Studying Spoken Language: Variation and Context

Nobody speaks one way

Most people arrive at this topic believing there is one correct way to speak, and that anything else is slang, laziness, or an accent getting in the way. That is not what is being studied. Nobody speaks one way. Think about how you talk to a grandparent, to your closest friend, to a stranger on the phone, and to a teacher you do not know well. Those are four different performances by the same person in a single day, and none of them is the real version of you. Those changes are systematic rather than careless. They follow patterns, they are made for reasons, and the reasons can be described. That is the whole of this unit: not deciding whether something is correct English, but working out what a speaker is doing and what it gets them. So carry one question through everything here: who is this person talking to, and what does this choice do for them? How to speak well yourself, and how to handle a discussion or a presentation, is the other part of this course.

Five words that let you be precise

These are not labels to recite. They exist so you can say exactly WHAT is varying, which is the difference between an observation and a vague impression.

Two moments where the speaker shifts

The same person speaks five times in one afternoon. Tap the TWO where they have clearly changed how they are speaking to suit who is listening.

• Talking to a close friend: quick, overlapping, half-finished sentences that the friend completes
• Answering a call from an unknown number: slower, fuller sentences, every word finished, a more careful pronunciation
• Talking to a sibling in the same room, in exactly the way they always do
• Explaining something to a small child: shorter sentences, simpler words, more repetition, a warmer tone
• Muttering to themselves while looking for their keys

Two students write about the same recording

Both listen to a recording of somebody talking to their family at home. One writes that the speaker uses non-standard grammar because they have not been taught properly. The other writes that the speaker uses forms shared across their area, and uses them consistently. Which is the stronger answer, and why?

• The second, because it describes what is actually there and notes that the forms are used consistently, which is evidence of a system rather than of mistakes
• The first, because it explains why the speaker talks that way
• Both are equally valid, since they are just different opinions
• Neither, because you should not comment on how people speak at all

Describing, and judging

Every mark in this unit is on the left. The right column is what most people do by instinct, and it cannot be supported from a recording.

Five situations, five different moves

How to study a piece of speech

You have a recording of real conversation to analyse. Put the stages in a sensible order.

• Establish the context first: who is speaking, to whom, where, and why
• Listen once without writing anything, to hear it as a whole
• Listen again and note specific features you can point to, with no judgement attached
• Check which features happen repeatedly, since consistency marks a pattern rather than a slip
• Ask what each pattern achieves for the speaker in this particular situation
• Write it up using the precise terms, so somebody else could find the same features

What actually earns the marks

Three habits, and the third is the one that separates a strong answer from a confident one. Quote the feature, then say what it does. Not "the speaker uses informal language", which could be written without listening to anything. Name the actual thing that happened and say what it achieved with that listener. Check whether it repeats. A feature that happens once may be nothing. A feature that happens every time the speaker addresses a particular person is a pattern, and patterns are what you can build an argument on. ⭐ And be exact about where a judgement lives. It is true that people are judged on how they speak, and that those judgements have real consequences for them. That is a fact about listeners, not about the variety. An answer that says so, in those terms, is doing sociolinguistics. An answer that calls a way of speaking lazy or wrong has simply repeated the judgement instead of describing it, and there are no marks for that.

Idiolect, sociolect or dialect

For each observation, decide which kind of variation it describes. Three lives.

What you wear on a Tuesday

Think about somebody you know and what they wear. Not one outfit: all of them. What they wear to work, what they put on the moment they get home, what they wear to a wedding, what they wear to walk to the shop in the rain. Nobody would say one of those is the real version of them and the others are mistakes. Nobody argues that turning up to a wedding in the coat you wear to the bins is more honest. Everyone understands, without being taught, that people dress for the occasion and for who will be there, and that doing so is ordinary rather than dishonest. And everybody can read it. You can tell a great deal from what somebody has chosen to put on: how formal they think the occasion is, which group they want to be read as part of, whether they are trying to blend in or stand out. ⭐ Now notice something uncomfortable. People do get judged on clothes, sometimes harshly and often unfairly. When that happens, we do not usually conclude that the clothes were wrong. We notice that somebody was doing the judging.

What makes it analysis

A student has written "the speaker uses informal language when talking to their friend". Select every addition that would genuinely turn it into analysis.

• Naming a specific thing that actually happens in the recording
• Saying whether it happens consistently or only once
• Explaining what it achieves with that particular listener
• Noting that it would not be acceptable in a formal situation
• Adding that the speaker should learn to speak more properly

Finish the language-study sentences

The way one particular person speaks, with their own habits and favourite phrases, is their _____. The shared way of speaking that grows up among people who spend time together, such as a team or a workplace, is a _____. The words and grammar used in a particular area make up its _____, which is not the same thing as accent, since accent is about pronunciation only. How formal or informal somebody is being, which the same speaker shifts within a single conversation, is _____. Moving your speech closer to the person you are talking to is _____. And the mark comes from _____ what a speaker does rather than from deciding whether it is correct.

Build the analysis

A student is writing about a recording of two people talking in a workplace. Assemble the sentence that would earn most.

One recording, four decisions

A student is preparing an investigation into spoken language. Each stage sets out where they are and hands you the decision.

• They plan to record a friend and write about the friend accent. Decide what is wrong with the plan as it stands.
• In the recording, the speaker shortens the end of a particular word twice out of about forty opportunities. Decide how to treat it.
• They notice the speaker sounds noticeably different on the phone to a stranger than at home. Decide what to do with it.
• A classmate says the study proves some people speak badly and should be taught to speak properly. Decide what to say.

Analyse your own variation

Think about two situations in which you speak quite differently. Describe what changes between them and explain what each version achieves, without deciding which is better.

• Describe the two situations, including who you are talking to in each
• Name TWO specific things that change between them, as precisely as you can
• Say whether each change is consistent, or happens only sometimes
• Explain what each version achieves with its listener
• Use at least two of the precise terms correctly
• Finish by explaining why neither version is the real you, and why calling one correct would not be analysis