LANGUAGE

PRODUCTION

UNIT-4
 LANGUAGE PRODUCTION – SPEAKING,
WRITING AND BILINGUALISM
Dutch psycholinguist Willem Begins his book:-
SPEAKING :- “INTENTION TO ARTICULATION”
• Every time a person comprehends Language, someone else needs to
produce language .
• We spend hours a day conversing, teaching, quarrelling & speaking to
ourselves .
• Speaking is one of the most complex Cognitive , Linguistic and Motor
Skills .
• SPEAKING requires impressive planning ., we need to arrange words in
an orderly sequence.
 SPEAKING
SELECTING THE CONTENT OF SPEECH – speech production requires a series of stages

We make a Gist of what we intend to say .

Then devise a structure of the sentence without selecting the exact words.

During third stage- we choose both the words and their forms (Ex:- eat becomes eating)

In the last stage we convert these intentions into overt speech by articulating the phonemes.

The stages varies along the HESISTANT PHASE TO FLUENT PHASE.

 SPEAKING
SELECTING THE ACTIVE OR PASSIVE VOICE – he read the book(Active), The book was read by
him (Passive). People mostly use the active voice .

SELECTING THE CONTENT OF SPEECH – include series of stages :-

Begin by working out the gist Or

Overall meaning of what we intend to say

Devise the general structure of the sentence without selecting the exact words .

Third stage – we choose both the words & their forms (Eat to eating ).

Fourth stage – we convert these intentions into overt speech by articulating the phonemes.
 SPEAKING
We plan ahead for more than one
sentence when we are speaking .
When we are talking for an extended period – we
alternate b/w HESITANT PHASE & FLUENT PHASE .
We speak haltingly & slowly as
we plan what we will say.
Fluent phase- we are rewarded for our earlier
planning and flow the words more easily.
LINEARIZATION PROBLEM- problem of
arranging the words in an ordered, linear sequence
 CONCEPTS

SPEECH
CONSTRUCTIN ERRORS – Use
SELECTING
G of fillers,
THE ACTIVE
DESCRIPTIONS Pausing , starting
OR THE
– the way people next sentence
PASSIVE VOICE
describe before completing
previous one.
 CONCEPTS

WORD
3 TYPES ARE
SLIPS OF MORPHEME ERRORS –
:- SOUND
THE ERROR – when words
ERRORS –
TONGUE- Exchange with are
when sounds
sound or near by words exchanged-
in nearby
words are – Ex:- SELF writing letter
words are
rearranged DESTRUCT to mother –
exchanged-
b/w 2 or more INSTRUCTIO writing
Snow flurries-
diff words . N mother to
Flow snurries
letter
 GESTURES
Gestures and Speech are interconnected, providing additional richness
and emphasis.

Gestures can be defined as the movements of the arms and hands that
accompany speech.

Gestures add to spoken language, providing richness and an extra

dimension .

SOCIAL CONTEXT OF SPEECH – providing error free speech

accompanied by gestures

Clark proposes that conversation is like a complicated Dance .

This complicated dance requires precise coordination b/w 2 people .

 CONCEPTS
COMMON GROUND- conversationalists share the similar background knowledge,
schemas and experiences that are necessary for mutual understanding

THE GIVEN NEW STRATEGY – a speaker’s sentence contains some GIVEN

information with which the listener is already familiar and some new information

CONVERSATIONAL FORMAT – speakers should alternate, they should not talk at

the same time, no long pauses in b/w the talk

DIRECTIVES- is a sentence that requests someone to do something .

 WRITING

Technical
writing and Research on the
WRITING is a It is an The first article
professionals cognitive
cognitive task important appearing in the
report – to processes in
that is both component of 1970’s- and
writing at least writing is
difficult and many people’s relatively
30% on an relatively new.
time consuming. occupation. limited
average
everyday
COMPARING SPEAKING &
SPEAKINGWRITING
 & WRITING share many similar cognitive components

 ELLIS & BEATTIE (1986) GAVE DIFFERING CHARACTERISTICS

Compared to SPEAKING , WRITING is more likely to :-

1. OCCUR IN ISOLATION FROM OTHER PEOPLE

2. INVOLVE DELAYED SOCIAL FEEDBACK

3. REQUIRE EXTENSIVE REVISING AND EDITING

4. INVOLVE SYNTACTICALLY COMPLEX LANGUAGE

5. BE RECORDED IN A POTENTIALLY PERMANENT FORM

 WRITING & SPEAKING
STUDY comparing speaking and writing Chafe (1987) compared Professors and
graduate students.

Researchers collected both formal & informal samples of speech – lectures

& casual talks , professional writing and personal letters.

Found out that written language showed significantly more varied

vocabularly than spoken language .

Spoken language has more HEDGES- which are phrases – such as SORT OF ,
KIND OF – than written language.
COGNITIVE TASKS INVOLVED IN
WRITING
PLANNING- Goals of
expressing content
knowledge, goals to use
certain words & phrases.

SENTENCE
Several Psychologists have GENERATION – during
described the cognitive this writer must translate
tasks that comprise the general ideas
writing developed during
planning.

REVISING- reconsider
the goals of text, if text
accomplishes the goals,
and improvise them
 SUMMARY

• In contrast to speaking , writing is an isolated task with less social

feedback ; it involves extensive revision and complex language and is
also more permanent than speech.
• The quality of writing is related to the amount and the quality of
planning ;Outlining also enhances writing quality.
• When people generate sentences during writing, the final essay is
much longer than the outline ;writers fluent phases alternate with
hesitant phases.
• Expert writers are more likely than beginning college students to
revise the organization , focus and transitions in a paper ;
 BILINGUALISM
We have considered 4 astonishingly complicated cognitive tasks :-

SPEECH COMPREHENSION

READING

SPEAKING

WRITING

These tasks require the simultaneous coordination of cognitive skills social knowledge ,
and physical gestures.
We can marvel that human beings can manage all these tasks in one language- may be
more than 2-3 languages as well .
 BILINGUALISM
Some people live in
They are bilingual bcz
Most people in the officially bilingual
their home language is
world are atleast regions such as
not the language used
somewhat bilingual. QUEBEC, BELGIUM
for school and business
& SWITZERLAND.

Immigrants frequently People who learn

Ex:- Zulu Speakers in
need to master the second language need
South Africa who must
language of their new to learn words, syntax
learn English
country. etc..

Colonization has also

imposed another
language upon people .
 BILINGUALISM
A BILINGUAL SPEAKER IS A PERSON WHO USES 2
LANGUAGES THAT DIFFER IN SPEECH, SOUNDS ,
VOCABULARY AND SYNTAX.

Technically they are MULTILINGUAL – referring to someone who

uses more than 2 languages.

But Psycholinguists often use the term Bilingual to include

MULTILINGUAL as well

Bilingual’s native language is referred to as the FIRST LANGUAGE

or L1

And the Non Native language is the SECOND LANGUAGE or L2

 BILINGUALISM
A pioneer in research on Bilingualism, Wallace Lambert received the 1990 –
For applications of psychology given by APA .

Lambert introduced an imp distinction b/w ADDITIVE & SUBTRACTIVE

BILINGUALISM .

ADDITIVE BILINGUALISM – individual acquires proficiency in second

language with No loss of first language .

SUBTRACTIVE BILINGUALISM – the new language replaces the first

language.

The topic of bilingualism has imp political , social and psychological

implications .
 BILINGUALISM

Imp predictors in acquiring

a second language is a
person’s attitude towards
the people who speak that The topic of bilingualism is so
language. interesting that some colleges
offer this has a course in the
subject.
ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

• The early theorists suggested that BILINGUALISM IS

HARMFUL.

• Jespersen(1992) said that “THE BRAIN EFFORT REQUIRED

TO MASTER THE 2 LANGUAGES INSTEAD OF ONE
CERTAINLY DIMINISHES THE CHILD’S POWER OF
LEARNING OTHER THINGS WHICH MIGHT & OUGHT
TO BE LEARNT.

• In addition to gaining fluency in a second language, bilinguals

seem to have no of advantages over monolinguals .
 ADVANTAGES OF BILINGUALS
BILINGUALS ACTUALLY ACQUIRE MORE EXPERTISE IN THEIR
NATIVE (FIRST) LANGUAGE.

BILINGUALS ARE MORE AWARE THAT THE NAMES ASSIGNED TO

CONCEPTS ARE ARBITARY .

BILINGUAL CHILDREN ARE MORE SENSITIVE TO SOME

PRAGMATIC ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE.

BILINGUAL CHILDREN ARE MORE LIKELY TO SHOW COGNITIVE

FLEXIBILITY ON TESTS OF CREATIVITY .
BILINGUALS ALSO PERFORM BETTER ON TESTS OF NON VERBAL
INTELLIGENCE THAT REQUIRE REOORGANIZATION OF VISUAL
PATTERNS
 DISADVANTAGES OF
BILINGUALISM
USING 2 LANGUAGES PEOPLE CAN SUBTLY ALTER THEIR
PRONUNCIATION OF SOME SPEECH SOUNDS IN BOTH
LANGUAGES.

BILINGUALS ARE SLIGTHLY SLOWER IN MAKING DECISIONS

ABOUT LANGUAGE , though it doesn’t hamper communication.

BILINGUALS MAY EXPERIENCE A SLIGHT DISADVANTAGE IN

LANGUAGE PROCESSING SPEED OVER MONOLINGUALS .
 CODE SWITCHING

CODE SWITCHING- refers to a Bilingual tendency to switch from one

language to another when speaking to other bilinguals.

A bilingual is likely to switch to another language for a phrase that is

overlearned or better expressed in that language.

Intriguingly, people switch codes to their second language , when they

need to talk about something embarrassing .

Code switching involves social factors as well as linguistic factors.

 CONCEPTS
SECOND LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AS A FUNCTION OF AGE OF
ACQUISTION

BACKGROUND RESEARCH- people who acquire second language during early

childhood are likely to master the phonology or speech sounds .

AGE AT ARRIVAL EFFECT- people are more likely to be proficient at a second

language is they immigrated to the second country at an early age.

Early language acquisition is also advantageous for those who learn American sign
language.

JOHNSON & NEWPORT’S RESEARCH- Chinese and Koreans who learn English at
an early age also show greater mastery of some forms of English grammar.
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