Spoken language vs written language

Thes is statement:

It is more difficult to understand the spoken language than the written language for some reasons.

Annotated Bibliography

Ridgway, T. (2000). Listening strategies- I beg your pardon? ELT Journal Volume 54/2

Oxford: Oxford University Press

In the essay, Tony Ridgway writes about the basic differences between the spoken and the written language, furthermore, he clarifies the main disparities between spoken and written texts. In the centre of his work, he examines wheter the the skills and strategies which people use during reading could be transported into listening. In a separate paragraph, he explains what startegy means exactly, because according to him, there is confusion with it. Ridgway deals with the question of conscious listening and direct listening strategy, because in his view, it is impossible to do it directly. Afterwards, he tells his opinion about the importance of practising. At last, he explains the “authentic” texts, which means that realistic situations should appear in listening tasks. At the end, Ridgway summarises the topic of the essay in the practical consequences.

Field, J. (2000). ‘Not waving but drowning’: a reply to Tony Ridgway ELT Journal Volume 54/2

Oxford: Oxford University Press

In his essay, John Field deals with the same topic like Tony Ridgway, but he has a different opinion, so this is a critical reflection. There are ideas of Ridgway in which Field agrees with him, but not so many. He rather lists the assuptions of Ridgway, for example equality of texts, the question of transferring skills from the first language into the second, and the problem with simplified texts. Furthermore, he introduces two types of students: the risk-taker and the risk-avoider. He also expresses dissatisfaction about some definitions of Ridgway, like strategy, strategy types and skills. Afterwards, he summarises Ridgway’s main arguments and writes his own opinion about them. At the end of the essay, he explains Ridgway’s solution and tells, why he cannot agree with him.

The National Capital Language Resource Center. (2003, 2004) Strategies for Developing Listening Skills. Teaching Listening. Washington, DC

Retrieved from http://

The target of this article is to help students developing their listening strategies. According to the writer, listening is a really important part of language learning, but it needs to improve it. Students can easily generate better results with the following strategies: “top-down”, which means a listener based strategy, when students are familiar with the background of the text, and “bottom-up”, which means a text based strategy, when students listening for specific details and word-order patterns. The writer also mentions a “metacognitive” strategy, which means the preparation for the listening method and evaluate it. Afterwards, four basis steps are given to realize the aim: listening to meaning. These steps include figuration the purpose, selection the relevant pieces, selection an appropiate strategy and check of comprehension.