Robby writes on englishharmony
one difference he cites is
...read the entire article
I’m so overwhelmed by the need to discuss this topic that I can barely contain my excitement! It’s been a controversy all along the way and it seems to me that many foreign English speakers still don’t differentiate much between spoken and written English. But those two creatures are from different planets indeed...
one difference he cites is
Spoken English means Improvizing!
Spoken English is instantaneous. When you open your mouth and say something,you can’t take it back – what’s said is said! When you write, on the other hand, you can think about what words you use and in what order you put them! If you’d go this path when speaking English, your speech would become very hesitant, with constant ‘hmmms’ and ‘eeerrs’ and you’d correct yourself all the time by picking better fitting words.
When you write, you create the piece of English text by working on it. When you speak, you’re IMPROVIZING, you don’t create anything, only ‘raw’ language stuff comes out of your mouth.
This factor explains very well why so many foreign English speakers are so good at writing but their spoken fluency is quite poor. They can create impeccable written English texts because they’ve got time to think on word choice and grammar structure. It’s something we’ve all learned in a classroom, we’ve passed English exams by using the same academic skills and we feel quite confident about our English knowledge. Real life isn’t academy, though! The moment you have to start chatting with a real English speaking person, writing skills are no help whatsoever!
Spoken English is instantaneous. When you open your mouth and say something,you can’t take it back – what’s said is said! When you write, on the other hand, you can think about what words you use and in what order you put them! If you’d go this path when speaking English, your speech would become very hesitant, with constant ‘hmmms’ and ‘eeerrs’ and you’d correct yourself all the time by picking better fitting words.
When you write, you create the piece of English text by working on it. When you speak, you’re IMPROVIZING, you don’t create anything, only ‘raw’ language stuff comes out of your mouth.
This factor explains very well why so many foreign English speakers are so good at writing but their spoken fluency is quite poor. They can create impeccable written English texts because they’ve got time to think on word choice and grammar structure. It’s something we’ve all learned in a classroom, we’ve passed English exams by using the same academic skills and we feel quite confident about our English knowledge. Real life isn’t academy, though! The moment you have to start chatting with a real English speaking person, writing skills are no help whatsoever!
...read the entire article
No comments:
Post a Comment