There is a lot of critique on Ong’s ‘Literacy and Orality’ but I think understanding and, in my case, teaching communication in English (both oral and written) to those who come from both oral and literate cultures (and are very often in the same classroom), is more of an area of interest and exploration.
The term “orality” refers to a culture and tradition existing without any writing or reading, contrary to literate cultures. It does not, however, describe these cultures as missing the key to social advancement.
Ong (1982) shows that many of the features that people have taken for granted in philosophy, science, and literature are not innately human, but rather have come into being by the restructuring of human consciousness due to the technology of writing, even before the development of full-fledged literate culture.
The data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2015) shows that worldwide “there are still 757 million adults including 115 million youths who cannot read or write a simple sentence.” (Thompson, L. W. (2015). Teaching Nonliterate Adults in Oral Cultures: Findings from Practitioners. Commission for International Adult Education).
Most nonliterate adults live in oral cultures where information and culture are transmitted in the same way they have been shared for centuries, using oral strategies.
A range of personal, economic, and political circumstances bring them to highly literate, industrialized societies where print literacy becomes not only desirable but necessary to earn a living and participate in a range of everyday activities. There is no doubt that the English teacher’s role becomes crucial and problematic. Moreover, different societies and social groups have different types of literacy and literacy has different social and mental effects in different social and cultural contexts.
”Despite the shortcomings in research and the cultural challenges, teachers must learn to see their refugee students’ oral culture as an asset, rather than a deficit, and learn how to utilize the particular characteristics of their students’ oral culture as a paradigm for teaching.” (Thompson, L. W. (2015). Teaching Nonliterate Adults in Oral Cultures: Findings from Practitioners. Commission for International Adult Education)
The orality brings both the unique assets and unique challenges to the English as a second language classroom.
In order to best incorporate orality in the classrooms and utilize appropriate pedagogies, teachers should first aim to understand the deeper cultural and mental characteristics of orality. According to Ong (1982), they are: Formulaic, Epithetic, Redundant, Traditional, Story-Based, Experiential.
In order for students to reach their potential as active and successful learners accustoming to a new society, teachers of students from oral cultures first must use the characteristics of orality as the paradigm itself through which their students learn and ultimately as a bridge for oral students to adapt to a literate culture.
’Research shows clearly that culture impacts learning, and that students learn best when taught in ways that correspond to their culture, languages, and socioeconomic realities.’ (Herrera & Murray, 2016; Ovando & Combs, 2016).
References:
Keller, P. (2016). The Pedagogical Implications of Orality on Refugee ESL Students (Doctoral dissertation, Greensboro College Professional and Graduate School).
Thompson, L. W. (2015). Teaching Nonliterate Adults in Oral Cultures: Findings from Practitioners. Commission for International Adult Education.
Walter, O. (1982). Orality and literacy. The technologizing of the word, TJPress, London.
