a self-built database of spoken english. Right or not?

[junminzh]

these days i focused on a topic about spoken english. Since i got a sudden idea to study the issue with English speeches, i collected hundreds of English speeches delivered by English native speaker. These speeches cover economy,military,policitics and life issues.
The following is my question.
1.can this self-built database of spoken english serve my study ?
2. is speech a special branch of spoken english,or does it belong to spoken english?


looking forward to your reply!

thousands of thanks!!

[xiaoz]

In the BNC, such data would be included in the context-governed section of spoken part.

[junminzh]

3x.

[laohong]

It depends on how you define "spoken English". The speeches you collected are a part of spoken English genre, but they are not really "spoken" -- given the fact that they are mostly scripted speeches, in another words, written for speech.

For your reference, here is how ICE-GB categorizes its text types:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/ice/textcats.htm

[xujiajin]

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/