Spoken and written language: Some differences

Commentary on Teaching Activity 9.9:
Vague language is obviously very important for learners. They can
use it to make up for vocabulary items they do not know or are not
sure of. There are a few vague language items which can be used in
a range of contexts. The phrases sort of and kind of can be used
with virtually any adjectival expression. About and or so can be
used with numbers and quantities, as can expressions like just
under, just over, not more / less than. The suffix -ish can be added
to colours and to common adjectives like big, small, old and young.
If we are not sure of the right word for something we can choose a
similar word and add the word thing. So a computer monitor can
be described as a television thing or a sort of television thing. It is
not difficult to equip learners with a good basis for vague language.
Once you have done this it is useful to point out other examples of
vague language as they occur.
Rules, Patterns and Words
210

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grammars based on standard written forms. But once we have made
spontaneous spoken language available in the classroom we can begin
to work systematically at introducing learners to the characteristics of
spoken language in the ways proposed here. 
The grammar of spoken English
211