Why Speech Is Natural?
Although speech and writing both begin developing in the early years, speech is more innate. In “Writing Is Not Natural,” Dylan B. Dryer asserts that learning how to speak is natural, but learning how to write is not a natural process. The author states that the speech is natural because we have been speaking to one another for an average of a hundred thousand years. Historical evidence suggests that the larynx has adapted over time to allow for remarkable and expressive range of speech. For instance, children are natural speakers in their native language. It is natural for adults to encourage early sounds and beginning language in young children because speech is natural for all ages, but writing requires more effort.
Working with young children makes me agree with the author’s idea that writing is not natural based specifically in her statement that “Almost all children acquire expressive fluency in their native language[s] and how eagerly seemingly involuntarily most adults participate in children’s efforts at language acquisition.” I have observed by spending time with young children in the school environment that children are natural speakers in their native language. They can tell me stories without any assistance all day long if I allow them to do it. However, they spend almost the whole semester practicing writing their names. This happens because speech is natural, but writing is not.
“Almost all children acquire expressive fluency in their native language[s] and how eagerly seemingly involuntarily most adults participate in children’s efforts at language acquisition.”
How Does Writing Differ from Speech?
Despite writing and speech having similar characteristics, writing is vastly different from speech. Dylan B. Dryer acknowledges that the process of writing is a combination of codes and symbols to produce the written word. Consequently, speech and thought are interpreted into words that are visual and can be read. However, not all languages have written symbols. There are some languages in the world that are only vocal languages.
Why Writing Is Not Natural?
Writing is also considered technology according to Walter Ong, who is pointed out by Dylan B. Dryer in his article because of Ong’s knowledge of technological dimension of writing. Walter Ong concluded that the skill of writing is considered technology because it uses a variety of different writing tools. His philosophy is that any physical tool that people use to advance our society is technology. Therefore, writing words with a tool would be technology according to the article. Most importantly though is the fact that people must practice writing and put an effort into learning to write while using these writing tools. A young child must practice writing the letters of the alphabet before he/she can begin to write words or sentences. Even though later we learn many skills and become very proficient in typing on a keyboard while creating multiple page documents, writing always requires a certain amount of effort. It takes practice to interpret speech and thought into our words every time we write. Unlike speech, writing is not natural because it requires thought and work.
