The study of speech processes : addressing the writing bias in language science For many readers of the present work the notion that language is separate from speech (or that language competence is separate from performance) will likely have been acquired in an introductory course to language study. This notion can have a major influence on how language is conceptualized and presents a central tenet in the field. In examining introductory texts used by generations of students (e.g. the multiple editions of Akmajian Demers Farmer et al. 2010; Fromkin Rodman & Hyams 2013 and others) one finds typical arguments for distinguishing speech from language. These arguments serve to specify not only the object of study but also how to study it. However all these arguments it should be pointed out once more involve written material