Editing
While in spontaneous oral speech editing is impossible (a speaker may correct his mistakes but cannot delete them), in e-chat speech it can be accomplished, if there is time to re-read before submitting.
Interactivity
Immediate feedback and immediate correction of what has been said or written is possible in both cases. Also, the way in which a dialogue proceeds is not fixed beforehand and is adjusted in the process of communication. In this respect oral speech and e-chat speech differ from the majority of written genres.
Time versus Space
While oral speech unfolds in time, e-chat speech is both temporal and spatial.
Skills
Spontaneous oral speech requires ability to perceive auditory signals and articulate utterances in the given language. E-chat speech, in its turn, requires ability to read and type, as well as some computer literacy.
As is often pointed out, ability to speak and perceive oral speech is normally acquired by all humans who do not suffer from auditory, articulatory, cerebral or psychic deficiencies and develop these skills in a natural social environment; whereas reading, typing skills and computer literacy are less common in some regions of the world and on some social levels. In this sense, the fact that a person is able to communicate by means of instant messaging software provides certain information about that person’s level of development and environment (availability of computers, the Internet; time and opportunity to learn how to operate a computer, reading, typing, etc.).
Resources
From the point of view of resources used for the production and perception of utterances (using Theo Van Leeuwen’s terminology from “Introducing Social Semiotics”), the following conclusions may be made:
- resources would be mostly physical in case of spontaneous oral speech — vocal apparatus, muscles (for articulation of sounds, facial expressions, gestures and movements of the body);
- for e-chat speech both kinds of resources would be required: physical (vision, muscles (for typing)) and technical (a computer connected to the Internet, software).
Evanescence versus Protracted Availability
In this respect e-chat speech is close to written speech, because all completed utterances are generally available to both interlocutors throughout the conversation and may be saved for further use (while unrecorded spontaneous oral speech leaves lots of space for doubts and none for verification, e-chat speech is registered and thus available).