Sofia Giordano and Francesca Di Marco 

LITTI 1 - International House Montevideo

Assignment 3 Linguistics - Orality and Literacy 

The aim of this analysis is to show ways in which orality and literacy are present on the
next pieces of work, written by students of 5th grade, … grade and 12th grade. Busqué en
el enlace del segundo texto y no lo encontré. Si lo llegas a encontrar avisame y le
buscamos de qué nivel es. En el primero sí decía que era 5th grade. 

Text 1 – 5th grade

https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/writingsamples/grade5_level4.html

 
In Text 1, we can observe two characteristics of the written mode and two
characteristics of the speaking mode.

The first characteristic of the written mode we may see is that the text is
independent of the situation where it is written. Both writer and reader don´t have to be
present while exchanging ideas about the topic. Besides, here, the writer can express
differences between his new city and the country where he used to live, independently
of the context he is immersed when writing. He doesn´t need (or doesn´t want, maybe)
the reader to be there to express himself.

In addition, another feature of the written mode is that probably the writer had time to
prepare the text. We may see he was able to organise the text in paragraphs, using
connectors (“First”, “Second”, “Thirdly”) which shows the structure, one of the main
characteristics of written mode. In every paragraph, he speaks about a different
distinction between the city he used to live in and the city he is living in right now (first
houses, then means of transportation, and, afterward the relationships he has with his
new friends). Also, at some point, it seems as if the first paragraph of the text
represents a kind of introduction to the topic he will be dealing with “My city there is
things that are same here” and then briefly speaks about people and what you can find
in his new city, closing the paragraph with the main idea he will be expressing on his
written piece: differences between his the city he used to live in and the one he lives
now “there are some things that are different” (although he doesn´t clarify the
differences between what he will be speaking about) as he will later compare both
places. He just says “There are some things that are different”. In the same way, we
may find a kind of summary of the topic at the end, and as a matter of fact, he writes
this conclusion in another paragraph, which also shows structure.

To follow with, as is a written text, the reader can always reread the text, the writer
does not need to use memorization techniques when writing, which maybe if he was
speaking he probably should, as the other person will not be able to listen to the
speech again. Maybe he would have to repeat more than once that he is telling us the
differences between his new city and the one he used to live in. The writer speaks
about a lot of differences between both places without being redundant. He speaks
about houses, people, means of transportation, and language, without repeating them.

On the other hand, we may find some features of speaking mode too. For example,
some connectors for expressing his ideas are missing. When he speaks about the low
frequency of buses at night, he immediately speaks about his brother´s case, without
saying that this case he is telling us about would be an example to explain the
consequences of the low frequency of buses. He could have said, “for example, my
brother..”. When we speak, we do not always need to introduce the words “for
example” to explain a case where the topic we are speaking about can be identified. If
he had introduced those words, maybe the idea he wants to express would be clearer
and more formal (as literacy tends to be in comparison to orality).

Also, the writer expresses himself in the first sentence, using the word “here” or “my
city”. If it were a conversation, maybe the interlocutor would already know which places
the writer refers to with “here” and “my city”. But, we as readers, don´t. Although we
may deduce which places is he referring to, only in the final sentence he clarifies that
he is writing about his “old city” and his “new country”.

Text 2 - … grade
https://www.google.com/search?
q=checkpoint+samples+student+writing&tbm=isch&hl=es-
419&chips=q:checkpoint+samples+student+writing,online_chips:writing+practice:6Tun
q-LYMuw
%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi59dPGiYv7AhXdjZUCHalWDFYQ4lYoBXoECAEQLQ&biw
=1263&bih=609#imgrc=YPPxtzLNNMGWSM&imgdii=hEABukHYwOoFyM

In text 2,  we can find examples of the spoken mode such as: 

- Several redundancies and repeated expressions: “I like”, “my dad” and “a daddy's
girl”. 

- There is no cohesion in the text, many ideas could have been written more
cohesively, for example:  “What I like is going shopping with my dad because he get
me what I want. I like going to Whakatane with my dad to get me some new things for
school, but I like to go into the shoe part because I get to get a pair of shoe”
could be written more formally: “ I like going shopping with my dad, especially to the
Whakatane shoe store, because everytime we go, he buys new things for school”.
The lack of conjunctions and the overuse of the expressions listed above denotes that
the writer does not know how to organize her ideas and doesn't know how to express
them without having to repeat the expression words “I like”. The whole text is
disorganized, the ideas are not arranged hierarchically and it is clear she didn't plan
what she wanted to express and how before writing.  

There are also examples of the written mode which can be identified:
 It is a monologic text creo que ya está repetido abajo, where the writer is stating
what she likes doing with her father and why. 
 There are spelling errors like “ shoping” instead of “shopping” and “allway”
instead of “always”. These are errors that can be seen more frequently in the
written mode than the spoken mode. 

These are examples of written mode because the written mode tends to be
monological, writing leaves no room for the writer to further explain his/her ideas or
even be aware if the reader understands the text. In this case, the girl wrote about what
she likes doing with her father and why, but her ideas were not clear enough. Also,
writing makes room for grammatical errors that in the spoken mode are not common to
find. 
https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/writingsamples/grade12_level4.html