Teaching Oral Learners (IIliterates)

Orality refers to the style of communication between individuals and generations that functions without the use of a writing system. However, it is a deeper concept than the mere absence of writing. It produces its own thought forms and processes that constitute ways of learning, conceptualising, and communicating that are quite distinct from those of literate thinkers and communicators. Oral thought processes are less linear, and logic is associative rather than deductive and sequential. Orality also affects worldview, particularly in the area of truth perception. For literates “truth is seen as consisting in facts... An oral culture is characterised by relational, face-to-face communication using stories, proverbs, drama, songs, chants, poetry and others forms of participative, communal and interactive events. - Quote from Missiopedia.

I have found this quote to be quite true. The longer that I work with people that are not literate, partially literate, or post-literate (someone that reads and writes but mostly uses others means to learn and communicate) I see that their oral thinking makes them very different to reach.

The first time that this idea really hit me was just a few months ago. I have worked with partially literate people for year here in Ghana, but it is harder to see the difference in these groups. Partially literates are better at hiding the fact that they do not understand, since most of them have been placed in circumstances with mostly literate people. The night I finally relieved the important of understanding how to teach oral learners was not an easy experience.

I was at the shanty village in Kaase, trying to teach on the difference between evil spirits and the Holy Spirit. (Many groups and people here give the Holy Spirit credit for actions and powers that the Bible says belong to demons). Most of the lesson was deductive. I would give examples from the Bible of people with demons and show how they would act. Then showing the people what the Bible says the Holy Spirit will do, I would logically try to compare the two and help the people deduce that what was happening today in many groups was not the Holy Spirit but evil spirits. Well, lets just say will teaching I noticed more and more people starting to get that glazed over, what is he talking about expression. By the end everyone was lost!

I realized while preaching that night; after seeing people holding their song books upside down, and seeing that most of them had never been in a formal teaching atmosphere, that the ways I have taught in other areas, where not going to work. It was time to go back to the drawing board!

I had to relearn how to teach. I knew how to teach people that were used to a Western thought progression, but what about people that had never been to school, people that did not know how to read, that did not think like readers.

I started to ask myself, "How do people in the villages learn?" After some time of thinking I came to some early conclusions. Most people groups in the past, and many less exposed groups today, rely on oral tradition to teach and communicate to the newer generations. This is why many cultures are losing their history and worldviews (The kids don't want to listen to the old people anymore). Though times are changing most still learn best in these ancient forms. (As I thought about this, this seemed also to be Christ's favorite mode when teaching the common people. Questions and logical debates for the educated, and story telling with moral lessons for the uneducated).

I knew that I was teaching the Bible. The Bible was what was needed to change the people, but maybe the approach or style of teaching was the problem. To find some council, I began to do some research.

After trying to find sources, I was able to find many people that have come to understand that teaching oral learners, and post-literate learners is very different from teaching readers. Here are a few quotes...

George A Kennedy in Encyclopedia of Rhetoric

A complex chain of logical arguments is not a feature of persuasion in non literate societies. Argument from examples - mythological, historical, experiential, or analogical- has probably been the most common form of reasoning all over the world, and proverbs are a basis of demonstration in many cultures, though often universal propositions are not articulated.

There is much repetition in most traditional speeches and little explicit logical reasoning , though references to myth, legend, history, and proverbs may supply examples of what should be done in support of the speaker's proposition.

John S. Mbiti in African Religions and Philosophy

"Proverbs are common ways of expressing religious ideas and feelings... It is in proverbs that we find the remains of the oldest forms of African religious and philosophical wisdom."

Charles H. Kraft in Christianity in Culture

To relate the message to the real life of one's hearers, the communicator must learn to employ the communicational devices familiar to the receptor in ways to which the receptor is responsive. Credible messages start from where the receptor is. In many cultures this involves the knowledge and use of a variety of proverbs, aphorisms, and tales of various kinds. Such literary devices form important vehicles within their communicational system.

These quotes should help the reader to see that to communicate to an oral learner is a totally different process then dealing with someone from a social group, society, or culture that is greatly influenced by literacy.

I realized that if I did not find a way to communicate to these people then most of what I was teaching would be lost or misunderstood. So, I decided to focus my teaching more around Bible story telling. Using the story and experience of the Bible to convey the Bible truths that I was trying to teach about in theory.

I began to see that most of the Bible is written in narrative forms, with another larger amount being written in prose and proverbs. I mean proverbs must not be a bad thing, God took time to inspire a whole book of them for us. It dawn on me that if I would teach the Bible in story form and move to the deeper more complex matters later on (the ones that needed to be deduced from facts), I would have a better response. The funny thing is that this is just how God wrote the Bible. As Western Christian we like to jump over most of the Old Testament and get to the real 'meat' of the epistles. But, the interesting thing is that I think this is harmful for most new Christians or people not exposed to the history and stories of the Old Testament. It is like giving a nervous system with out a bone structure or muscle to hold it up. Lots of feelings, but no strength.

Though most of my education in hermeneutics rebelled at these ideas. No more three points, an application, and illustration. I knew that this was necessary. Some were a long the line our Western education has greatly infected our churches, and many times does not produce the strongest Christians.

It used to be that most churches used the early years to teach the Basic stories of the Bible to children. Building from creation to Abraham, Abraham to David, David to Jesus. They would use each story to teach one or two truths about God and His word at the most. Also many groups used catechism to teach. Basically these where books of little truths (or proverbs if you will) to let children know what was believed at the church. But today, this is not the case! We say, "Kids don't need stories they need application"! So most Sunday school curriculum for children is more like a dumbed down high school theology book. State the doctrine, a proof verse and then 80 little stories from little Jimmy's life.

Well enough with the rabbit trail, the truth is that this approach does not work well with oral learners. The leap from the theory, to the practical is to wide. The truth then becomes some idea from a strange group of people. When a person communicates in a form that they have used for centuries, it suddenly makes the Bible to be practical and understandable.

For this reason I have changed much of how I teach. On Sunday for the last year we have been progressing through the Bible. Starting in the Old Testament and working into the new. Each story has just one application. The application is put into proverb form (if I can find a local proverb that communicates this Idea, then it is used). The stories are told with this one idea in mind. I seek never to distract the reader from the main theme. Though each Bible story can have many application, we try to stick to the main theme and most practical application of each story. This proverb is repeated again and agin, so that the mind records it and is able to use it late. Here is an example for the reader:

While reading the story of the problems of Jacob and Esau- we taught about dealing with problems and seeking restitution (forgiveness). A local proverb fit perfectly. "A loose tooth never rests until it is pulled out." It conveyed to the people that no problem is fixed until they deal with it. This proverb was stated at the beginning, and restated repeatedly through the teaching. The story was read from the Bible in the beginning to show its link to the Bible and the Bible's authority, but then the story was taught in story form using visual aids to help.

In our Wednesday night meetings I follow much the same process, but I use collected stories from the Bible to teach truths about the gospel in an effort to show the people their need of salvation. I try to supply a proverbial truth (weather newly developed by me the missionary, or an ancient part of the culture) to help these non-readers to remember the lesson. Remember these people cannot take notes and then re-read the passage at home. The only thing they get to take home with them is the truths they can remember.

This ideas has even shown me the importance of using non literate tools with people studying for the ministry. Though a person here will not be able to be in the ministry without being literate and have a grounded education. They still learn and gather facts in much the same way that a non-literate person does. This is why many students of theology in Africa do not understand many points of doctrine and seem to loose course when moving from theory to practical in African life. Though there will need to be a structure and pattern to follow that is copied from the Western school system, the mode of teaching and style of teaching should be modified to best equip the student for real life ministry.

Most missionaries just jump into classroom style lecturing with converts that express interest in learning the Bible, but many do not first try more circumstance oriented teaching. This is the style that Jesus Christ used with his disciple most often. Not to say that Christ never had set times of teaching, but he taught most of his truth when a question would arise or a circumstance would present a good case for learning.

I have to admit this form of teaching is much harder on the missionary to be disciplined. He has no course written out, and no list of classes completed, but if he is diligent and has written out what ideas and teaching needs to be taught, he will be amazed how much can be conveyed in a non-formal classroom setting. Not to say that in time, there will not be formal classes. But I think that most of the practical training and teaching can be given in these ways. Once a person has been grounded and has a solid foundation, then they can be given a time of practical and formal training in a more Western style. (This will help to prevent people that are trained only for an institute certificate and not truly grasping the life changing teaching of the Bible).

Over all I challenge any person currently teaching people that are illiterate or influenced by oral culture to try to investigate a new form of teaching style. Try to ground the lessons in story form and to develop them around a single truth. Find meaningful ways to communicate the one truth you want to teach and try to make the teaching interactive to see how the lesson is being received by the hearer. I hope and pray that if these idea re followed, the reader will find as I have, that the teaching of God's Word is more impacting then before.