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

Conclusion, p. 71

Although language can be expressed in both spoken and written forms, print is not written speech. Written language builds on and extends the spoken form. The context of the situation impacts the language mode. The relationship of English letters and sounds is complex; however, it is not random. Meaning and sounds impact the spelling system.

References

Kucer, Stephen B. (2009). Chapter 3: Oral and Written Language Relationships. Dimensions of Literacy: A Conceptual Base for Teaching Reading and Writing in School Settings, (3rd Edition). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Pp. 48-71.

Nelson, Francis, W. (1958), 4th edition. Ch. 8, Writing It Down: Graphics. The Structure of American English. New York: The Ronald Press Company. Pp. 434-455.

Images

Braille image. Modified from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/braille/print.shtml

International Phonetic Alphabet chart. IPA chart downloaded from www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ ipa /

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

Clymer (1996) concluded that if the criterion of 75% application is set to determine the usefulness of any generalization, only 18 are helpful: 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 44, and 45. See Table 3.8, pp. 61-64.

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

See the attached International Phonetic Alphabet below. (These 3 IPA charts are not in the text.)

International Phonetic Alphabet

IPA chart downloaded from www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ ipa /

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Maria Viera-Williams RDG 692/EDCI 690: Learning to Read February 18, 2013

If you want to hear the pronunciation of the International Phonetic Alphabet, go to: http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/flash.html.

The columns and rows on the chart underlined in blue (on the link) have sound attached. You will need Flash Player on your computer. You may download it for free from http://www.macromedia.com

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