Question

What are the stages of language production? Which one of these stages is the most crucial? Why?
This is what I have thus far:
Language production refers to the process involved in creating and expressing meaning through language. The four stages in language production are conceptualizing (determining what it is we want to say), planning (organizing our thoughts in terms of language), articulating (executing the linguistic plan), and self-monitoring (keeping track of content and tone). First, we must conceptualize what we wish to communicate. Next, we formulate this thought into a linguistic plan. We then execute the plan through the muscles in the speech system. Finally, we monitor ore speech, assessing whether it is what we intended to say and whether we said it the way we intended to.
* What I am not sure of is which stage is the most crucial and why? I think they are all equally important.

Answer 1

I agree with equally important. I have listened to people who suffered from a lack of stage one (they didn't know what they intended to say, rambling). Perhaps encoding messages into linguistic form (stage 2) is most vital, but frankly, all are important.

Answer 2

Why would you consider encoding messages into linguistic form as the most important step?

Answer 3

If you don't "encode" properly or completely, no matter how good your thinking and planning, others will not understand your ideas.

Answer 4

I think all are important. Watch out for the decision trap.

http://www.members.cox.net/dagershaw/lol/DecisionTrap.html