Task #3
This week's task was to examine the differences between oral and written language patterns by recording an unscripted, 5-minute long story using a voice-to-text app.
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Then look at the resulting text and identify the general patterns that make the story deviate from written conventions
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So let the fun begin...
tell the moment he decided that he would go in there anyway since that's his stick so that was another little fast jog Sprint along the bank so luckily seems to know how to get himself to the bank but there's more it's less and less of an off-leash park for him when there's lots of rain or water or whether it's spring run off and now since we didn't we don't quite trust his judgment our recent trip to Tofino involve trying to find a life jacket for a 100 pound dog that makes women sizes for small dogs but you got some interesting looks when you want a life jacket for a dog that size but with the undertow in the current on some of the the beaches we didn't want to take a chance cuz he'll start swimming off anywhere and that sort of my wild and crazy story about my surfing dog Stanley I hope this was five minutes thanks very much bye bye I don't know how to end this okay the end. white water rafting dog Stanley damn he's kind of an older dog that I picked up after my last dog passed I was actually going to go get a small black and white puppy from the SPCA and came home with a hundred pound 6 year old Mastiff boxer cross so since he's a rescue he had a few issues and one of the things as he doesn't even understand in the least about water and lakes and tides and streams so living in nice and I often take him walking in the cold Bridgman park with the Lynn Creek now most of the time, oh wow, is work. now most of the time in Creek is pretty dry and you can go along the riverbed in the water is not too deep for anything but it sometimes there's a spring around Ross and it's pretty deep with Rapids that you have some kayakers going down there and stuff so we it's an off-leash Park so we've gone hiking with the dogs off leash in is we got near the river he bounds down to the river and I guess he's got no clue about Rapids Whitewater next thing I know he's outstanding on the rocks or he's not supposed to be in kind of very excited about it and not returning one called which is a whole other issue and slips off the Rocks right into the rapid so he's spending around the Rapids and going Downstream at a pretty high speed I don't think I was new even though I was fit at the time that I could run that fast 200 yards down some of the path of the woods to find access down to the creek and look for what I thought would be my ground dog or my broken dog and he did okay by the time I got down there he was out of the water and it has has goofy grin on his face with a look that kind of said hey did you see how fast I can swim so that was the first time which kind of freaked me out so I was a little bit more careful and when the Creeks pretty full he stays on leash cuz he just does not get that he's not a swimmer he's a as I said he's a boxer Mastiff cross so he's mostly all muscle with no fat he doesn't really float at the best of the times but he thinks he's great at it the second time a bit more careful but we're kind of throwing sticks into the shallow part of the water and one of my friends who what station ever have a career in baseball through a stick in it went on this other side of the log where there were some Rapids or some fast-moving water anyways and you can see him at one side of the log staring at it staring at it with us yelling at him don't do it and you could tell the moment he decided that he would go in there anyway since that's his stick so that was another little fast jog Sprint along the bank so luckily seems to know how to get himself to the bank but there's more it's less and less of an off-leash park for him when there's lots of rain or water or whether it's spring run off and now since we didn't we don't quite trust his judgment our recent trip to Tofino involve trying to find a life jacket for a 100 pound dog that makes women sizes for small dogs but you got some interesting looks when you want a life jacket for a dog that size but with the undertow in the current on some of the the beaches we didn't want to take a chance cuz he'll start swimming off anywhere and that sort of my wild and crazy story about my surfing dog Stanley I hope this was five minutes thanks very much bye bye I don't know how to end this okay the end.
Text to Speech Analysis
Well, that was a great way to take an amusing story that I’ve told many times and turn it into a non-event. Usually, when telling it people are engaged and laughing. I’m not sure about anyone else but I had quite a time reading it through and keeping track of what I was saying, I disengaged pretty quickly. So, what happened?
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The issues seem to come from two categories; issues with text to speech, and the difference between oral storytelling and written language.
What are the most common "mistakes" in the text?
Why do you consider these "mistakes"?
For this assignment, I used Google Docs and its text to speech tool. It seemed quite simple just click on the microphone and start talking. I can do that, I’m a great talker. What emerged wasn’t quite what I expected. There was a somewhat disconnected story and a bunch of random words that were thrown at the screen. I’ve just been marking student papers at BCIT and what I saw was making my skin itch. The text was quite colourful as Grammarly desperately tried to fix the errors.
As an experiment, I decided to see how long it would take to edit. There was a complete lack of punctuation. This lack of punctuation completely took away from the ebb and flow of the story. It makes me realize that punctuation is one of the ‘tools’ that we use in written language to shape meaning. A period so that in reading there is a little pause for the next idea or point. A comma to signal that two ideas are related. Then there were the misinterpreted words. The simple ones ‘one’ vs. ‘when’, ‘in’ vs. ‘and’ could turn the story illegible. It makes me wonder how we so easily distinguish between two same sounding words in oral storytelling? Then the bigger misinterpretations. ‘Spring around ross’ was actually spring run-off’, this completely takes the story off track making absolutely no sense at all to the reader. ‘Oh wow is work’ doesn’t even make sense to me, I have no idea what was said. There was also quite a bit of random capitalizing of words that interrupts the storyline. Again, capitalizing is a written language tool to let the reader know that this word is important or formal, in oral storytelling gestures or changes is voice transmit meaning. I think oral storytelling doesn’t translate very well straight to text because of the differences in tools to convey meaning to the audience. So calling them ‘mistakes’ might be a misnomer as it is actually a difference in the tools we use.
In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?
Interestingly when I began working on this assignment I had a bit of difficulty with the ‘unscripted’ part of the task. Initially, to me, it meant not writing anything down, no bullet points or organization. What I did find is that I was scripting my story in my head throughout the day; practicing what I would say and trying to get it right and consistent. The scripting in my head was trying to put the story together in the way I would for written language. It brings to mind Walter Ong’s video that talks about how a literate culture can’t even begin to understand how a solely oral culture uses language. So, I switched to a story that was unscripted and only practiced by the fact that I had told it to friends.
The first issue that emerged was that I had to slow down my speech in order for the speech to text program to keep up. Orally, I talk in run-on sentences, my oral grammar structure is completely different to what I would write. I was surprised by the language that I used; most mystifying was using ‘tides/streams when I actually meant river/ rapids. Also, much of my spoken language is broken up into small ideas and differing tangents. Starting one sentence (idea) then jumping to a different topic in the middle and then returning to the original point. Somehow when storytelling everyone is able to keep up and track multiple ideas, while written language seems much more linear. My story also moves back and forth in while speaking, but causes confusion when written. Written language seems to have much more of a beginning-middle-end format. I think this is in part due to the restricted number of cues inwritten language. I noticed as I spoke that I used tone, volume, cadence, and my hand gestures as I told the story. There was also a lack of cues from others as I was speaking that hindered the telling of the story. Oral language seems to be much more nuanced with a large variety of cues we can use to add meaning and emphasis for the listener. What’s funny is I felt the need to add pictures to my story to and meaning, clarity or interest?
The speech to text just didn’t get across what I wanted to say.
What would you have done differently if you have had the chance to script the story?
The first thing would be the planning and many edits before I was ready. A plot that was linear, with specific words to say and use. In fact, there would have been a whole script to read out loud. At work, we’ve done some instructional videos for students. Not once has it worked to just talk into the microphone; instead, we have the text completely written out ready to read into the microphone for the voice over. However, that wouldn’t be ‘speech to text’ it would have turned into ‘text to speech to text’.
Secondly, I would have spent more than 30 sec to learning to use the speech to text program. Near the end, I realized I could say ‘period’, ‘comma’, ‘next line’ in order to insert punctuation into the text and manage some of the resulting chaos. However, that would be quite fragmenting in the telling of the story. It’s no longer storytelling, it’s dictating.
In summary, this was a great experience in learning with a new application I hadn’t tried before.
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It makes me wonder about the future. As the use of artificial intelligence grows and develop…
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Will it be able to bridge between oral storytelling and written language?
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Will it one day be able to read and interpret my gestures, facial expression, the pauses and changes in tone/volume of my speech to create a written text that conveys my meaning?
I can’t wait to see….
White Water Stanley
(the dictated story)
Hi there my name is Eva and I want to tell you a story about my Hi there my name is Eva and I want to tell you a story about my super white water rafting dog Stanley damn he's kind of an older dog that I picked up after my last dog passed I was actually going to go get a small black and white puppy from the SPCA and came home with a hundred pound 6 year old Mastiff boxer cross so since he's a rescue he had a few issues and one of the things as he doesn't even understand in the least about water and lakes and tides and streams so living in nice and I often take him walking in the cold Bridgman park with the Lynn Creek now most of the time, oh wow, is work. now most of the time in Creek is pretty dry and you can go along the riverbed in the water is not too deep for anything but it sometimes there's a spring around Ross and it's pretty deep with Rapids that you have some kayakers going down there and stuff so we it's an off-leash Park so we've gone hiking with the dogs off leash in is we got near the river he bounds down to the river and I guess he's got no clue about Rapids Whitewater next thing I know he's outstanding on the rocks or he's not supposed to be in kind of very excited about it and not returning one called which is a whole other issue and slips off the Rocks right into the rapid so he's spending around the Rapids and going Downstream at a pretty high speed I don't think I was new even though I was fit at the time that I could run that fast 200 yards down some of the path of the woods to find access down to the creek and look for what I thought would be my ground dog or my broken dog and he did okay by the time I got down there he was out of the water and it has has goofy grin on his face with a look that kind of said hey did you see how fast I can swim so that was the first time which kind of freaked me out so I was a little bit more careful and when the Creeks pretty full he stays on leash cuz he just does not get that he's not a swimmer he's a as I said he's a boxer Mastiff cross so he's mostly all muscle with no fat he doesn't really float at the best of the times but he thinks he's great at it the second time a bit more careful but we're kind of throwing sticks into the shallow part of the water and one of my friends who what station ever have a career in baseball through a stick in it went on this other side of the log where there were some Rapids or some fast-moving water anyways and you can see him at one side of the log staring at it staring at it with us yelling at him don't do it and you could
