There are several people I know that in the real world they are well spoken, use the right words, build proper sentences, all that jazz.
However, get them to type something up, and it’s like a bomb went off on the paper. Misspelled words (which I can understand) improper sentences, run-ons, completely omitted smaller words like: the, a, an, etc.
My question is, does writing use a completely different set of cognitive abilities than just speaking?
I think looking at words takes a whole different set of skills than listening to words. For example, look at how many people mix up there/their/they’re, etc. There are people who hear words better so when they see there/their/they’re, the wrong word doesn’t harm their comprehension.
(Translation for those people: They’re R people who here words better sew when they C there/their/they’re, the wrong word doesn’t harm there comprehension.)
People who see words better communicate better in writing. To me “their” and “there” are as different as “our” and “yonder”
Yes, completely different.
Oral language is acquired instinctively by all native speakers early in life, in an unconscious process sometimes called implicit learning. Contrary to popular belief, we do not learn basic oral language skills by rote copying, nor through parents or teachers explicitly “teaching” us rules. In fact, we learn generalized grammar rules well before we have any concept of what “rule” let alone “grammar” even means. We hear numerous examples of valid sentences from speakers in our environment, and we unconsciously and automatically infer generalized grammar rules and (to some degree) semantics. Most of us cannot articulate the rules we follow in building sentences, but we do follow them almost flawlessly. We seem to lose this ability later in childhood, that’s why acquiring fluency in a second language is much more difficult.
Written language, on the other hand, is learned explicitly, usually at school. By “explicitly”, I mean that the teacher explicitly states the rules & conventions, for example that certain written squiggles correspond to certain sounds in certain contexts, and we consciously try to understand the rules and when to apply them, and to reinforce what’s learned by conscious deliberate practice.
Thus, the word “literacy” primarily refers to written language skill. We may very in natural fluency, but everyone acquires oral language, whereas only those who are schooled acquire written language.
Of course, both oral and written language then progress in tandem through explicit learning at later stages of education, as we expand our vocabulary, learn rhetorical skills, develop an aesthetic appreciation of great writing and literature, etc.
There are in fact four different vocabularies and competencies.
Reading vs. writing and speaking vs. hearing.
You might think of these in relation to a foreign language. Being able to recognize some words on a page doesn’t mean you can write a sentence in another language. Knowing how to speak a few words doesn’t mean you can understand someone speaking rapidly and colloquially. Taking part in a fluent conversation also doesn’t imply that you could write it out grammatically.
In the case of English, of course, we set the spelling long ago and the pronunciation of many of the words has changed. Some languages have spelling reforms every so often to help keep the language phonetic. Plus, we borrow so many words from other languages which have different spelling norms than English does. You don’t need to postulate a different cognitive ability when you have such a screwed up system as we do.