The language of writing and

speaking
Part II
Semester 3
LE Anglais ENS UAE
2024-2025
The nature of speaking

We will be looking at:

• some aspects of the speaking process;
• some of the main features of speech activities;
• CPR (Context, Purpose, Receiver) in relation to speaking.
What is speaking?
Most young children acquire the ability to speak naturally and
most of us could get by in general terms without formally being
taught how to speak.
• Just as the rudiments of writing begin with motor control and co-
ordination to produce a graphic system, a speaker first of all has to
produce sound by controlling the various aspects of the human
anatomy and physiology involved in speech production.
• when we speak, a great deal more than just the mouth is
involved: the nose, pharynx, epiglottis, trachea (Windpipe),
lungs and more.
The speech apparatus
• Such a highly complex and sophisticated mechanism
produces a vast range of highly-controlled sound and air
combinations which result in speech.
• This happens even in the most nonsensical utterance.
• Speaking, however, isn't just about making sounds.
• Birds, animals, babies make sounds and, though it may be
communication of sorts, it's not speaking.
Chambers English Dictionary states:
• speak v.i. to utter words: to talk: to discourse: to make a speech...
- v.t. to pronounce; to utter: to express: to declare: to mention
• We can 'utter words' - for example, 'fish’, 'avenue', 'definite' - but
that's not really speaking.
• We can add grammar- to use world-famous linguist Noam
Chomsky's much-quoted example:
‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.’
but it still isn't speaking.
Main features of speech
Speech is made up of a combination of features:
Sounds
Intonation
Rhythm
Pitch
Pace
• Sounds - individual phonemes combine to form words.
• A phonetic alphabet is used to represent sounds in writing as,
particularly in English.
In English, sounds and spelling don't always correspond:

Him /hɪm/ Hymn /hɪm/

Tough /tʌf/ Although /ɔːlˈðəʊ, ɒlˈðəʊ/
Intonation - in English, there are two basic patterns:
Rising intonation
Falling intonation

• The voice falls to mark the end of a syntactic boundary

(phrase or clause) - 'I didn't know' 'if you'd want to help'
» but
• It rises :

• to indicate the speaker’s intention to continue,

• to indicate a question (in some but not all cases)
• or to reflect attitudes such as surprise and disbelief
- 'really?' ».
Rhythm - English is a stress-timed language (compared to
French, for example, which is syllable-timed).
• The syllables in English are not at all similar in length.
• The syllables in French are similar in length.
• In English there are syllables that are long and others that
are very short.
• A short video on syllable-timed and stress-timed languages:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUMM5eCvi8w
The rhythm is created according to the position of stress
within a single word or a group of words:

respon’sible;
What’ did you say?

Stresses within words have fixed positions (although

occasionally they shift over a period of time).

contro’ versy > con'troversy)

Stress within a group of words can move according to
meaning:

What' did you say? = either 'I didn’t

hear' or 'I can't believe you said
something so rude’.

What did you’ say? = 'How did you

personally respond to the other person?'
To maintain the rhythm, English has weak and strong sounds:

It was a gréat évening.

• 'was' and 'a' are pronounced very weakly, with short vowel
sounds, as is common with grammar words as opposed to
content words which carry the meaning ('great evening').
Pitch - the voice can get louder or softer for a variety of reasons:
mood,
emphasis,
content.
• Examples of high pitched sounds: The voice of a woman's
scream, baby's cry, chirping of birds are all high pitched and shrill.
• Examples of low pitched sounds: a horse's voice, animal roar,
guitar sound, a large bell, and thunder.
Pace - this is often related to pitch:

-Louder speech tends to be slower (content words,

emphasis)

-Softer speech is usually faster (Grammar words).

Developing speaking skills
• What we want to do with speaking changes as we develop.

• Young children have limited needs and limited reasons for

communicating.

• Their language, because of that , revolves very much around

themselves and anything which they directly come into contact
with.
• They will use pronouns (‘me’, ‘you’) and refer to objects in their
immediate environment (dog', train’),

• They often use common diminutives or pet names ('doggie' or 'bow-

wow', 'choo-choo’).

• The language is often related to physical needs, of eating, drinking,

going to the toilet.

• It's so immediate, in fact, that children's language is often referred to as

the here and now.
As we get older and more mature, our needs and desires become
more complex:
- to form relationships,
- to impart and gain knowledge, etc. –
and we have more abilities:
- to conceptualise something which isn't physically present,
- to theorise about possibilities rather than keeping to the
concrete,
- to express a range of emotions.
Some of these things we can manage to perform fairly
successfully on our own.
As we grow up and find ourselves in more and more different
situations or with differing needs, two things happen:
• We may need expert training - we can take lessons in how
to speak in public or how to perform well in an interview.
• We can practise oral presentations at school or role-play
talking in awkward situations.
We build up our skills experientially.
We put our foot in it on one occasion and learn how to be
more diplomatic the next.
• We give our friends verbal instructions on how to get to our
house but they get lost! We manage better the next time.
• We don't persuade our parents to buy us some new clothes
one day but we learn some successful strategies the next time
(or the time after that).
Appropriateness
All through our lives, we constantly change the way we speak
and what we speak about and we develop varying degrees of
awareness of how to speak appropriately:

- in different situations
- to different people,
- with varying degrees of formality.
• Appropriateness is a key issue.
• How many times have parents told us not to speak about a
certain subject or use certain words/expressions in front of
someone or in a particular setting?
• Most of us manage to judge with greater and greater ability
what is or is not appropriate in a given situation.
• We learn from our experience and feelings, for how we feel
when we're involved in various speaking activities also
changes.
Activity 1
Discuss the following questions:
During your schooldays were you involved in any of these activities? If so,
how did you feel the first time?
• A teacher asked you a difficult question in front of the rest of the class.
• You were asked to role-play a scene in class with school friends.
• You had to give an oral presentation, a talk of some kind to:
- your class;
- groups of classes or the whole school;
- a school committee or social group;
- another school, in front of strangers.
How do feelings in these situations differ from how you feel
when you do the following:
• Chat with your friends going home after school;
• get home and tell your family about your day;
• phone a distant relative to thank them for a gift;
• Tell a story (of what happened the night before) in front of
a large group of friends;
• Read a story to a little child?
Would you ever/never do the following:
• Phone a TV programme to enter a phoneline competition
which would be broadcast;
• Phone a radio station to enter a competition or tell a
funny anecdote;
• Appear live on TV in a game show;
• Go on a TV chat show, such as Ricki Lake, to tell your
personal problems?
In your discussion, some of the following issues may well have
come to light:
• Most people tend to feel more at ease talking with, or in front
of, people we know well rather than strangers;
• we tend to prefer small groups rather than large;
• we usually prefer to keep personal matters amongst our
intimates;
• we can normally function better with informal rather than
formal situations;
• we would usually try and avoid confrontational or awkward
situations.
• Like with writing, CPR (Context, Purpose, Receiver) are also
important factors in speaking.

• For communication to take place successfully through

spoken language, the participants involved in the
communicative process have to take into consideration these
three important factors.
Context
• All language is created in context. The latter gives speaking
meaning.
• Context has great influence on the language we use.
• Language and grammar books are full of sentences taken out
of context which seem meaningless.
• Once these sentences are set in context, they are perfectly
intelligible.
Example 1

CALLER: Can you check a number for me? I just keep getting
an engaged tone.
OPERATOR: [later, after checking] Yes, it's parked.

The isolated phrase 'it's parked' would seem to be related to

cars.
• In the original telephone context the meaning, obvious to
telephone operators and part of their jargon, becomes
clearer:

• the receiver hasn't been replaced properly - it's 'off the

hook'.
Context relates to:

The internal context (Textual context), that of the

communication exchange itself, in which one utterance
frames the next utterance and so on.

The external context (Situational context), that of a

telephone call from a user to the operating service.
Example 2
A male teacher from London is explaining a mathematical
problem to a male pupil:
Teacher: Forty-nine? Why do you say forty-nine?
Pupil: Cos there's another one here.
Teacher: Right, we've got forty-nine there, haven't we? But
here there's two, okay? Now, what is it that we've got two of?
Well, let me give you a clue. Erm, this here is forty, that's four
tens, four tens are forty.
• The situational context is obviously the classroom, and
presumably the teacher and the pupil are pointing to either the
blackboard or an exercise book.

• Their 'here' and 'there’ are demonstrative adverbs (Deixis)

indicating a figure in an equation, and the 'this here’ is a
demonstrative pronoun and adverb together emphatically
indicating what is being puzzled over.

• Without the surrounding situation, the exchange makes little

sense.
Textual context

Of chicken, fish, and meat, I like the latter best.

The President—or, if the latter is too busy, the Vice

President—will see you shortly.
Purpose
All speech performs a function.
In speech we can make:
a promise
or a threat,
deliver a warning
or rebuke,
congratulate
or apologise.
Sometimes, this has to be stated explicitly:
'Are you going to bring me that book back?'/'Yes, I
promise’;
'I've passed my test!'/'Congratulations!’

Sometimes it's implicit in what we say (and understood in the

context):
'You haven't put any sugar in it' = a complaint and
request for sugar.
Receiver
• In any act of communication, other than talking to yourself
or writing notes to yourself, there is a text producer and a text
receiver (Speech is generally directed to someone rather than
a vacuum).
• There are a number of terms in the field of linguistics used to
refer to the person who is at the receiving end of language:
‘recipient’, ‘receiver’, ‘listener’ and ‘reader’
• These terms ( ‘recipient’, ‘receiver’, ‘listener’, ‘reader’ and
participant) might seem misleadingly passive.
• The word ‘receiver’ has been used to incorporate listeners
and readers.
• The word 'participant', which is a commonly used word in
speech activities because that can refer to the speaker too.
• Because this part is primarily concerned with speaking, the
term receiver is used.
• The receiver, as far as speaking is concerned is the listener
and co-speaker.

• In conversation, he or she helps to shape the discourse as it

goes along, influencing what is said and how it's said.

• The receiver brings a certain amount of background

knowledge to a text, interacts with the text, decodes it and
interprets it in an individual way.
• Speaking, before any technological inventions, could only
take place face-to-face.

• This meant that the receiver was always physically present.

• Today, of course, interaction can be displaced and the

receiver can be any distance away but at least the voice has to
be present.
Activity 2
Activity context Purpose Receiver/s topic

• What kinds of speaking activities did you take part in over the last few
days?
•Private
Consider
chat the number
Walking home fromof
the listeners,
gossip the relationship
one good friend and whether
the night beforethey
cinema
were physically present (or on the telephone).
Participants - in any speech event, there's more than one
participant.

• We can talk to one person or any number upwards, two to

two hundred or more! (Consider social media lives)

• The nature of the activity will vary, as will the language used.
What other aspects of the nature of the participants, other
than their number, affect communication?
• Degree of familiarity - how well do we know the
participant/s?
• Age - are all members peers or is there any discrepancy?
We'll speak quite differently to younger and older people and
to people of the same age.
• Gender - conversations vary between members of the same
sex, the opposite sex or mixed gender groups.
• Status - are there hierarchical positions, real or perceived, to
consider?
• Shared background/cultural knowledge - are participants from:
the same geographical location,
the same educational background,
the same cultural background? Do they share knowledge of
the events and topics being discussed?
Activity type - what type of activities did you think of in your
list? Were they all interactive?
• We tend to think of speech first and foremost in terms of
conversation which in turn we think of as interactional.

• On certain occasions, however, speakers might experience

talking to someone who won't let them 'get a word in
edgeways’.

• This would probably lead to a conversation which resembles

more a monologue.
Most of us share broadly similar views of what talking is and
we have certain expectations.

But getting the balance of contribution in conversation just

right can be a tricky business:

• If we're too brief, we risk being thought rude or brusque;

• If we say too much, we might be considered a talkative,

insensitive bore.
The nature of everyday speech
Most everyday speech is conversation.

Example 3: Conversation - Telephone enquiry to Greek Tourist Office

CALLER: I wondered if you had any free tourist literature on Rhodes

CLERK: yes
CALLER: er (2) um (2) could you (.) send me some please
CLERK: yes (1) your address
Conversation takes place in real time
• Most everyday conversation is spontaneous, unplanned and
un-rehearsed.
• It takes place in real time so we need to think on our feet.
• To give ourselves time to think, we often pause (represented
by (2), (•), etc.) and hesitate (er ... um).
Conversation is face to face
Most conversations take place face to face (or voice to voice,
over the phone, as in example 3).
Unlike writing, this allows us to get immediate feedback.

• Do our listeners understand us?

• Are they in agreement?
• Do they sympathise or empathise? Or not?
We can judge many of these things from facial gestures, body
language and of course our participants' verbal responses with
their intonation.

If necessary, we can change track and use a different

expression:
('I wondered if you had’ > 'could you send me').
Conversation has a purpose
• The nature of this interaction is transactional.

• The purpose is very precise - action is required as an

outcome of the conversation.

• Some conversations are interpersonal with the purpose of,

for example, establishing or maintaining a relationship.
Conversation is interactive
In order to interact, you need more than one person.

The participants in example 3 don't know each other at all

and so the language remains fairly formal and polite (I
wondered if'), with past tense use increasing the degree of
politeness.
Turn-taking
• The conversation involves turn-taking.
• Turn-taking is such a basic, simple principle that it's an
unconscious part of normal conversations.
• We take turns to say something in a conversation.
• A speaks first, then B responds, then A comes back.
• In the example, the caller initiates with requests and the
clerk answers.
• Whether we're speaking face-to-face or over the telephone,
to one person or a small group, the wheels of conversation
usually turn smoothly.

• Participants in conversational exchanges generally offer

contributions at appropriate moments during interactions,
with no undue gaps or everyone talking over each other.
• This is not to say that contributions always take place at
precise intervals or that they're of equal length.

• People of the same culture, more or less follow the same the
unspoken 'rules' of turn-taking.

• People overall tend to get disturbed if people, for one reason

or another, don't play the game.
• Although the exchange between the caller and the clerk is
authentic, it doesn't flow.

• The clerk's responses are so short the caller feels lost.

• The clerk gives the impression of being off-hand,

uninterested and officious.
• The turn-taking isn't handled smoothly because the caller
expects the clerk to take up the first turn and produce a
longer, more effective turn in which action is offered.

• The discontinuation could be a result of cultural mismatch or

personal mood (the clerk might indeed be fed up).
• Turn-taking in conversation is, however, a normal part of
human interaction and so the rules have to be more flexible.

• They can also be handled and signalled differently across

different cultures.

• This can cause possible communication difficulties in

conversations between people of different cultures and
languages.
• In cross-linguistic exchanges, of course, even if turn-taking is
successful, plain old misunderstandings can still occur.

• A TV street interviewer tries to tempt a passer-by to try a

food test:
Are you peckish?
No, I'm Turkish.
Holding the floor
• There may be particular occasions, in particular speech
events, when turn-taking is either not the norm or it's not
desirable.
• For example, the speaker might want to 'hold the floor'.
• The most obvious example is a political speech or a debate
where the speaker doesn't want to be interrupted.
• This can equally apply to teachers and lecturers
Techniques for holding the floor
• There are many techniques for doing this and some people are
more skilful at it than others, either naturally or from training.
• It's difficult to interrupt someone who's speaking very fast, or
who keeps the intonation raised, which signals they're continuing,
rather than let it fall.
• If they don't signal a clear syntactic boundary (the end of phrase
or clause, grammatically speaking), the other person can't break
in.
• Voice pitch may be raised. Discourse markers, such as 'first',
'furthermore', make interrupting more difficult.
The phatic nature of conversation

• A large, and important, part of conversation is phatic talk.

• That is, it has no concrete purpose other than to establish or
maintain personal relationships.
• It's related to what is sometimes called small talk (the British
obsession with talking about the weather ).
• Small talk plays an important social role in oiling the wheels
of social interaction.

• It tends to follow traditional patterns, based on formulaic

expressions:

'How are you?' /'Fine’

‘It’s freezing today!’ (when talking about the weather)

• Speakers tend not to question or deviate from these rituals.

Face
• Face is a sociological concept that plays an important role in
sociology and sociolinguistics.

• It is one of the influential factors in speaking; it can affect what

we do when we speak.

• It refers to an individual's public self-image, which is

constantly progressing and developing within social
interactions.
Example 4
Teenage school-children walking down the road, discussing lessons:
A: you'd never dream of asking the teacher t..to explain something in
the middle of the lesson 'cos (.) everyone'd really HATE [you

B: [ you'd wait till

afterwards for a private word

C: [you'd sound really thick (2) so embarrassing

Positive face
• Positive face refers to an individual's desire to be liked,
admired, and related to positively.

• When we are appealing to someone's positive face, we want

to increase their self-esteem and make them feel good about
themselves.

• Maintaining a positive face means maintaining and exhibiting

a positive self-image to the rest of society.
Examples:
-You always wear such lovely clothes!
-This piece of work is really fantastic. Well done!
• we might compliment someone's outfit, congratulate
someone on their achievements, or agree with something
they say.
• Doing this appeals to the addressee’s positive face.
• When we wish to protect someone's positive face, we avoid
criticisms, insults, and disagreements.
Negative face
• Negative face is about the individual's desire not to have
their basic rights and freedoms impeded by others.
• Whereas positive face involves a desire to be connected to
others, negative face desires autonomy (a person's ability to
act on their own interests).
• When we appeal to a person's negative face, we want to
make them feel like they haven't been taken advantage of.
Example

I know it's a real pain, and I hope you don't mind, but
could you please print these off for me?

• The speaker is appealing to the listener’s negative face ,

(hedging and indirectness), to avoid feelings of imposition on
him/her.

• Imposition = "A situation in which someone expects another

person to do something that they do not want to do or that
is not convenient."
Negative face
• Speakers might try to avoid negative face by not allowing
themselves to be imposed upon.
• They might use the following expressions:

‘I’d rather not but just for you’

or ‘Well, I’m a bit busy this weekend but…’

These are typical phrases which avoid too much negative face.
Some guidelines for transcribing conversation
• Normal punctuation doesn't apply while transcribing conversation
• Use full stops, in round brackets, to indicate a pause of half a second
• Longer pauses can be indicated by numbers in brackets, e.g. (1) = 1
second, (2) = 2 seconds, and so on.
• Only use capital letters for proper nouns and to indicate stress or
emphasis, e.g.
I SAID no thank you.
• Anything that isn't clear from a tape can be acknowledged by using
expressions such as the following between brackets:
'that's one small (inaudible speech) for a man'.
Speaking isn't only conversation
Although conversation makes up the largest part of everyday oral
communication, we also take part in less interactional, more one-
way activities.

• We might have to give a talk in front of the class as part of a

project;
• we might give oral instructions on how to repair something or
cook something;
• we might give a lengthy narration of something exciting that
happened to us.
The language and style will then be different.

It may need to be planned beforehand;

it may be more formal;
it may require a non-verbal response;
it may involve lengthier and more complex utterances.
Accent
• People often feel very strongly that language is part of their
identity and one aspect of oral production which seems to
reflect this more than any other is accent and dialect.
• Accent refers to the sound quality - the sounds of the
individual phonemes.
• Dialect additionally covers particular use of lexis and
grammar.
• There is evidence to suggest that accents are subject to 'levelling'
nowadays; that is, they are becoming less prominent and are
merging, due to increased mobility.

• However, regional accents do still exist and are the subject of hot
debate, often fiercely defended by their owners.

• In schools, there is generally a policy advocating Standard

English (be it Standard English English, American English,
Australian English, etc.)