Planning Strategies and Production of Spoken Discourse

The relationship between research on speech planning and production and the study of spoken discourse has often been difficult. This has much to do with the impossibility of direct observation of conceptualization processes and with the difficulties of researchers in achieving control over the production of speech. As such, the historical relationship between speech production and planning research and the study of spoken discourse has been strongly affected by the choice of methodology and data in language planning and production studies. Research characterized by the strict control of planning and production can only tenuously be generalized to account for natural communicative situations. Some studies try to combine observations taken from natural situations and the artificial controls which can be applied in a laboratory. Other more qualitatively inclined studies considering speech planning and production originate in the study of spontaneous spoken language and show a large amount of phenomena readily understandable taking into account the processes involved in the generation of real texts. Further integration of research on spoken discourse and speech planning and production could only serve to benefit greatly that analysis and improve the techniques employed to that end.