Orality and Literacy
What do we mean by orality and literacy? We have come up with a few definitions to help our fellow teachers understand what we are aiming to address. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “orality” simply means oral speech. Other definitions include that orality is primarily the main source of communication in societies that have not been introduced to advanced technologies, including writing.
What WE mean by orality is the way people speak. Even though the US is an almost completely literate nation, we still consider orality as fundamental to the education process because the way people speak is the way people think. The way people think is the way they write. This brings us to literacy.
“Literacy,” according to Merriam-Webster, is simply having the ability to read and write. We’d like to stretch this definition a little to include a definition from Thomas Beronneau: “Literacy is the capacity to accomplish a wide range of reading, writing, speaking, and other language tasks associated with everyday life.”
We would like to think that literacy and orality are active parts of life that sometimes require attention in the classroom; to emphasize, to question, to describe, and to use as tools to engage with each other.
What WE mean by orality is the way people speak. Even though the US is an almost completely literate nation, we still consider orality as fundamental to the education process because the way people speak is the way people think. The way people think is the way they write. This brings us to literacy.
“Literacy,” according to Merriam-Webster, is simply having the ability to read and write. We’d like to stretch this definition a little to include a definition from Thomas Beronneau: “Literacy is the capacity to accomplish a wide range of reading, writing, speaking, and other language tasks associated with everyday life.”
We would like to think that literacy and orality are active parts of life that sometimes require attention in the classroom; to emphasize, to question, to describe, and to use as tools to engage with each other.