Who are oral culture people?
Oral culture people prefer to assimilate information orally and visually. They may be able to read a little, but they do not process information or learn by reading books, newspapers, pamphlets or billboards. They learn from talking and interacting with others. Oral culture people are very relational. They learn in community. The entire fabric of their society is oral. Their history is usually told in story form, the boundaries of the village put into song, the decisions of a village or district made in community, and their moral code passed on in proverbs and folktales.
Read Paper on the differences between Oral and Lettered Cultures.
How many oral culture people are there in the world today?
According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics, there are approximately 1 billion adult illiterates in the world today—they cannot read. This number is significantly understated as most of the data comes from self-reporting studies and governments who use a very broad definition for literacy. For example, Malaysia, counts anyone age 10 or over who has ever enrolled in school as being literate. A more accurate number of adult illiterates is closer to 1.3 billion.
However, illiteracy statistics do not fully grasp the magnitude. The issue is not merely concerning those who cannot read. The ‘functionally illiterate’ or semi-literate may read or sound out words, but generally do not comprehend the message. For example, when handed a prescription a semi-literate may be able to ‘read’ the words, but not understand the instructions for dosage and frequency.
So when considering the total number of oral culture adults, functionally illiterates, semi-literates, and even some literates who prefer to learn orally, should be added. While hard data is not available, many orality experts believe that the total number of oral culture adults could be as high as 2 billion or about 60% of the world’s adult population.
Amazingly, more people are born and remain in the world of orality than there are people taught how to read. This is in spite of all the wonderful literacy training initiatives and programs that exist in the world today. If current trends continue, by the year 2050, there will be more oral culture adults in the world than there are adults living today.
How do oral culture people learn?
Oral culture people receive, process, and retain information in very different ways than do lettered culture people. Oral culture people only know what they can remember and reproduce from memory at a given moment of need. Conversely, lettered cultured people tend to feel they ‘know’ whatever they have been exposed to and whatever is available to them in their notes, files, computers, materials and books. It does not matter whether the information can be recalled from memory or not. Instead of carrying ‘known’ information in notes, files, and computers, oral learners house and carry their information in their memory or in their friend’s memory. Lettered culture people use libraries. Oral cultured people use the community. The live in community; they process information as a community; and they act on information as a community.
Most of the world’s teaching materials have been written by literates for literates. Unfortunately, when those materials are used among oral cultured people, they remain disconnected from that content. It is seldom ‘heard.’ Oral culture people prefer to learn through stories, proverbs, poetry, chants, music, dances, and ceremonies compatible with their cultural presentation style. They do not understand information when it is presented to them by means of outlines, principles, precepts, lists, steps, and logically developed discourses. An oral culture person’s patterns of learning are completely different from lettered and word culture patterns. An oral pattern is indirect through story compared to a literate’s pattern of direct and to the point. Oral culture people respond to people and their stories rather than abstract facts or concepts. They often think lettered cultured people are rude and abrupt.
Example: Among the Hausa in Nigeria, many programs have tried to communicate the need to stop HIV/AIDS before it destroys the entire village. It starts slowly, but eventually affects everyone. Typically, programs present the ?facts? about the number of deaths and the growing rate of infections. But the ‘facts’ have little impact on the rural villagers who are mostly oral learners.
However, using familiar Hausa proverbs and stories is much more effective. There is a Hausa proverb that says: “Never wait to cut down the grass until it sticks you in the eye.” When villagers hear the proverb they immediately understand that HIV/AIDS is a ‘growing’ problem that must be stopped early. It is just like cutting down the grass in advance before it grows tall and hides snakes and other dangers. Ignoring HIV/AIDS is like letting grass grow too tall.