Importance of Learning Spoken and Written English

Both speaking and writing is a function of communication. Still there are many differences between them. Speaking is how we express our thoughts via sounds but writing is a visual representation of speaking. English has its own characteristics, just like other languages. In modern days English has become the most preferable language across the world. Whether you are in academia, working professional, tourist, etc. knowledge of writing and speaking English is too much essential for your career growth. Here we have discussed key differences between Spoken and written English, and their importance in everyday lives.

Importance of Spoken and Written English:

Global Communication: In this era, English has become the biggest medium of communication across the world. Spoken and written English allows people from different countries or regions to communicate and collaborate with each other.

Career Opportunities: A good grasp of spoken and written English can open vibrant job opportunities for anyone. Proficiency in these is highly valued by employers, especially in business, technology, finance, and tourism sectors.  

Education Access: Most of the academic materials such as books, published research, etc. are available in written English. If anyone wants to gather knowledge from online courses or any other online platform English is essential to understand properly.

Key-differences Between Spoken and Written English:

There is a lot of difference between spoken and written English. We have provide some of the common differences between spoken and written English.

• Grammar: In spoken English, we commonly use simpler, and shorter terms and sentences. But written forms are comparatively complex. This is a fast-paced process, where the time to process thoughts and convey messages is way less than in written English. In spoken English, the uses of grammar plays a minimal role on the other hand grammar is one of the most important factors of written English. Misuse of grammar can question your capability.  
• Vocabulary: In written English, choosing the correct word is crucial. Precise explaining has to be done to avoid any misunderstanding between the writer and the reader. Whereas spoken English uses informal vocabulary such as slang, filler words, etc. to avoid silence.
• Listening skill: Spoken English may be easier to construct but listening to English is very difficult for a non-native individual because the sound runs together. As an example, while speaking, we use words like ‘gonna’, ‘watcha’, ‘whatsup’, etc., this makes it more difficult to understand. Developing listening skills is important because the time you get to understand is way less than written English

How Speaking and Writing Influence Each Other:

Writing and speaking are closely interlinked in several ways. Here are some key points to understand how speaking and writing influence each other.

• Communication Skills: Writing and reading both are ways of communication and these are vital to express your thoughts.
• Language Proficiency: Proficiency in writing can help to enhance your speaking ability. Having a good grasp of reading and writing will improve your vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. That will directly help you to improve your speaking skills.
• Theoretical Process: Speaking and writing both are theoretical processes. Both need intellectual thinking, organizing thoughts, and constructing sentences. If you want to be more specific, effective revision and reflection are essential for writing because writing is a time consuming process. On the other hand, speaking is an instant process that involves more spontaneous thinking process.
• Reader/Listener Awareness: Writers and speakers both have to consider their audience's perspective and expectations.
• Style and Tone: The choice of vocabulary and structuring of sentences can affect how the conversation should sound. Even writers often spend time just to use correct words. The style and tonality used while writing can influence how the text is judged when read loudly.
• Practice and Transfer: Engaging in one skill can help to enhance other skills. Practicing writing with proper vocabulary, grammar, etc. can improve your speaking ability just like practicing speaking can improve the ability to write productively.
• Life span: Writing is usually more durable or permanent than speaking for obvious reasons. If we count the life span of what we are speaking is short-lived but writing can survive centuries if it is protected properly. That is the biggest reason to keep records of all the events in writing including poems or poetries in the past to modern day, business documents.

Features of Spoken English:

• It Is Informal: Writing in newspapers, books, magazines, etc. is way more complexly structured than everyday conversation English. Writing is a formal way to express thoughts and communicate. You have to include punctuation, tense, vocabulary, and structuring sentences and paragraphs while writing. Speaking includes much easier and more general methods like tonality, stress, timing, etc.
• Speaking Has a Rhythm: Spoken English has a rhythmic tonality. Every individual has a unique or different speed of speaking, gesture, and facial expression. Most of the time mental thoughts, present situations, and interaction with others influence the speech tonality.  
• Uses of Slang and Colloquialism: Some informal vocabulary like ‘Y’all’, ‘Being Blue’, ‘Ballpark’, etc. can be used while speaking. Even there are options for how you say some particular word. As an example, take the year ‘2025’. It is possible to utter ‘2025’ like twenty twenty-five or two thousand and twenty-five.

Features of Writing English:

• It Is More Durable: Written content is documented and stable. That is the reason, it can be read by others at any point in time. This makes it easy to understand the thought and the meaning behind the text.
• It Is More Restricted: Most of the time spoken English is conducted on real-time situations between the speaker and the listener, but the written English is explicit. You have to clearly state the context and references to make it understandable for readers.   
• It is More Organized: Written English is formatted carefully and organized. Generally written Forms contain standardized English. It has to follow more conventional rules of grammar and use precise vocabulary to enhance the level of writing.
• Time Consuming for Production and Faster for Reception: writing is way slower process than speaking. At the same time reading that same piece of text is relatively less time-consuming than listening to the same text.  

 Other Differences between Spoken and Written English:

• The basic differences between Spoken and written English is conveying the message. In written English, the message is delivered by using graphic characters. But spoken English is communicated through voice and sounds.
• Spoken and written English both are organized but follow different paths/rules. The message or context of spoken English is kind of scanty. While written language is comparatively denser.
• Until it is recorded, the speech is gone immediately after we have stopped talking. Written English is scripted and stored which increases the longevity.
• Most of the time, we use everyday words while speaking. But in writing English complex lexicons are vastly used to make it more appealing to readers.
• Spoken English includes verbal and non-verbal filler words to avoid silence, whereas punctuation is used in writing to showcase pause, separate the message, end of a sentence, etc.

Similarities of Spoken and Written Language: (for what?)

Writing and speaking have different contexts but mostly they share same fundamental principles. Here are some impacts of both spoken and written in real life scenario. 

• Status: We learn speaking way before writing. Learning to speak your native language almost comes automatically on the other hand someone have to teach you how to write. Writing does not come naturally. In early times, almost everybody were able to speak but only a countable people knew how to write. That is why writing had a higher status than speaking.

In modern times the table has turned, the relative status of speaking and writing has changed, especially in English. Speaking fluent English is given same importance as well as written English in every sector such as, academia, corporate work-life, travel, medical, etc.

• Technological Influence: In today’s world inventions like voice recording, radio, TV, email, etc. are creating a huge Impact on speaking and writing. This is transforming the gap between speaking and writing is becoming narrower day by day.

In conclusion, the spoken and written English serves a different purpose and display different characteristics. Spoken English is spontaneous and more informal whereas written English is more formal, well-versed, and structured. Despite the difference both kind of influence each other. In this article, we have covered topics, from features of spoken and written English to the key differences between Spoken and written English. Learning spoken English is an essential step to grow in your career whether you are in academia or a professional individual. To learn spoken English from the comfort of your house contact Fastinfo Class. We provide standardized courses with easy learning modules and our expert teachers are always there to guide you.