Topic 6 Study Guide - From spoken to written language

  • Varieties of Language

    • Language use is influenced by context variables:

      • Field: Subject matter

      • Tenor: Participants in communication

      • Mode: Form of communication (spoken or written)

  • Learning Written Language

    • Primary school students learn to abstractly express ideas, moving from concrete to technical and model language.

    • Nominalisation: Turning action verbs into nouns (e.g. exploring to exploration) to create distanced ideas.

    • Distanced language poses challenges for comprehension and expression.

  • Language at Home and School

    • Children learn to use distanced language at home or from Years K-6; not all are prepared for secondary language demands.

    • Importance of support for developing academic literacies.

  • Language Play

    • Children experiment with language, enhancing their expressiveness and conceptual distance.

  • Transition to Secondary School

    • Students use more technical and abstract language in texts at secondary level.

  • Socrates’ View on Writing

    • Concern about writing leading to forgetfulness and disconnect from true wisdom.

  • Contextual Questions for Text Analysis

    • Social purpose, mode, tenor, and field of a text help understand its language.

  • Concrete vs Abstract Language

    • Concrete language (e.g., cooking instructions) matches everyday experience.

    • Abstract language (e.g., textbook explanations) uses nominalisation and expresses concepts distanced from experience.

  • Mode Continuum

    • The continuum illustrates the spectrum from spoken (immediate feedback) to written (no feedback) language.

    • Language varies in terms of feedback and temporal distance (immediacy vs. reflection).

  • Differences Between Spoken and Written Language

    • Spoken: Dialogic, dynamic, informal, uses everyday vocabulary, often shared cultural context.

    • Written: Monologic, polished, formal, structured with complex sentences, requires explicit references.

  • Academic and Professional Language

    • Academic/professional contexts use specialized, formal, abstract language.

    • Multimodal texts in these contexts combine different forms of communication.