The Relation of Speech to Reading and Writing *

The difference in naturalness between speech and reading/writing is an important fact for the psychology of language and the obvious point of departure for understanding the processes of literacy, yet it cannot be accounted for by the conventional theory of speech. Because this theory allows no linguistic specialization at the level of perception and action, it necessarily implies that the primary representations of speech are just like those of reading/writing: neither is specifically linguistic, hence both must first be translated into linguistic form if they are to serve a linguistic function. Thus, the effect of the conventional theory is to put speech and reading/writing at the same cognitive remove from language and so make them equally unnatural.