A Counter-Revolution

1. A Counter-Revolution A Counter-Revolution Part Two Understanding Orality and Literacy in an Age of Post-Literacy and Secondary Orality Sept. ‘01

2. Understanding Learning and Communication Styles

3. Basic to working with oral communicators is an understanding of how oral and literate communicators learn. People cannot be simply classified as literate and illiterate. You see, the issue just doesn’t have something to do with the ability to read and write.

4. There are stages between the primary illiterate who cannot ‘see’ a word and the highly literate who uses words as a common tool of communication. The ramifications of this affect learning styles, communication preferences and decision making.

5. Each stage in the process from illiteracy to the level of accomplished literacy is significantly different from the others. For effective communication to occur, individuals who have attained different levels of literacy should be communicated with in a style that matches their preferences.

6. Not only does the status of a person change as they progress from oral communication levels to literate communication levels, but their style of communication drastically changes as well.

7. Oral communicators are not comfortable with, and cannot easily understand information that comes in the form of outlines, precepts, principles, and steps in a process. It is difficult, if not impossible, for them to engage in true analysis.

8. They cannot outline and reduce bodies of information to ‘bottom line’ statements. Oral communicators prefer that information come to them in the form of narratives or stories. They cannot handle information that comes to them by other means.

9. In fact, if they have a teaching, a concept, or a principle they want to remember, they will wrap it in a story. Narrative styles are the common vehicles that oral communicators use to process and ‘carry around’ information.

10. Expositional presentations such as outlines, steps, principles, or lists of any kind are formidable obstacles for them. They find it difficult to understand them, and certainly cannot recall them. They cannot use what they cannot recall...

11. KNOWLEDGE FOR ORAL COMMUNICATORS, AND ESPECIALLY ILLITERATES, CONSISTS ONLY OF WHAT CAN BE RECALLED!

12. THERE ARE TWO IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS:

13. First, oral communicators can learn as well as literate people. Their ability to learn is just as good as a literate’s, and their memory is superior to the average literate person’s memory.

14. The problem is not that of learning, but of the presentation format through which information comes to them. Information must come to oral communicators through stories, parables, poems, music / songs, and other similar formats. FORMAT IS THE KEY FOR THEM!

15. Second, and conversely, most literates mistakenly believe that if they can outline the information or put it into a series of steps or principles, anyone, including oral communicators, can understand it and recall it.

16. That is a misconception about learning and how different individuals process information! Most oral communicators do not understand outlines, steps, or principles, and they certainly cannot remember them.

17. For that matter, neither can the literates! But they store information in notes and can ‘look it up’ to refresh their memories!

18. Illiterates cannot ‘look up’ anything, and they have no personal means of refreshing their memories if they have forgotten something! A good proverb to remember is: When a bushman dies, a whole library is lost!

19. In a world of illiterates, we are the learning disabled.

20. FIVE LEARNING STYLES

21. Oral Communicator Illiterate ILLITERATE • Cannot read or write • Has never “seen” a word • Words have no exact meaning • Words are bits of sounds and pictures, not objects • Oral communicator • The story is their dominant communication style.

22. Oral Communicator Functional Illiterate FUNCTIONAL ILLITERATE • Began to read, dropped out before grade 8, stoped reading and writing • Two years later, may read simple materials but no longer receives, recalls, or reproduces concepts • Values are not transmitted through literacy • Counsidered to be literate by every country • Oral communicator • The story is their dominant communication style.

23. Oral Communicator Semi- Illiterate SEMI- LITERATE • Progressed to grade 10+, generally high school graduate • Functions in a gray transitional zone between orality and literacy • Usually uses maginal skills in one context- ie. work • Counsidered to be literate by every country and school system • Prefers oral communication • Learns best and comfortably via oral communication

24. Print Communicator Literate LITERATE • Sometimes functional literacy • Continued to use reading and writing beyond grade 10 • Can summarize what is read and heard, lists important points • Usually uses maginal skills in one context- ie. work • Comfortable with literate formats • Learns and handles concepts in a literate manner • Appreciates and responds to oral communication

25. Print Communicator Highly Literate HIGHLY LITERATE • Daily develops literate skills • Has usually attended college or university • Often are professionals in liberal arts fields • Usually surrenders oral communication skills • A thoroughly word cultured, literate communnicator • Usually retains an appreciation for oral communicatrion and responds to it with understanding

27. How literate are the people YOU work with? What is their learning style? How do you decide?

33. How do you determine where your people are concerning their learning styles?

34. How do you determine where your people are concerning their learning styles? Do you know how American adults measure up?

35. How do you determine where your people are concerning their learning styles? Do you know how American adults measure up?

36. There is an Orality Assessment Tool which helps answers these questions about your people group! developed by Lynne Abney of NAME’s Media Strategy Support Team

37. There is an Orality Assessment Tool which helps answers these questions about your people group! developed by Lynne Abney of NAME’s Media Strategy Support Team

38. It will help you determine where a people fall on this continuum?

39. NOW, what can you do with this information?

41. Illiterates, functional illiterates, and semi-literates require all or much narration and no to little exposition in their learning styles.

43. As one becomes literate, he or she is able to handle more and more exposition. Even the highly literate, though, appreciates some forms of oral communication!

44. We have been discussing what many of you know as the LEARNING GRID, developed by Jim Slack of the IMB. It has been presented in association with Lynne Abney’s ORALITY ASSESMENT TOOL. In other presentations such as IMB Storying Workshops and To The Edge meetings, the grid may look like this:

45. THE LEARNING GRID