THE WAYS PEOPLE LEARN By Dr. James B. Slack Exploring the ...

The Ways People Learn--Slack 5highly literate communicator. As Walter Ong comments, many of these highly literateindividuals do not remember and thus do not appreciate the oral roots from which theyemerged.Not only does the status of a person change as they progress from oral communicationlevels to literate communication levels, but their style of communication has changeddrastically. Oral communicators — illiterates, functional illiterates and semi-literates —are not comfortable with, and cannot easily understand information that comes in theform of outlines, precepts, principles, and steps in a process. It is difficult, if notimpossible, for them to engage in true analysis. They find it very difficult to outlineand reduce bodies of information to “bottom line” statements. Oral communicatorsprefer that information come to them in the form of narratives or stories. They cannoteasily handle, and are definitely not comfortable with information that comes by othermeans. In fact, if they have a teaching, a concept, or a principle they want toremember, they will clothe it in a story. Narrative styles are the common vehiclesthat oral communicators use to process and “carry around” information. Expositionalpresentations such as outlines, steps, principles, or lists of any kind are formidableobstacles for them. They find it difficult to understand them, and certainly cannot recallthem. They cannot use what they cannot recall. Knowledge for oral communicators,and especially illiterates, consists only of what can be recalled.There are two important considerations. First, oral communicators — illiterates,functional illiterates, and semi-literates — can learn as well as literate persons. Theirability to learn is just as good as literates and their memory is superior to the averageliterate person’s memory. The problem is not that of learning but of the presentationformat through which information comes to them. Information must come to oralcommunicators through stories, parables, poems, ballads, and similar types of formats.Format is the key for them.Second, and conversely, most literates mistakenly believe that if they can outline theinformation or put it into a series of steps or principles, anyone, including oralcommunicators, can understand it and recall it. That is a misconception concerninglearning, and how different individuals process information. Most oral communicators donot understand outlines, steps or principles, and they certainly cannot remember them.For that matter, neither can the literates, but they store information in notes and can “lookit up” to refresh their memory. Illiterates cannot “look anything up,” and have nopersonal means of refreshing their memory if they have forgotten something.It is very important when literate individuals prepare to communicate with others thatthey determine what learning category — illiterate, functional illiterate, semi-literate,literate, or highly-literate — the hearer represents before choosing the presentationformat. The Learning Grid illustrates the relationship between each learning category andthe corresponding presentation format.When communicating with oral communicators — primary illiterates, functionalilliterates, or semi-literates — the story is the best “vehicle” that carries the information