Speech – writing – Internet, or how the communication changes
People want – and sometimes have to – communicate in non‑typical situations and various circumstances imposing miscellaneous limits on them. Hence the existence of numerous very interesting and original methods of communication. One of them is the Gomeran whistle (Silbo Gomero) characteristic to the Guanches of the Canary Islands.
The progress of the civilisation also has a great impact on communication, the original form of which was the speech, and the secondary – writing. The youngest and the most dynamically developing is the internet communication, referred to a written conversation. It combines the features of both communication channelscommunication channels (hence it can be referred to as mixed communication).
Working in pairs, write down the differences between spoken and written communication.
Now, you can verify your findings. Get acquainted with the information on the features of the spoken and the written language.
1. The substance of oral communication is the sound character. Speech is human intrinsic ability.
2. Messages are sent and received at the same place and time, although there are exceptions from that rule, the example of which is a telephone conversation or communication by means of such messenger software as Skype.
3. Oral communication is more spontaneous - i.e. less thought-out and ordered. The speaker and the listener change their roles (dialogue).
4. Oral communication refers to the its circumstances (situational nature). It is supported by non-verbal codes: prosodic (intonation, accent and strength of voice), and proxemic (distance from the speaker).
5. The substance of written communication is graphical character. It is an ability that has to be learnt; the sender must put some effort in the preparation of his/her message.
6. Written communication is more thought-out and ordered. The sender can take more time for thinking and correcting of his/her text. The change of roles of the sender and the recipient in a single instance of communication is impossible (monologue).
7. The message must be precise, as it cannot be linked with any situational marks.
8. It is supported by graphical codes, such as, e.g., punctuation, use of upper and lower case letters, and handwriting.
Spoken communication should not be associated with the lack of formal features. Although social conversation can be deprived of such features, the communication between a teacher and a student should be of formal nature.
Indicate in the text the lexical and grammatical features of the oral language, and then transform this statement into proper written language.
I’d like to say that I have a lot fellows, and I like most the meetings with a friend of mine. Similar to me, she attends the gastronomic school, she is about half year younger than me, but she does not attend the same class. We have, yyyy, some two kilometres to school, so we do not want to go there on foot, instead we go there by tram. And her mother keeps saying that it is very close, and it is not good what we do, because it is unhealthy and so on. What to say? Hmm, she’s right, but we always get to school at the last moment, so the tram saves our lives, as otherwise we would surely late.
What do you know about communication over the Internet? Check yourself and compete the text with the appropriate words.
difficult, upper case, briefness, sentences, anonymity, easy, making it similar to, authorship, distinguishing it from, channel, letter, lengthiness
The most important features of internet communication ............................................ other forms of communication, are: ............................................ and common access, speed, ............................................, automation, interactivity (dynamics) and multimedia. The internet language characterises with ............................................, and the use of acronyms (words created through the abbreviation of multi-word expressions) and emoticons. The users of this ............................................ us non-standard punctuation, do not use ............................................ according to the spelling rules, and often ignore diacritical marks. Some of the aforementioned features are also characteristic for text messaging.
The internet communication is otherwise referred to as mixed communication, which means that its some features are common with the oral and some with the written communication type. Decide which of the features of each of the genres can be assigned to the internet communication.
Match the following genres with appropriate groups. Add two own examples to each of the groups.
email, note, calendar, sermon, speech, conversation, chat, diary, blog, CV, discussion forum thread, lecture
| Typical oral genres | |
|---|---|
| Typical written genres | |
| Typical internet genres |
Working in pairs, write down the largest possible number of the communication genres that may appear both in oral, written and internet communications. Having completed the exercise, compare the results of the work of all the groups.
These are the text messaged sent in response to received messages. Can you guess their contents? Try to add the missing messages, and then compare your ideas with the ones of the person sitting next to you at your desk. Why are the following messages comprehensible to their recipients?
I know, I found some time to watch it.
Another half an hour.
Thanks. Uff!
Eh! I simply did not make sufficient turn.
It’s sad... Will she able to go?
What a relief! But now I will not manage to get on time.
Everything can be recognised. Our hits are pears and peaches.
Keywords
communication, speech, handwriting, Internet
Glossary
akcent
akronimy
skrótowość
kanał komunikacyjny
dialogiczność
intonacja
lingwista
lingwistyka
odmiana ustna
kod prozodyczny
kod proksemiczny
sytuacyjność
spontaniczność
odmiana pisana