REHABILITATING ORACY IN THE 21 ST CENTURY

1. REHABILITATING ORACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY Austin Bukenya

2. ‘You’re a very bad man’

3. What is Oracy? • The skill of the spoken word • The competent and productive use of speech • One of the pillars of verbal communication Skill of the word Oracy Literacy spoken written

4. Oracy and Literacy Comparisons Spoken word proficiency Written word proficiency Writing Letter (littera) –Latin Literacy Literate Illiterate literature • Speech • Mouth (os – or-is) –Latin • Oracy • Orate • Inorate • orature

5. Main argument: Oracy Neglected • Few efforts made to develop oracy • Apparent overconcentration on literacy • ‘Basic education’ assumed to comprise ‘3Rs’: reading writing reckoning • Preferably, a basic education should comprise: oracy literacy numeracy • Neglect of oracy due to false assumptions

6. Correcting false assumptions • Oracy is not ‘natural’: it has to be mastered • Oracy is not a ‘stage’ from which we graduate • Oracy is not ‘optional’ in communication • Oracy is not ‘subservient’ to literacy

7. The need for rehabilitation • African society/civilization basically orate • Urbanization and population concentration • Dominance of multimedial communication • Governance, democratization, empowerment • Parlous state of oracy

8. A dumb and inorate generation • Averse to talking: not talking to one another • Rude and crude: speech is coarse and impolite • Loud and noisy: loud is ‘might’? Shouts and outbursts • The electronic menace: amplifying the inoracy

9. Dire consequences of inoracy • Selfishness/self-centredness • Alienation: inability to relate to society and environment • Dictatorship and bad governance: tear gas discourse • Corruption: money will talk if tongues and mouths cannot • Violence: including, especially, domestic violence

10. Possible action • Advocacy: raising awareness of oracy • Education: work oracy into language teaching • Socialization: practical application of oracy • Engineering: proactive promotion of oracy