My people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable; I will utter hidden things, things from of old— things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.

Psalm 78:1--4 (NIV)

Your Feedback Is Very Important! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions! Let us hear from you. Send your feedback to: [email protected].

Please include your name and organization. Any letters or emails used may be edited and excerpted. Please keep all letters and emails to three hundred words or less.

Wish to Contribute National Christian Foundation A/C 429666 1311 Tijeras Ave. NW Albuquerque, NM USA 87102

ISBN 962-767323-4

Copyright © 2012 International Orality Network In cooperation with Capstone Enterprises Ltd., Hong Kong

Orality Journal Disclaimer: Articles published in Orality Journal are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors, or the International Orality Network. CONTENTS

Editor’s Notes...... 7 by Samuel Chiang

The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update...... 11 by Grant Lovejoy Using UN and OCED stats, the author shares how a credible analysis emerges concerning the size of oral preference learners in the world today.

The Worldwide Spread of Bible Storying:...... 41 A Look at Where We’ve Been by J.O. Terry An overview of the recent history and expansion of the Bible Storytelling movement.

The Two Journeys of Shanti and Jasmine...... 63 by Tricia Stringer This article offers insights and elucidation of the rippling effects when orality is practiced in hi-tech communities.

One Thousand Orphans Tell God’s Story...... 71 by Marlene LeFever The author shares what could happen when a ministry retools in real- time and includes orality principles and practices.

Mind the Gap: Bhutan as a Case Study...... 75 by A. Steve Evans A fresh look at using orality in Bhutan. Let’s Do the Twist:...... 79 Learning the Dance of Telling Interesting Bible Stories by Janet Stahl The author explains how we experience stories through our own lenses shaped by our experiences and the cultural norms and values of our communities.

Important Points to Remember when Storytelling...... 83 by J.O. Terry Excellent practical tips on what to keep in mind.

Resources...... 88 A condensed list of books, periodicals, and useful websites. Orality Journal 7 Editor’s Notes by Samuel E. Chiang Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Orality Journal.

Irony is not lost that we are moving to include a print mode to express the importance of this multi-discipline and multi-faceted matter of orality. So why another journal, and why now? Let us explore together.

A Gutenberg Parentheses* Communications from creation to about the time of the Gutenberg Press were primarily oral in nature as writing systems took time to develop and technology for mass printing had not yet arrived. In the fifteenth century the Gutenberg Press allowed printing en mass; this, coupled with the Reformation, where the Church enthusiastically declared that all should be able to read, fueled the trend toward reading, literacy, and privacy. Memory (community and social memory), which was at the core of society, got outsourced to the containers of paper and filing cabinets.

Oral cultures value face-to-face communication, in context, and living within the ‘story’ of the community. The literate world communicates through textual means and often is not able to convey the whole context in a communiqué. The textual ‘story’ is truncated or emptied of meaning. As we enter the digital culture, one that is defined by collaborating with multimodal content and tasks, strangely we are on a converging trajectory with the oral culture.

In fact, academicians are labeling the period from the fifteenth to the twentieth century the Gutenberg Parentheses: a period where the left side of the brain took over and gave birth to sciences, inventions, and philosophies, but silenced the right side of the brain from creativity. Proceeding into the twenty-first century, the captured images, reality entertainment, and online video gaming actually mirror closer to the pre-Gutenberg era, where the right side of the brain was much more in concert with the left side. The result is once again a more holistic approach to society and tasks, thereby recapturing creativity, collaboration, and community. 8 Samuel Chiang

In oral cultures, the information is local and always rooted in context and history, so that there is meaning with coherence to the community. In digital culture, like that of Facebook postings, the emphasis is on morphing the private and individual into open, specific, contextual, and communal experiences, albeit at a distance.

This form of communal experience with a digital identity and digital narrative imbedded into social networking is reinforced by the F-Factor— fans, friends, and followers. So pervasive is this practice that we often discover products and services by relying on our social networks. We are conscious of how our postings will be rated. We are constantly seeking feedback both to improve and validate decisions. Our social networks (communities) are often buying together, and our digital communities are themselves becoming products and services. The F-Factor put in a hard closing parenthesis to the Gutenberg Press, period!

A Rummage Sale The Church can be described as a large social network and in her book, The Great Emergence, Phyllis Tickle has suggested that it is experiencing what amounts to a large rummage sale, one that happens every five hundred years. In the midst of the convergence of oral, literate, and digital culture, coupled with online digital identity and narrative, and further combined with the phenomena of the Gutenberg Parentheses, what does the Church have to say and how do we move forward in this very fluid state?

During the recent International Orality Network mini-global consultation, “Beyond Western Literate Models: Contextualizing Theological Education in Oral Contexts” (hosted at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College), forty-two academicians and practitioners from eighteen institutions and fourteen organizations indicated (1) an abundance of oral preference learners in the classrooms, (2) the need to embrace orality as a part of the curriculum, and (3) that what is working on the field is now beginning to speak into formal education, offering rippling implications for accreditation. This is a defining moment for us to explore and learn together! Orality Journal 9

With the hard close of the Gutenberg Parentheses and the onset of the great emergence, we continue with the residual effects of the print-based culture, and we are rediscovering the ancient keys to the oral cultures that are infused with visual digital effects. Thus, we commence this new journey with a journal.

Orality Journal is the journal of the International Orality Network. Since the network is based on the voluntarism of individual and organizational members, this journal is your journal. We plan to publish this journal online, semi-annually. We aim to provide a platform for scholarly discourse on the issues of orality, discoveries of innovations in orality, and praxis of effectiveness across multiple domains in society. This online journal is international and interdisciplinary serving the interests of the orality movement through research articles, documentation, book reviews, and academic news. Similar to this inaugural issue which is printed, from time to time we will also print other editions.

We welcome submission of items that could contribute to the furtherance of the orality movement. In future editions, we will commence other departments, including a section on book reviews and noteworthy articles. We also welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions! Send your feedback to: [email protected].

Journeying with you,

Samuel E. Chiang From Abuja, Nigeria

Endnote *For a more complete discussion please refer to the chapter "Three Worlds Converged: Living in an Oral, Literate, and Digital Culture", James R. Krabill, gen. ed.; Frank Fortunato, Robin Harris, and Brian Schrag, eds., Worship and Mission for the Global Church: An Ethnodoxology Handbook (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2012). 10 The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 11 The Extent of Orality: 2012 Updatei by Grant Lovejoy Grant Lovejoy is Director of Orality Strategies for IMB, where he has served since 2004. From 1988-2004 he taught preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He co-edited Biblical Hermeneutics and Making Disciples of Oral Learners. Grant has trained people around the world to use biblical storytelling to reach people who learn best by spoken, rather than written communication.

he oral cultures of the world make them audible, which is a step Tpose a particular challenge in the right direction, but their for conventional Christian print-based way of organizing ministry. Oral cultures are not and expressing truth is still an print-oriented and do not respond obstacle in communication. well to forms of witnessing, discipling, teaching, Christian churches, …spoken and preaching that mission organizations, are based on print. communication and ministries have can be so print- increasingly had to face the So tracts, Bible influenced that ways of communicating, distribution, fill- it has limited relating, and thinking that in-the-blanks characterize oral cultures. In workbooks, impact in oral the effort to take the gospel to and bookstores cultures. all peoples, Christian workers are largely have realized that they need to unappealing and ineffective understand orality and to get a within oral cultures. Even spoken better grasp of just how extensive communication can be so print- it is and how to respond to it. influenced that it has limited This article addresses the extent impact in oral cultures. of orality.

Sermons built around outlines and It is not a simple matter to lists of principles communicate determine the extent of orality poorly with people whose life worldwide. Anyone attempting to is lived in oral cultures. Putting do it faces challenges. Chief among those same print-influenced them is defining what orality is sermons into audio form on CDs, and determining how to measure MP3 players, and the like does it accurately. This article is an

The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 13

norm, resulting in a predictable, In the Book of Acts, the Church negative evaluation of orality.ii used oral communication as its primary means of evangelism and Reducing the phenomenon of discipleship. The possibility of orality simply to “illiteracy” returning to that vibrant, rapidly- has often led people to conclude spreading, faith-filled apostolic that orality is something to be Christianity is a major incentive minimized by literacy campaigns. for taking orality seriously in Although literacy certainly contemporary mission strategies. has great value and should be encouraged, it is a mistake to take This is not to say that orality a one-dimensional and literacy are and negative Focusing on orality enemies, or that perspective on rather than illiteracy gains in one must orality by simply highlights the fact inevitably come at the equating it with expense of the other. that people who live illiteracy. This is not an attack by orality are capable on literacy, education, Entire mission of using beautiful, or those who provide strategies sophisticated, and them.iii But it is a plea have been moving speech. for us not to think of built on the orality as simply the conviction absence of literacy, or to that oral communicators assume that the sole, automatic should be strongly encouraged response to orality should be a to learn to read. The mission literacy campaign. strategies that focused on literacy training have had Focusing on orality rather than many laudable outcomes, to illiteracy highlights the fact be sure. But they have fallen that people who live by orality short whenever they have made are capable of using beautiful, literacy a de facto prerequisite sophisticated, and moving speech. for full participation in the They are responsible for some of Christian faith. This happened the world’s great verbal artistry, despite the fact that the early expressed in songs, stories, poetry, Church grew up, in fact thrived, and proverbs. Homer’s Iliad and in an environment dominated Odyssey, widely recognized as by orality. the greatest examples of epic

The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 17

message. When they are able to bottle, to the ability to learn receive the message through a from reading books.”vii variety of means, we should seek to determine which one If we regard people as is their preferred The stakes are being either literate means. The stakes or illiterate—no other too high for us to are too high for us options allowed—then to misunderstand misunderstand we tend to count people as our audience’s our audience’s literate if they can merely capacities and capacities and sign their name or read preferences preferences with a simple sentence about with respect familiar things. After all, we respect to orality to orality and reason, they can read, at least literacy. and literacy. simple materials. (This is a bare-minimum definition of DEFINING LITERACY “read”, by the way, which is itself Literacy experts raise three part of the confusion.) fundamental, interrelated concerns about the published If we call such people illiterate, figures on worldwide literacy. then they are likely to protest and They question how nations define attempt to prove that they can literacy, how they gather the indeed “read”, however haltingly. literacy data, and how the nations But signing their name or and others report it. reading a poster is a far cry from reading a government document First of all, they say that or the Bible with understanding. categorizing people as being Just being able to sound out the either “literate” or “illiterate” words does not indicate that is simplistic and misleading. people can learn new concepts As the UNESCO Institute for through reading. Statistics puts it, “Measuring literacy is not just a matter British educators Donna of saying who can read and Thomson and Ruth Nixey who cannot. Literacy skills discovered that many of their are needed at many different students tested well as readers levels, from writing one’s name on certain standardized tests, on a form, to understanding but in fact comprehended very instructions on a medicine little of what they read. Careful

The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 19

• Kyrgyzstan counts anyone who unwise to compare the reported completed a primary school literacy rates in one country education as literate and it also with reported literacy rates counts as literate any person from another.xii It is also unwise without a primary school to lump this disparate group education who answers “Yes” of measurements into a single when asked, “Are you able to worldwide literacy statistic. read and write?” • Macedonia considers as literate GATHERING each person who has completed LITERACY DATA more than three grades of These different approaches to primary school. estimating literacy reflect budget • Malaysia says anyone aged 10 realities and other factors in years and older who has never developing countries.xiii Most of been to school is counted as these countries lack the funds illiterate. and expertise to test literacy • Moldova says literacy is the skills directly. Instead, they try to ability to read easily or with estimate literacy levels through less difficulty a letter or newspaper. demanding methods, such as simply • Portugal says literacy is the asking people whether they are ability both to read with literate or illiterate. Or they estimate understanding and write a short, literacy based on school enrollment simple statement on one’s life. or the number of years of education. • Venezuela says literacy is the These methods of gathering ability to read and write at least literacy data inflate literacy a paragraph in any language.x statistics. They do not account for the poor quality of some By comparison, UNESCO’s schools, learning disabilities, Standard-Setting Instruments spotty attendance, and social describes as literate any person promotions. The World “who can with understanding Development Report 2004 both read and write a short simple included these sobering findings: statement on his everyday life.”xi While most teachers try Many countries use UNESCO’s conscientiously to do their definition or a variation of it. jobs, one recent survey found a third of all teachers in Uttar With such varied definitions or Pradesh, India, absent. Cases measurements of literacy, it is of malfeasance by teachers are 20 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy

distressingly present in many development.” Likewise, a person settings: teachers show up is “functionally literate” who can drunk, are physically abusive, do all those activities.xv or simply do nothing. This is not “low-quality” teaching— The phenomenon of reverting this is not teaching at all. to functional illiteracy is well- known among literacy workers. The 1994 Tanzania Primary When India’s Human Resources School Leavers Examination Development Ministry released suggested that the vast majority its 2003-2004 report, it celebrated of students had learned almost a 13.17% increase in literacy from nothing that was tested in their 1991-2001, calling it the highest seven years of schooling—more increase in any decade. Over than four-fifths scored less than 108 million people had acquired 13 percent correct in language literacy, an extraordinary or mathematics.xiv achievement.

Simply attending a certain But a news article about the number of years of school does not report said, guarantee that students have learned The report acknowledges what they were expected to learn. that the basic literacy skills acquired by millions of neo- The above methods of estimating literates are at best fragile with literacy also do not account a greater possibility of them for the likelihood of reversion. regressing into partial or total Students dropping out before illiteracy unless special efforts completing eight years of good are continued to consolidate, quality education may revert to sustain, and possibly enhance functional illiteracy if they do not their literacy levels.xvi keep reading regularly. “A person is This phenomenon is not limited functionally illiterate who cannot to India; reversion occurs in many engage in all those activities in places. which literacy is required for effective functioning of his group Such students may have been and community and also for reading at their grade level when enabling him to continue to use they left school, but if they do not reading, writing and calculation keep reading regularly, then their for his own and the community’s reading skills atrophy. They do

22 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy

they rely either on individuals’ affluent, developed countries self-declaration of their own from 1994-1998, similar results literacy or on “proxy” indicators emerged in Australia, Belgium, such as their educational levels. Canada, Denmark, Germany, These are indirect measures, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, New which have been shown not to Zealand, Switzerland, the United reflect reality very accurately. Kingdom, and elsewhere.xix Moreover, they are not always collected on a consistent basis, Although these countries are so can be difficult to compare, more economically developed, and there are many data gaps. sizable percentages of their adult More reliable measures require population actually had low people’s literacy ability to be levels of prose, document, and assessed directly, in surveys that numerical literacy. They lacked test their skills.”xvii the skills for handling complex reading material and lengthy Literacy researchers advocate direct documents, although few people testing of literacy skills because it is were absolutely illiterate. Most of a much more accurate—although them could read somewhat, but politically uncomfortable–measure not enough to do the full range of literacy. of tasks it takes to function as a literate person in those societies.xx Direct testing of literacy skills in more-developed Western IALS found that five of the countries has proven this point twenty countries had even larger with embarrassing consistency. percentages of adults with skills The National Adult Literacy at the two lowest literacy levels. Survey (NALS) administered Over 60% of adults in Hungary, by the U.S. Department of over 70% in Slovenia, almost 80% Education in the early 1990s in Poland and Portugal, and over found that 48-51% of adults 80% in Chile scored at the two in the U. S. scored at the two lowest levels of document literacy. lowest literacy levels (out of five The Scandinavian countries levels).xviii performed better than the others, but still had at least a quarter When the International Adult of their adult populations who Literacy Survey (IALS) tested scored at the two lowest levels.xxi adults in twenty relatively- About this same time, Denmark,

24 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy

report follows the pattern ESTIMATING THE EXTENT of many before it. After a OF ORALITY brief acknowledgment of the By carefully studying the flimsiness of the statistics, any footnotes and specialist reports, doubts are rapidly forgotten by making some educated guesses and precise figures routinely and projections, it is possible to quoted—such that we forget reach a very rough estimate of their inaccuracy and create the how many people in the world illusion that we do know or live by orality either by necessity understand the situation—when or by preference. This procedure this is far from the truth.xxiii cannot produce anything approaching a precise number. Agencies like UNESCO The argument to this point has report questionable statistics stressed the difficulties with the because that is often the best literacy data. information they have, even if it is far from accurate. Their But churches, Christian ministries, literacy experts know full and mission organizations need at well the limitations of the least some idea of the relative extent data and write disclaimers of orality. They are making strategic about its limitationsxxiv, but decisions every year and cannot many people, especially non- wait until governments around specialists, ignore or soon the world provide scrupulously forget the warnings. Even today, accurate data about literacy in their well-meaning Christian leaders countries. Ministries need to know are making strategic decisions whether the UNESCO report about based on statements like the 83.7% of adults worldwide being one in the UNESCO news literate is true. release about 83.7% of adults worldwide being literate. (Note We begin our estimating with the the degree of precision that direct testing of literacy skills figure suggests!) The full story, done in the 1990s in twenty-two which shows how misleading countries and regions, most of that figure is, often lies buried them developed countries in in footnotes and appendices Europe and North America. or is published in obscure documents read mainly by Although some experts have specialists. criticized the methodology in The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 25

those studies, they agree that nor worse than the countries direct testing of literacy skills is where this direct testing has much more accurate than census been done. If so, we would data or household surveys.xxv The estimate that about half the NALS, IALS, and NAAL studies, world’s adult population is oral which use a similar methodology, by virtue of low literacy. But found that almost half of adults that underestimates the extent of in the participating countries of orality for two reasons. Europe and North America have limited literacy skills. To use First, many countries score NAAL terminology, they function lower than the U. S., Canada, the at the level of “below basic” or U.K., and others of the more- “basic” literacy.xxvi developed countries in these assessments.xxix Recall the IALS Direct testing of adults’ literacy findings mentioned previously skills in the U. K. in 2003 and for Hungary, Slovenia, Portugal, again in 2011 produced results Poland, and Chile. They had from similar to the IALS findings in 60% to more than 80% of their the 1990s. In the 2003 survey, adults at the two lowest literacy 16% of adults scored at or levels. Given those scores, what below the literacy level U. K. are we to expect from Nigeria, schools expect at age 9 to 11; Myanmar, Yemen, Mexico, and the situation was virtually the like? unchanged in 2011. “Adults with skills at this level may Second, the more developed not be able to read bus or train countries like we find in the timetables or check the pay and IALS constitute one-sixth of deductions on a wage slip.” the world’s population; the less Large numbers of adults (39% developed and least developed in 2003, 28% in 2011) scored at ones account for five-sixths the next level, Level 1. Adults of it.xxx The vast majority of with skills at Level 1 “may not the world’s population lives in be able to compare products and countries with less developed services for the best buy, or work educational systems. This out a household budget.”xxviii strongly suggests that their literacy rates would be lower than Let’s suppose that the global in the more developed countries. status of literacy is neither better A critical question is how much

The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 27 other tests to make country- So it is sobering to find that 70% to-country comparisons. “The of students from Kyrgyzstan results confirm that low-income who participated in PISA scored countries lag far behind others in below level 1. In Brazil, Indonesia, learning achievement.”xxxii Mexico, and Thailand—all with sizable populations, growing For example, when researchers economic power, and influence in in India used questions from world affairs—more than 40% of TIMMS in another assessment, students were at level 1 or below. they found that ninth grade Although few countries in sub- students in the two Indian states Saharan Africa participate in that were tested performed about these international assessments of the same as students from the learning, the research that has been poorest countries in the world.xxxiii done suggests that their students also are not achieving basic levels In Qatar and Saudi Arabia, of numeracy or literacy. “three-quarters of students register below the lowest [TIMMS] In Latin America, student score threshold—a performance performance varies widely, with comparable to Ghana,”xxxiv the students in Cuba and Costa Rica lowest-scoring country in the leading the way, whereas on one 2007 TIMMS. (Keep in mind that recent assessment “less than half many poor countries did not even of all grade 3 students in the participate in TIMMS.) Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Guatemala had more than The situation is even worse very basic reading skills.”xxxv when it comes to assessments of reading skills. The Program for Even these figures understate International Student Assessment the extent of the educational (PISA) also assesses students with achievement problem, because about eight years of education. they do not include children who Its level 1 is a minimal threshold are not in school and who thus of literacy. Students with literacy did not take the assessment. skills below level 1 are unlikely to benefit from further education. The argument thus far is that They may struggle to enter the most of the world’s population workforce successfully because of lives in less developed countries their low reading skills. where educational attainment 28 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy is markedly below that of most To those four billion we can add of the twenty or so countries the children under the age of 15 that have done direct testing of who have no literacy or limited literacy skills. Of the countries literacy skills.xxxvi According participating in IALS, Slovenia, to mid-2011 estimates, 27% Poland, Portugal, and Chile most of the world population was nearly resemble economically under age 15, which totals and educationally the rest of the approximately 1.9 billion people. world. Even though only a small For the purposes of our rough percentage of the adults in those estimating, suppose about half four countries were completely of the children are so young–ages illiterate, approximately 80% of birth to 7 years—that they must them demonstrated only limited be counted as oral. So we can literacy skills. We will use their add them to our total, about 950 performance as a reference to million of them. make a rough estimate of the extent of orality globally. As for those ages 8 to 15, the situation varies from country to The world’s population was country. Some may read better estimated to have reached seven than the average adult in their billion in 2011. There are 5.1 country and others, worse. But billion people 15 years of age and remember again that 82% of the older. If we estimate that they world’s population lives in “less have literacy skills comparable developed” countries and those to Slovenia, Poland, Portugal, countries have a higher percentage and Chile, about 80% of whom of children.xxxvii were at the two lowest levels, then approximately four billion adults If the 950 million children live primarily by orality because ages 8 to 14 read as well as they are non-readers or have only the adults in Slovenia, Poland, basic reading comprehension Portugal, and Chile, we can skills. If that estimate seems estimate that about 760 million too high, recall that 82% of of them should be considered the world’s population lives in oral learners by virtue of their countries that the Population limited literacy skills. Reference Bureau calls “less developed,” countries known to So if there are four billion adults, have low educational attainment. 950 million children birth to 7 The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 29 years of age, and 760 million two-thirds of the world’s 759 children ages 8 to 14 with basic million illiterates in 2008.”xxxviii or below basic literacy, then 5.7 billion people in the world are A UNESCO conference in March oral communicators because 2010 explored why the education either they are illiterate or their of women continues to lag behind reading comprehension is 5.7 billion people the education inadequate. of men in many in the world are countries, That is over 80% oral communicators despite promises of the world’s total (because either by governments population. Even a they are illiterate to bring about rough estimate like or their reading gender parity in this one, which education: makes no claim of comprehension is precision, reveals inadequate). One of the how misleading the most significant UNESCO report is. Even if the conclusions was that current estimate being offered here is off education and literacy by a billion people, it still serves initiatives are not responding notice that literacy skills are far to the complex needs of more limited than one might women and girls affected conclude from reading headlines by compounded forms of celebrating over 80% literacy discrimination. Achieving among adults worldwide. gender equality in education is not only about access, but EVALUATING PROGRESS about learning environments, TOWARD GLOBAL curricula, attitudes, and a host LITERACY of wider political, economic Global literacy levels are and social considerations.xxxix improving. But change comes slowly and with difficulty. In Improving literacy rates in the Global Education Digest many places requires even more 2010, Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s than providing suitable school Director-General laments, “The buildings, effective teachers, share of illiterate women has appropriate curricula, and eager not changed over the past twenty students. Improving global years: women still represented literacy depends on changing 30 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy attitudes, social patterns, and Christian groups who unwittingly political and economic practices accept governments’ literacy and priorities. Changing all of statistics at face value are likely that in order to raise literacy rates to perpetuate a tragic mistake. is a big challenge. They will believe that the people to whom they minister are more India’s national census has literate than they actually are. reported the literacy rate going They will continue to train their up steadily for the last sixty years. workers to use literate teaching In most decades, the reported and preaching approaches. improvement was about 9%. Oral people will not grasp the literate teaching, but they will be 1951 18.3% reluctant to admit that there is 1961 28.3% a problem or share the problem 1971 34.45% with others. Ministry leaders may 1981 43.57% conclude that people are spiritually 1991 52.21% unresponsive when the real culprit 2001 64.83% is the literate form of teaching that 2011 74.04% the teachers are using.

The 2011 census was the first time On the other hand, ministries that female literacy rates were over who adjust their approach 50% in every state in India. This to the literacy level of their is a cause for rejoicing. However, group, whatever that level the report cautions that a “few may be, can expect improved States have shown a tendency communication, more learning, to slip back into illiteracy after and more life change among having attained a certain level the hearers. Extensive research of literacy. This slide back has to among Christian outreach in be arrested and the momentum Muslim communities found sustained in order to achieve that incorporating an oral the cherished goal of universal communication strategy into literacy.”xli These two facts and their work with oral cultures was the decadal statistics give some associated with seeing 4.4 times perspective on the pace at which more churches established.xlii large populations can hope to improve their literacy over long Oral communicators find it easier periods of time. to pass along their faith, too, The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 31 if they have heard it in a way have collaborated in publishing that fits their normal style of Making Disciples of Oral communication. That has already Learners,xlv which includes many been the experience of a number suggestions about improving of international ministries that effectiveness in working with have, as a result, come together people who live by orality, and to form the International Orality Orality Breakouts,xlvi which Network. The group exists to describes how various Christian share insights and network with ministries are incorporating others committed to taking the oral communication strategies message of the Bible to those who effectively. learn best orally. Such people are more likely to be transformed We can do effective ministry when the message of the Bible with people whose preferred way comes through their traditional of learning is oral rather than communication forms such as written. Jesus turned the world stories, proverbs, songs, chants, upside down with disciples ceremonies and rituals, dance, who were derisively called and the like.xliii “uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13). But first we Many organizations are using have to understand them and Bible storying, one of several how they can best learn. To do communications strategies that, we will need to get beneath developed with this need in the surface of the literacy mind.xliv Scriptures In Use trains statistics. The process used in grassroots church planters to use this article concludes that over oral methods in their work. 80% of the world’s adults, teens, and children have low enough Many other organizations have reading comprehension that incorporated orality-friendly they are highly likely to be oral approaches into their work. They communicators. 32 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy

Reference List 2011 Skills for Life Survey: Headline Findings. BIS Research Paper No. 57. London: Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills, 2011.

Archer, David. “Literacy as Freedom: Challenging Assumptions and Changing Practice.” In Literacy as Freedom: A UNESCO Round-table. Paris: UNESCO, 2003.

Chiang, Samuel and Steve Evans, eds., Orality Breakouts. International Orality Network and the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, 2010.

Giere, Ursula. Functional Illiteracy in Industrialized Countries: An Analytical Bibliography. UIE Studies on Post-Literacy and Continuing Education: Functional Illiteracy in Industrialized Countries, no. 3. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education, 1987.

Human Development Report 2004. New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2004.

“India’s Literacy Rate Is Now 65 Percent.” Indo-Asian News Service, Sept. 4, 2004; online article at http://in.news.yahoo.com/040904/43/2fvlo.html, accessed March 21, 2006.

International Adult Literacy Survey. http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/IALS. html.

“Joshi Locks Literacy Horns with UNESCO.” The Telegraph, Nov. 7, 2005; www.telegraphindia.com/1031108/asp/others/print.html, accessed March 21, 2006.

Kirsch, Irwin S., Ann Jungeblut, Lynn Jenkins, and Andrew Kolstad. Adult Literacy in America: A First Look at the Results of the National Adult Literacy Survey. Washington, D.C: National Center for Education Statistics, 1993. The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 33

Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (LAMP). See http://www.uis.unesco.org/ TEMPLATE/pdf/LAMP/LAMPLeafletEng.pdf.

Making Disciples of Oral Learners. Lausanne Occasional Paper, no. 54. Bangalore: Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization and International Orality Network, 2005.

National Assessment of Adult Literacy: A First Look at the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21st Century. Washington, D. C.: National Center for Education Statistics, 2005.

Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals. Paper 1 of 2011, India Series 1. New Delhi, 2011.

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy. London and New York: Routledge, 1982.

Population Reference Bureau. 2011 World Population Data Sheet. Washington, DC, 2011.

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. Research Division Report no. 46. Washington, D. C.: National Endowment for the Humanities, 2004.

Sample, Tex. Ministry in an Oral Culture. Louisville, KY: John Knox, 1994.

Sogaard, Viggo. Evangelizing Our World: Insights from Global Inquiry. Pattaya, Thailand: 2004 Forum for World Evangelization, 2004.

Thomson, Donna and Ruth Nixey. “Thinking to Read, Reading to Think: Bringing Meaning, Reasoning and Enjoyment to Reading.” Literacy Today (September 2005). An edited version of their article is available at http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/database/primary/thomsonnixey.html. 34 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy

Tuijnman, Albert. Benchmarking Adult Literacy in America: An International Comparative Study. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Education, 2000.

“Statistics Show Slow Progress towards Universal Literacy.” http://www. uis.unesco.org/ev.php?ID=5063_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC

UNESCO. “Adult and Youth Literacy.” http://www.uis.unesco.org/ FactSheets/Documents/FS16-2011-Literacy-EN.pdf. Accessed March 19, 2012.

UNESCO. Reaching the Marginalized. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2010. Oxford and Paris: OUP and UNESCO, 2010.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. International Literacy Statistics: A Review of Concepts, Methodology, and Current Data. Montreal: UIS, 2008.

______. Global Education Digest 2010. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2010.

Woodberry, J. Dudley, ed., From Seed to Fruit. 2d ed. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Press, 2011.

World Development Report 2004. New York: The World Bank, 2003.

Young People in 1998. Schools Health Education Unit, 1998. http:// www.sheu.org.uk/pubs/yp98.htm. The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 35 iThis article is a considerably vSee chapter 1 of Tex Sample, Ministry revised and updated version of an in an Oral Culture (Louisville, KY: article first published in print form John Knox, 1994). in the June 2007 issue of Dharma Deepika: A South Asian Journal vi“Adult and Youth Literacy,” http:// of Missiological Research and www.uis.unesco.org/FactSheets/ which was republished in the online Documents/FS16-2011-Literacy-EN. Journal of Baptist Theology and pdf, accessed March 19, 2012. The Ministry in its spring 2008 issue. We data is from 2009, the latest available. are grateful to the editors of both journals for permission to republish viiLiteracy Assessment and this article. Monitoring Programme of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics iiThe English language lacks a (LAMP). See http://www.uis.unesco. familiar positive term for reliance org/TEMPLATE/pdf/LAMP/ on spoken communication. This LAMPLeafletEng.pdf. shows how dominant the preference for literacy is within the English- viiiSee Donna Thomson and Ruth speaking world. European friends Nixey, “Thinking to Read, Reading to tell me that other major languages of Think: Bringing Meaning, Reasoning Europe have a similar gap. and Enjoyment to Reading,” Literacy Today (September 2005). An edited iiiSee my Beekman Lecture, “Orality, version of their article is available Bible Translation, and Scripture at http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/ Engagement,” Bible Translation database/primary/thomsonnixey. Conference 2009, Dallas, TX, html and is the source for this October 18, 2009, for more about quotation. It was accessed October the complementary relationship that 28, 2005. should exist between orality and literacy. There I call for scripture ixIn the early 1980s UNESCO resources to be made available in recommended its member bodies both printed and oral formats so use four terms: illiterate, literate, that people can access them via the functionally illiterate, and formats that serve them best. I affirm functionally literate. See UNESCO’s the value of literacy instruction Standard-Setting Instruments, and education in its various forms, Incorporating Supplement 1 (Paris: including theological education. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, ivWalter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy 1981-1982), 4, quoted in Ursula (London and New York: Routledge, Giere, Functional Illiteracy in 1982). See Ruth Finnegan, The Oral Industrialized Countries: An and Beyond (Oxford: James Curry, Analytical Bibliography, UIE Studies 2007) for correctives to some of on Post-Literacy and Continuing Ong’s generalizations. Education: Functional Illiteracy 36 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy in Industrialized Countries, no. xiUNESCO’s Standard-Setting 3. (Hamburg: UNESCO Institute Instruments, 4, cited in Giere, for Education, 1987), 28. Major 28. The glossary of the Global studies conducted in the 1990s Education Digest 2010 defines identified five levels of skill, calling literacy as “the ability to read and them simply Level 1, Level 2, etc. write, with understanding, a simple See Irwin S. Kirsch, Ann Jungeblut, statement related to one’s daily life. Lynn Jenkins, and Andrew Kolstad, It involves a continuum of reading Adult Literacy in America: A First and writing skills, and often includes Look at the Results of the National basic arithmetic skills (numeracy).” Adult Literacy Survey (Washington, D.C: National Center for Education xiiUNESCO Institute for Statistics, Statistics, 1993) for descriptions International Literacy Statistics: A of the NALS categories. The Review of Concepts, Methodology, International Adult Literacy Survey and Current Data (Montreal: (IALS) used the same categories UIS, 2008) provides an extensive and terminology. A more recent discussion of the challenges in major U. S. study, one comparable gathering and reporting literacy to the NALS, used the terms “below data. There is a tendency to assume basic”, “basic”, “intermediate”, and that a “literate” in one country “proficient” to characterize four has the same skills that literates ranges of literacy skill. See National in other countries do. But this is Assessment of Adult Literacy: not true at all, in part because A First Look at the Literacy of the countries are not using the America’s Adults in the 21st Century same definition of literacy. Nor is (Washington, D.C.: National Center it safe to assume that ten years of for Education Statistics, 2005), 3. schooling—even within a single The 2011 Skills for Life assessment country—produces an equivalent of skills in the U.K. also reported outcome at every school. Equal skills using five categories but called amounts of school attendance do them “entry level 1”, “entry level not produce equal outcomes. Some 2”, “entry level 3”, “level 1”, and students graduate from secondary “level 2+”. See http://www.bis.gov. school ready for elite universities; uk/assets/biscore/further-education- others, graduate from secondary skills/docs/0-9/11-1367-2011-skills- school barely able to read their for-life-survey-findings.pdf, accessed diplomas. All are secondary school March 20, 2012. graduates, but their literacy skills differ dramatically. See more on xUNESCO Institute for Statistics, this subject later in this article. “Education Indicators and Data Analysis: Literacy Statistics Metadata xiiiEconomic and political factors may Information Table (April 2011 Data also influence definitions of literacy. Release),” available for download at When major international lenders http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/ such as the International Monetary ReportFolders/ReportFolders.aspx . Fund and World Bank include Accessed March 19, 2012. literacy rates in their lending criteria, The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 37 governments have an incentive to xvi“India’s Literacy Rate Is Now define “literate” in generous terms 65 Percent,” Indo-Asian News so that they can report higher rates Service, September 4, 2004; online of literacy. Additionally, government article at http://in.news.yahoo. officials like to report improving com/040904/43/2fvlo.html, accessed literacy levels. India’s human March 21, 2006. See more on this development resources minister, phenomenon below. Murli Manohar Joshi, for example, was quick to protest in 2005 when xviiLiteracy Assessment and UNESCO used 1991 data instead Monitoring Programme of the of figures from India’s 2001 census. UNESCO Institute for Statistics UNESCO projected a 57.2% literacy (LAMP). See http://www.uis. rate based on the 1991 data; Joshi unesco.org/TEMPLATE/pdf/ said India’s literacy rate was 65%. LAMP/LAMPLeafletEng.pdf. Their UNESCO officials explained that emphasis. India had submitted their most recent data too late to be included in xviiiIrwin S. Kirsch, Ann Jungeblut, the report, but Moshi was insistent Lynn Jenkins, and Andrew Kolstad, that UNESCO give India credit for A First Look at the Findings of the its progress in literacy. Whether Joshi National Adult Literacy Survey, or UNESCO is right is not the issue. 3rd ed. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. The point is that government officials Department of Education, Office are sensitive to public perceptions. of Educational Research and It should come as no surprise if Improvement, 2002). they gather and report literacy data in a way that puts them, their xixSee http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/ party, and their country in the best facts/IALS.html. See also Albert possible light. (See “Joshi Locks Tuijnman, Benchmarking Adult Literacy Horns with UNESCO,” The Literacy in America: An International Telegraph, November 7, 2005; www. Comparative Study (Washington, telegraphindia.com/1031108/asp/ D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, others/print.html, accessed March 2000); also available at http://www. 21, 2006.) It is understandable that nald.ca/fulltext/Benchmrk/2.htm. the Indian government was eager The participating countries were part to report a few years later that the of the Organisation for Economic 2011 census showed the literacy rate Co-Operation and Development of people 7 years of age and older (OECD). had risen from 65% to 74%. See http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/ xxIbid. censusinfodashboard/index.html, accessed March 20, 2012. xxiOrganisation for Economic Co- Operation and Development and xivWorld Development Report 2004, 112. Statistics Canada, Literacy in the Information Age: Final Report of the xvUNESCO’s Standard-Setting International Adult Literacy Survey, Instruments, 4, cited in Giere, 28. (Paris: OECD, 2000), 17. 38 Orality Journal, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012 Grant Lovejoy xxiiViggo Sogaard, Evangelizing Our what programs are on at a particular World: Insights from Global Inquiry time. See National Assessment of (Pattaya, Thailand: 2004 Forum for Adult Literacy, 3. World Evangelization, 2004), 11. Furthermore, in late 2005 the U. S. xxvii2011 Skills for Life Survey: released findings from its National Headline Findings, BIS Research Assessment of Adult Literacy Paper No. 57 (London: Department (NAAL), conducted in 2003. NAAL for Business, Innovation, and Skills, discovered that in direct testing of 2011), 20. http://www.bis.gov.uk/ literacy skills, approximately 43% of assets/biscore/further-education- adults in the U. S. had “below basic” or skills/docs/0-9/11-1367-2011-skills- “basic” skills in prose literacy. These for-life-survey-findings.pdf, accessed figures are virtually unchanged from March 19, 2012. the 1992 NALS survey. In 2003, 44% scored at the “intermediate” level, xxviiiIbid. and only 13% scored “proficient” in prose literacy, which involves reading xxixStudents from countries such and understanding text consisting of as South Korea, Singapore, and paragraphs, like newspaper articles Japan do better on international and books. examinations than their counterparts from countries xxiiiDavid Archer, “Literacy as in Western Europe and North Freedom: Challenging Assumptions America, as noted below. So do the and Changing Practice,” in Literacy Scandinavian countries, as already as Freedom: A UNESCO Round- mentioned. But the point here has table (Paris: UNESCO, 2003), 42. to do with the larger picture, the Emphasis added. extent of orality globally. Note the IALS findings mentioned above xxivUNESCO Institute for Statistics, for Hungary, Slovenia, Portugal, International Literacy Statistics: A Poland, and Chile. Review of Concepts, Methodology, and Current Data (Montreal: UIS, xxxPopulation Reference Bureau, 2008) discusses these challenges and 2011 World Population Data Sheet others at length. (Washington, D.C., 2011). Unless indicated otherwise, population xxvIbid. figures come from this source. xxvi“‘Below basic’ indicates no more xxxiUNESCO, Reaching the than the most simple and concrete Marginalized, EFA Global literacy skills.” People at this level can Monitoring Report 2010 (Oxford sign a form or search a short simple and Paris: OUP and UNESCO, 2010), text to determine what a patient can 105. drink before a test. “‘Basic’ indicates skills necessary to perform simple xxxiiIbid., citing studies by Altinok in and everyday literacy activities” such 2008 and Hanushek and Woessman using a television guide to determine in 2009. The Extent of Orality: 2012 Update 39 xxxiiiReaching the Marginalized, 105. xlOffice of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, Census xxxivIbid., 106. of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals, Paper 1 of 2011, India Series xxxvIbid. 1 (New Delhi, 2011), 102. Literacy is the subject of chapter 6: http://www. xxxviLiteracy data is frequently reported censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/ on ages 15 to 65 or 16 to 65, but as data_files/india/Final%20PPT%20 noted above, some countries include 2011_chapter6.pdf, accessed March children as young as age 10 when they 20, 2012. count who is literate. The estimates being offered here do not attempt to xliIbid., 126. reconcile such discrepancies. Coming to precise worldwide figures is xliiJ. Dudley Woodberry, ed., From impossible, for reasons noted above. Seed to Fruit, 2nd ed., (Pasadena, CA: To reiterate, this is simply a rough William Carey Press, 2011), see the estimate to get some idea of the technical data article on the CD that magnitude of orality. is included with the book. xxxviiIn the “less developed” countries, xliiiSee www.oralBible.com 29% of the population is under age 15; in the “least developed” xlivSee http://oralstrategies.org. countries, 41% of the population us under age 15, according to the 2011 xlvMaking Disciples of Oral World Population Data Sheet. Learners, Lausanne Occasional Paper, no. 54 (Bangalore: Lausanne xxxviiiInstitute for Statistics, Global Committee on World Evangelization Education Digest 2010 (Montreal: and International Orality Network, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2005). 2010), 3. Available at http://www. uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/ xlviSamuel Chiang and Steve Evans, GED_2010_EN.pdf; accessed March eds., Orality Breakouts (International 19, 2012. Orality Network and the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, xxxixIbid., 3-4. 2010). 40