WRITING VS. SPEAKING
Written English and spoken English are different.
Written English is formal and spoken English is informal.
Memorizing set phrases or other written English is useless in daily conversation.
|
||||||
WRITING VS. SPEAKING214 comments to WRITING VS. SPEAKING |
||||||
|
English is not a subject you study a couple of hours a week...
Copyright © 2012 China Holistic English - All Rights Reserved 365 queries. 0.627 seconds. |
||||||
Obviously we can see some differences. In fact, the more we study English, the greater the differences we can find. For example, you are more likely to see the word ‘also’ in a written text than in spoken dialog. Words like ‘therefore’ rarely appear in spoken texts, but are common in writing. Meanwhile, expressions like “Do you know what I mean?” or “Never mind” occur very frequently in speaking, but rarely in writing. In spoken English we use lots of ‘markers’ to help the conversation along. These expressions are not usually necessary in writing.
I agree with that point completely. Written English is formal, it requires us to use the proper structure or words in order to write a good article or prepare some documents. If we don’t treat writing English as formal styles, we may have to bear the loss by ourselves, especially in business contracts. It really requires formal writing English.
Spoken English is informal, that’s right, it’s OK if we just want to communicate with others or express our opinions, we needn’t English is as formal as writing English.
It’s very helpful for us to learn English if we master the rules and the differences between spoken English and writing English.
think written English is easy, but spoken English is very difficult .I like written English, because My spoken English pronunciation is not accurate. My English teacher tell me that if you do not Speak English , you cannot communicate with others. When I speak English in public ,I feel nervous. If somebody ask me to write English ,I feel glad. I do not know a lot about the difference between written English and spoken English.
I agree with the author’s point of view.
Many people can not write good articles, but still able to talk to each other. On the contrary, there are some people whose articles are well written, but they can not speak well.
So written English and spoken English are not the same.
I agree with you very much,written English and spoken English is not the same,words we use in spoken English can be informal,and we can pay less attention to grammer.Learning English is not just learn how to write in English ,but also learn how to speak,and to communicate with others.
Sentences above came to the point straight away. An American told one of my friend that some Chinese students speak good English, but sometimes it sounds like a broadcasting news. Well, at least we can say something formally in English. I think my problem is I can’t speak out English naturally. When I speak in English, I have a mixture of both basic and complex structures in my mind. In the meanwhile, I care much about the tenses or something else. But it turns out to be not so helpful to express myself as I thought.
The most obvious difference between written English and spoken English is that written English is formal and spoken English is informal. Apart from that, one can think through every sentence when you write English, one can also use a lot of complex grammatical structures such as clauses; one must think and respond as quickly as possible when speaking English, while should not use too many long sentences. However, written English and spoken English are complementary, at least in the sense that they can both make one think agilely.
When we study English,we always learn how to write it.Some of us can write beatiful words,their written English is so good that some foreigners can’t catch up with them.But sometimes they can’t introduce themselves fluent in English.I think that may be the biggst problem in our English studing.Although there are many differences between written English and spoken English,they have things in common.If you want to learn them well,you should practice more.
Though this article is very short, it is very refined and indicates the obvious difference between Written English and spoken English. Generally speaking, when we write English, we use some formal words, phases and expressions usually. With respect to spoken English, in our opinion, we should make our language more colloquial rather than using some formal words to communication. For some Chinese students, their written English is well, but Spoken English is very poor. So it is very helpful to recognize the difference. In a word, to learn English well, we should also spend a lot of time in writing and speaking more English.
Just as you said that written English is formal, but spoken English is informal, thus there are great differents. Generally, spoken English ofen used in daliy life, it does not request a strict format, however the written English alway used in a formal occasion, and it request a strict format and precise word. In addition, written English is easy for those who did not come from a Speaking-English country compare with spoken English, because the latter need a speaking-English environment.
As for the differences between written English and spoken English, I agree to a certain extent with some opinions mentioned in this article. I think written English is much more formal than spoken English, you must care about the structure of the sentences, spelling and something else in order to wall off unnecessary problems and losses. Spoken English, however, also concerns these aspects though not so strictly. Apart from these, your tone of your voice, your speed of speaking and even your body languge make great sense in the world of spoken English. However, there are some common points in these two forms of English. For example, more pratice is requisite so as to write English well or speak English fluently. In my opinion, great efforts are needed if you want to obtain a good result.
Just as the teacher told us in the lecture on how to learn English, English learning is a comprehensive process. We should speak, listen, read and write for 24 hours. But why Chinese students have a higher capacity of writing rather than speaking. On contrary, foreigners learn Chinese, they can communicate with others in some cases. For a certain extent, Chinese characters are more difficult compared with English. However, students have not held the effective methods to study.
Oral English of course is less formal than written English, but it not means less requests. Such as speaker’s voices, body language, speed and so on, that will lead to whether the listeners understand you.
In my opinion, both writing and speaking are not easy for me. But writing is more difficult. Because when I begin to write something, I have to think about the grammar, the set phrases and so on, which make me not dare to write. Speaking is another situation. Maybe you are also asked to say the correct grammar, the correct set phrases, but the requirements are less stringent. They also have commonality, it is practice makes perfect. So if we want to improve our English, we should practice it often.
It’s all right, Sometimes oral English can be changed as one’s will while Written English not.
One should pay attention to the difference of the two in case of making mistake.
Writen English is indeed different from spoken English. As for me, I learned English when I was eleven. My writen English is much better than my oral English because I spent almost all my time on reading and writing, so as you can imagine, I spent little time on speaking. I deeply felt that better writen English is useless for my spoken English because my oral English is so poor.
I think both written and spoken English are not easy. As a matter of fact, most Chinese write and speak Chinglish. The problem of oral English is much more obvious than written English when conducting face to face communication. When you talk about whether written and spoken English are formal, it depends on when and how you use it. As to memorization of set phrases, personally, I hold that it is a cultivation of sense to speak out English and is beneficial to our conversation.
Generally speaking, written English and spoken English are different.
Someone argue that written English is more difficult than spoken English.
Others insist that spoken English is harder than written English.
In my opinion, both written English and spoken English need practice whatever they are. I always believe that “Practice makes perfect”.
Of course that written English is useless in daily conversation. But I am afraid that will be a fault if we just learn spoken English.
The difference between Written English and spoken English is clear,one is formal and the other is informal,and this can be used to describe all the languages’ two styles:written and spoken.just as our chinese,when we write an article,we usually use more literary words which can make it vivid or artistic,but when we are talking with others,we just speak simply and seldom talk like a book.
Written English and spoken English are obviously different. But I don’t think that memorizing set phrases or other written English is useless in daily conversation. I have two main reasons for that: first, we usually use written English for state our opinions, which help us to organize our thought and express ourselves much better, both in formal and informal way; Second, memorizing set phrases or other wriitten English is one of the methods to improve our spoken English.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
IF YOU MEMORIZE SET PHRASES FROM A BOOK AND SPEAK LIKE A BOOK, NO ONE WILL READ (UNDERSTAND)YOU.
Maybe you are right.but can you detail more carefully. And how to improve them.
I share their feelings on this issue.Just now I counted that I have learned English for twelve years.It a amazing number.I try to make an assessment of my English level,but I find the result is so disappointing.Maybe I could got a medium score in writing,or maybe I could understand what others say,but I couldn’t express myself in English.Beacause I’m extremely worried my pronounciation and vocabulary.So I strongly agree with the professor’s opinion.
Written English and spoken English are quite different. For example, when you write a business letter, you must use formal language in order to show the significance. If you talk with somebody, you can use some oral words which cannot be used in writing. However, if we write a letter to our friends, we can do informally. In conclusion, whatever language we choose is decided by who you will talk to and write to.
I know there is difference between written English and speaking English, the former is formal, the latter is informal. However, indeed I don’t have much experience on it, because I speak English very little in my peacetime. So in order to speak English fluently, I will spend more time on it~~
Yeah! Simple truth makes me confused for many years. I just figured it out two years after learning English for about 15 years. Before this, I speak English like I am writing. I tried to make no mistakes literally. The result is I dare not speaking English, because it is so easy to make syntax mistakes when you are speaking. Once a time, a classmates told me, get rid of syntax, mistakes is ok when you talking with others, everyone can get you. I tried, and I made an improve immediately. The feeling is so good!
I completely agree that written English and spoken English are different. Written English is so formal and expresses meaning in such a systematic way that long sentences are used and that grammatical errors are not allowed. Spoken English is so informal that short sentences are mainly used and grammatically incompleteness is tolerated if the meaning is expressed clearly in the circumstance of the conversation. Being good at written English requires only a vocabulary large enough and good knowledge of grammar because one has enough time to choose words and structure sentences. However, good spoken English requires more, at least holistic familiarity with English. In daily conversation, one cannot pause often and for a long time to choose words and structure sentences, so the part of his brain which controls usage of English must have been trained to be very efficient and active. Memorizing set phrases or other written English is not completely useless, since it at least helps one express his thought with exact words. Anyway, one has to practise speaking a lot to be good at spoken English.
I think in this point Chinese is the same with English, written Chinese is also different with spoken Chinese. Written Chinese is formal and spoken Chinese is informal. In written Chinese, people usually use the word “fuqin”to address their father, however in spoken Chinese; people usually use the word “baba”to address their father. I believe that these two words have different meaning. People who use the word “fuqin” want to express their respect to their father, and people who use the word “baba” want to express their love to their father. So written text is formal and spoken text is informal. I think all the languages in this word have this feature.
Many Chinese can write a long essay which is full of logic and colorful words, but can’t speak out a word. Maybe you as American take it as a joke. It really exists in China. Most of students learn English from paper, text book, only to pass exams, where there’s no oral English exam. It’s the exam tell writing from speaking.
Just as Chinese, there’re many differences between writing and speaking English. When we have a conversation with others, the point is how to express our ideas clearly. So if the grammar is full of mistakes or even it’s not an integrated sentence at all, others can still catch the meaning. But writing is much more formal. It has more requirements such as correct spelling, grammar and even written patterns. So thanks for reminding me of this, and I will take care of it.
There is no denying that written English is not the same as spoken English. However, I think both require our enough attention. In China, maybe we pay too much emphasis on written English while ignore the importance of spoken English. Just as the words goes, English is something we live 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We don’t spend the whole day to write, a better daily conversation require us to practice our oral English more.
The issue is connect with the pragmatics, differences are not between written English and speaking English only, but also exist in different kind of written English.
Can we say that a formal official document is same as an E-mail to a best friend? Of course no. maybe that example is not typical, because when you write an E-mail to a friend, you probably use oral English, just like what you speak in everyday life. Well, let’s take a look at a poem and a science report, can we agree that they are same? No. Poems have many wonderful words and have rhythms. What about science report? The written style of science report is so invariable and sometimes it makes people feel boring and sleepy.
It’s true that written English and spoken English are different.
But I don’t agree with you on “Memorizing set phrases or other written English is useless in daily conversation”. Memorizing set phrases or other written English is of some value for the daily conversation. Written English and the spoken English are two aspect of the same thing. If we want to speak English fluently, we should open our mouth and say more, but write more is also helpful for the spoken English. If we haven’t memorized some vocabulary or some phrases at all, how can we post our comments in this website?
Absolutely,there are great difference between spoken English and written English , if we can not realize that,there will be fun. Generally speaking, we name spoken English as oral English, which means this kind of English is used in daily life. Maybe your pronunciation is not good enough ,but if you can express your main idea clearly to others , you are successful. As for written English,you can not make mistakes.In,my opinion, spoken English is more important than written English, so we should speak English as much as possible.
I support the author’s opinion completely. In my opinion, written English is formal. When we write English articles, we should pay attention to the grammar and spelling. If the grammar is wrong, it is a big mistake. However, when we speak English, we are usually more casual. We may omit subject or object sometimes only if it doesn’t change the sentences’ meaning. For example, we may say “Beg your pardon.” In this case, we omit the subject but it doesn’t affect out understanding.
Above all, we should rule to the grammar and spelling in the written English and express the real meaning in the spoken English.
In my opinion, there are some differences between written English and spoken English. The former is formal, pay attention to a correct and logical and rigorous. The later is informal and lifestyle. As an example, when we communicate with each other in daily life. We often use spoken English instead of written English. However, spoken English could improve my listening and speaking. So we can improve our spoken English via communicating with our around me.
I can’t imagine that a peron who chats with me face to face using formal Chinese words and phrases,it is ridiculous!Therefore,when we speak English or chat with the others in Enlish,we should not use the words which are only required in written English.Using uncommon or complicated words in a conversion does not mean you are erudite,however,it will make the others uncomfortable then you will be estranged from the others.
I can’t imagine that a peron who chats with me face to face using formal Chinese words and phrases,it is ridiculous!Therefore,when we speak English or chat with the others in English,we should not use the words which are only required in written English.Using uncommon or complicated words in a conversion does not mean you are erudite,however,it will make the others uncomfortable then you will be estranged from the others.
Especially for me, it is difficult to tell apart the spoken English and written English, at one time I had been taught that they were largely not the same, but specifically in what has I forgotten now. For me, I am used to listen to Avril, Coldplay, greenday, Alicia keys and so on…I sometimes watch English-speaking movies or the abroad football., basketball matches on live, I means spoken English has made far more influence to me. In general, Chinese student do better in written English, to me, both are terrible, if there is really an adventage, it could only be listening to spoken English. My written English is completely unable to express my idea exactly, I write a lot in Chinese since entering university, but rarely in English, and the gap gradually became bigger. I have to give up most of the ideas or change their expression into an easier or even stupid way, and I really feel sorry about this.
It is usually for us Chinese to use “big”\”formal” words when we chat with others, especially to foreigners, while choose the oral words to write an essay, with the only aim to “shock” them. Such as, instead of using “a cast number of” in their papers, they would like to use “lots of’. On the other hand, they use “the color is very suitable for me”, which is quite formally. Actually, it is a challenge for Chinese to realize the mistakes when they use English. Therefore, we should pay more attention to it and strive as much as we can to avoid such problems.
We have learned English for many years. We memorize a lot of vocabulary and phrases. We can write English，read English, even listen English well, but we just can not speak it fluently.
So I really agree with the viewpoint in the article. The only way to improve our oral English is saying more in our daily life rather than memorizing more written English.
First of all, I agree with “written English and spoken English are different, the former is formal while the latter is informal”. They are applicable for different occasions, but both are important tools for communicating. What’s more, I think we cannot learn each independently, both learning can promote each other, maybe the holistic English is a reasonable and effective way to improve our English. Last but not least, if we want to learn both well, we should put them into practice in our daily study. I am not good at both written English and spoken English, when I speak to others or write something I often remember some lonely words. I think I should pay more attention on the way of learning, I decide to spend more time and energy to improve my English skills this term.
Actually, there are many differences between written English and spoken English. Such as grammar, grammar of spoken English is simpler and shorter that written English, which are more complex and contains more clauses and passive forms. Furthermore, spoken English is used for face-to-face talk compared to written English fostering our thinking ability.
However, Chinese people are usually poor at spoken English because of shyness and despondency to speak out. In my opinion, spoken English is more important than written English no matter in our lives or career. If you are good at spoken English, you will have more access to knowledge. For instance, communicating with foreigners because you can have better understanding of each other, traveling abroad to know the different points of view from the western countries, enjoying more classical plays, films and literature all over the world. In that case, we will have more opportunity to broaden our horizon and eliminate the barriers of culture shock. For us—graduate students, finding a job is a tough task next year so that excellent spoken English will become the key momentum of success. So, we should try our best to master our spoken English.
Written English and spoken English are different, I really agree with it. Every time I write some English article, I will care about the grammar and the structure. Some set phrases are also required. When I speak to someone in English, I don’t focus on the grammar; I just want the people involved to catch what I say. If we can engage a conversation smoothly, that’s enough.
Nevertheless, how to know the difference between the written English and spoken English is not easy, and it required us to do a lot of work..
What have been mentioned in the passage struck me deeply. We Chinese students come into this situation frequently. I think it is the way we study English that gives rise to this phenomenon. Most of the time, we learn a lot about the rarely used words and the complicated rhetorical device for the writing assignment. Meanwhile, we seldom speak with English for the reason of fear of losing face or others. SO we can write gorgeously, but speak poorly. For me, I think the important thing in speaking is that we should think and speak like a native, who use the simple and genuine oral English expressing his ideas. That’s the direction we should work for.
In China, we are required to learn more words which are seldom used in daily life. For me, neither written and speaking english is easy, I can not do them well. The common phenomenon in most universities is that we study english only for passing the exam, so we strengthen our ability of writing, it seems like we can pass exam if we grasp mute english. Honestly speaking, I watched the movie “Friends”, I found that they use very simple english in daily life not so complicted grammer or words. The aim of studying english is to communite with others, we can express our feelings in a simple way.
The differences between written English and spoken English are less than written
Chinese and spoken Chinese.It’s easy to say but hard to write for our most local people.
Spoken English is informal,its mistake could be corrected by your expression from the eyes,your bodylanguage and so on.
Many people fear written English for its exact grammar,formal ways of expression and perfect built in paragraph.
But if there enough time for me to write in English,I will be more pleasure.Because I can think about it more seriously,thus speak in English within just a moment.
Actually,most of students in the middle and west provinces of China are lake of the ability to speak english fluently enough to voice themselves.To some extent,it is some kind of MUTE English you mentioned in one your articles.They may express themselves by the pen even though not in the real English,but when it turns to the mouth,they failed.Unfortunately I am one of these guys.
Maybe different individuals will have different opinion,in my mind,there are several reasons .First,the students were taught to memorize the words when the students study English at the first time, and they were told that only through memorizing the words or the articles can they learn English well.Second,the students don’t have to use English to communicate with others in their daily life.The last but the most important,the system of the English education is failed to courage the students to practice the spoken English,the CET or other exams are pay more attention to the reading,listening and writting shills of English, but only dropped the skills of speaking.
Qiang Zheng,a famous professor in Zhejiang university of China,once said that English way always to be a tool which could help us to communicate with others who from overseas.So the bigger your quantity vocabulary are, the greatest fool you are if you can not speak it.
I would like to quote the remarks of Pro.Wolff ro end my comment.Only way to truly improve a student’s second language is through the student’s reading,listening,writing and speaking more English in a holistic manner,there is no shortcut.
I agree with you.I have learned English for 10 years. I can write ,I can read.But I can not speak very well.Firstly,I am shy girl.I fear making mistakes when I talk with others in English.Secondly，my oral English is poor.Sometimes,I can not remember some words to express my idea.I can not think in English and I always translate Chinese into English in my mind.I find oral English is difficult for me.But in this term,I decide to try my best to learn how to speak and how to think in English.
I agree with your opinion.It is ture that written English is far different from spoken English. Take mysellf for example ,I can read the English books and write the English articles, but I am nervous of speaking English.Oral English seems very difficult for me . I do not know how to express myself well,what’s more,I fear of making mistakes when I communicate with others. I will try my best to practice my oral English and raise my courage to speak English with others from now on.
Although there are differences between written English and spoken English, I propose to memory some phrases of written English. When I speak English earlier, I usually find no words or phrases to express my idea. The memorized phrase can give me a reference of what to say and how to say. After a period, you will find that it’s really useful to memorizing some set phrases. That’s my experience.
Now I kown why we always feel odd that how easy the words it used in film but what we looked in the article is so difficult.Maybe this is the different style of education.