Reading and Writing Skills

Core Subject Description:

 The development of reading and writing skills as applied to a wide range of materials other than
poetry, fiction and drama.
Text as Connected Discourse (Spoken)
Discourse vs. Text
 There has been some confusion in the literature regarding the distinction between “discourse analysis”
and “text analysis”.
 It is a result of the confusion in the terms “discourse’ and ‘text”.
 Some researchers label their analysis “discourse analysis”, while others claim they are doing “text
analysis”, but the difference is often inconsistent.
 Some claim to make clear distinctions between “discourse” and “text”, but a closer look reveals that
their distinctions do not hold.
What is Connected Speech?
 "English people speak so fast" is a complaint often hears from students, and often from those at an
advanced level, where ignorance of the vocabulary used is not the reason for their lack of
comprehension.
 When students see a spoken sentence in its written form, they have no trouble comprehending. Why is
this?
 The reason, it seems, is that speech is a continuous stream of sounds, without clear-cut borderlines
between each word.
 In spoken discourse, we adapt our pronunciation to our audience and articulate with maximal
economy of movement rather than maximal clarity.
 Thus, certain words are lost, and certain phonemes linked together as we attempt to get our message
across.
 When we speak naturally we do not pronounce a word, stop, and then say the next word in the
sentence.
 Fluent speech flows with a rhythm and the words bump into each other.
 To make speech flow smoothly the way we pronounce the end and beginning of some words can
change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words.
 These changes are described as features of connected speech.
Importance of Studying Connected Speech
 There is a huge difference between what students see printed on a page and what we actually say in
everyday speech.
 Research shows that teaching learners about connected speech can really make a difference in terms
of how well they understand native speakers.
 Equally, some ability to use these features in their own speech will also be likely to make students
more confident and fluent speakers.
Features of Connected Speech
 As a brief overview, there is a strong tendency in English to simplify and link words together in the
stream of speech, in order to help the language flow rhythmically.
Some of the most common features:
1. Weak Forms
 There are a large number of words in English which can have a "full" form and a "weak" form.
 This is because English is a stressed timed language, and in trying to make the intervals between
stressed syllables equal, to give the phrase rhythm, we tend to swallow non-essential words.
 Thus, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries and articles are often lost, causing
comprehension problems for students, particularly for those whose language is syllable timed.
Some examples of words which have weak forms are:
And
fish and chips (fish ´n chips)
a chair and a table (a chair ´n a table)
Can
She can speak Spanish better than I can (The first "can" is the weak form, the second the full form.)
Of
A pint of beer
That´s the last of the wine!
Have
Have you finished? (weak)
Yes, I have. (full)
Should
Well, you should have told me. (Both "should" and "have" are weak here)
 When we talk about weak forms in the phonetics of English this regards a series of words which have
one pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak) when not stressed within a phrase.
a car
/ˈeɪ ˈkɑ:/
I bought a car
/aɪ ˈbɔ:t ə ˈkɑ:/
Commonly used words as weak forms are :
1. Prepositions
2. Auxiliary verbs
3. Conjunctions
Weak = Unstressed
 In the following sentences the underlined words are stressed and so would be pronounced using the
strong form:
1. I do like chocolate.
2. She drove to Las Vegas, not from Las Vegas.
3. We were surprised when she told us her secret. (stress on ‘were’ for emphasis)
EXAMPLES
1. “Betcha” for
“( I ) bet you” as in “Betcha can’t catch me”.
2. “Gotcha” for
“( I’ve ) got you” as in “Gotcha at last”
 Look at this phrase:
“I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.”
 What are the most important words?
I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.
 If we eliminate the other words can we still understand the message?
went hotel booked room two nights father best friend.
 Let’s look at the phrase transcribed:
/aɪ ˈwent tə ðə həʊ ˈtel ən ˈbʊkt ə ˈru:m fə ˈtu: ˈnaɪts fə maɪ ˈfɑ:ðər ən hɪz ˈbest ˈfrend/
 Learners must come to not only recognize and cope with the weak forms they hear,
but also to use them themselves when speaking English.
 If they do not their language will sound unnatural and over formalized, with too many stressed forms
making it difficult for the listener to identify the points of focus.
  This, the degree to which connected speech contributes towards "naturalness" or "intelligibility", is a
useful starting point from which to measure the value to students of the different features of
connected speech.
2. Catenation
 This is when the last consonant of the first word is joined to the first vowel of the next word.
 This is very common in English, and can be very confusing for students.
For example:
“an apple” sounds like “a napple”
(Teacher, what is a napple?)
Other examples:
“get up” sounds like “getup”
“full on” sounds like “fullon”
“beat it” sounds like “bea tit”
“start up” sounds like “star tup”
3. Assimilation
 This is when the sound at the end of one word changes to make it easier to say the next word.
For example:
‘ten boys’ sounds like ‘ tem boys’
(the /n/ sound changes to the bilabial /m/ to make it easier to transition to the also bilabial /b/)
 Incidentally bilabial just means two lips together, which is a good example of the kind of jargon that
puts people off!
Regressive Assimilation:
 The phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it.
Example:
this year / ðij jiə /,
bright color /braik kalə/
light blue /laip blu/.
Progressive assimilation:
 The phoneme that comes first affects the one that comes after it.
Example:
those year / ðəʊʒ jiə
4. Elision
 Elision is simply the omission of certain sounds in certain contexts.
 The most important occurrences of this phenomenon regard:
 Alveolar consonants /t/ and /d/ when ‘sandwiched’ between two consonants
Elision of “not”
 The phoneme /t/ is a fundamental part of the negative particle not, the possibility of it being elided
makes the foreign students life more difficult.
 Consider the negative of can – if followed by a consonant the /t/ may easily disappear and the only
difference between the positive and the negative is a different, longer vowel sound in the second:
(+) I can speak... /aɪ kən ˈspi:k/
(-) I can’t speak… /aɪ ˈkɑ:n(t) ˈspi:k/
 Elision means that you lose a sound in the middle of a consonant cluster, sometimes from the middle
of a word;
Examples:
“sandwich” becomes “sanwich”
 Or from the end of a word.
Example:
“fish and chips” to “fishnchips”
5. Intrusion
 This is when an extra sound ‘intrudes’. There are three sounds that often do this /r/ /j/ and /w/
Example:
“go on” sounds like “gowon”
“I agree” sounds like “aiyagree”
“Law and order” sounds like “lawrunorder”
Text as Connected Discourse (Written)
 In a conversation, some expressions may be in a form of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, or even
paragraphs.
 A conversation involves a number of participants, at least two, who express their individual thoughts
and emotions through spoken words.
 For them to understand one another and to ensure smooth flow of conversation, the spoken words
must have connectedness.
 On the contrary, a written discourse generally involves one individual who expresses his ideas and
feelings through written words.
 Seldom does a writer make use of one word for a sentence.
 Likewise, he rarely makes use of one sentence to form his paragraph.
 He puts his ideas such that his words are interconnected to form one paragraph.
 Assuming that each sentence constitutes one utterance from each of the participants in a conversation
and several sentences represent a number of utterances from the same participants, they produce a
number of discourses because the parties involved proceed from one topic to another or from one
genre to another.
 The change or shift in topic is simply marked by transitional words.
 In the same manner, transitional devices are used to show the relationship or connection between idea
in sentences and paragraphs.

TECHNIQUES IN SELECTING AND ORGANIZING INFORMATION

BRAINSTORMING
 is the most popular tool in generating creative and rich ideas
How Brainstorming Works?
1. Decide for the general or primary topic.
2. Get ideas from everyone.
3. Revisit the list.
4. Have the list as a guide or an outline for the final product.
Two Methods in Brainstorming:
1. IDEA LIST involves writing the main topic and listing down the related ideas
2. IDEA MAP a visual representation of ideas and their connections with one another more structured
Shows how one idea subordinates another idea
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
 are visual representations of concepts that help us structure information into organizational patterns
present essential information and connect these pieces of information into a coherent framework
TYPES OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS:
1. VENN DIAGRAM used to compare and contrast ideas and events. Uses two or more overlapping circles
to show similar and different attributes
2. NETWORK TREE used to represent hierarchy, classification, and branching. Useful in showing
relationships of scientific categories, family trees, and even lineages
 3. SPIDER MAP used to investigate and enumerate various aspects of a central idea, which could be a
concept, topic, or theme. Also known as semantic map
4. PROBLEM – SOLUTION MAP displays the nature of the problem and how it can be solved. Usually
contains the problem's description, its causes and effects, and logical solutions
5. TIMELINE used to show how events occurred chronologically through a long bar labeled with dates and
specific events. Can be linear or comparative
a. LINEAR TIMELINE shows how events happened within one period
b. COMPARATIVE TIMELINE shows two sets of events that happened within the same period
6. PLOT DIAGRAM used to map events in the story. Used to analyze the major parts of a plot
7. SERIES OF EVENTS CHAIN used to show the logical sequence of events
8. FISHBONE MAP used to better understand the causal relationship of a complex phenomenon. Shows
the factors that cause a specific event or problem, as well as details of each cause
9. CYCLE describes how a series of events interact to produce a set of results repeatedly. Some examples
of events that require a cycle are water cycle, metamorphosis, and poverty cycle.
10. PERSUASION MAP used to map out arguments and evidence that prove a viewpoint. Is especially
useful when processing persuasive or argumentative texts
11. OUTLINE considered as a plan for writing; a summary that gives the essential feature of a text. Shows
how the parts of a text are related to one another as parts that are of equal importance, or sections
that are subordinate to a main idea.
TWO OUTLINE FORMATS
1. ALPHANUMERIC OUTLINE uses both letters and numbers as labels
2. DECIMAL OUTLINE uses only numbers as labels
PRINCIPLES OF OUTLINING
1. COORDINATION requires ideas of the same relevance to be labeled in the same way
2. SUBORDINATION shows that minor details have to be placed under their respective major details
3. DIVISION requires that no cluster should contain only one item
4. PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION requires all entries in each cluster to use the same structure and format
KINDS OF OUTLINE ACCORDING TO STRUCTURE
1. TOPIC OUTLINE a systematic arrangement of ideas using broad topics in the form of words or simple
phrases as headers
2. SENTENCE OUTLINE also known as expanded outline. Uses complete sentences as its entries