Both oral and literate cultures use strategies in memorizing and recalling information. These strategies include mnemonics and formulas. In the oral culture, people utilize mnemonics to recall the obtained information. The literate culture use formulas to aid in retracting their learning.

 

Formulas and mnemonics generate a rhythm for us to have a way to recall various concepts. Students have long been burdened with memorization, but with the help of mnemonics and formulas, retaining and recalling the things they have learned had been made easier and less exhausting.

In primary oral culture, writing and its knowledge is non-existent thus it can be considered as abstract while literary culture is concrete as it utilizes writing as a medium of communication.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furthermore, the formulation and expression of thoughts in primary oral culture is patterned as an additive while literary culture adjusts and subordinates some characters to provide meaning and flow of narration. Despite these differences, both are connected since literacy cannot exist without orality. Also, orality is enhanced by writing, making the information organized and well-explained.

 

Communication happens between two or more conscious minds, thus communication is intersubjective. Communication happens as a two-way process, where the message is transferred from the sender to the receiver and vice versa.

In interpersonal communication, the message is conveyed clearly, where intonation and emotions while speaking is posed. Media, on the other hand, is a one-way process.

Both positions of the sender and the receiver are the same and aren’t interchangeable.

Just like in the media model of communication, chirographic conditioning has no concept of feedback. Their sole purpose is only to deliver the message to the receiver or to an audience. In writing, the writer is challenged to create a fictitious audience to be able to create a content.

Creating something that is not there is hard and it’s even harder to get into someone’s mind but fret not, for it is not impossible. Once you get familiar with your audience’s culture and traditions, you’ll be fine.

In conclusion, here is a video to further deepen the discussion about oral and literate cultures:

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References:

jkendell. (2012, September 20). Orality and Literacy – In What Ways Are Oral and Literate Cultures Similar? Retrieved from ETEC540: Text, Technologies – Community Weblog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540sept12/2012/09/30/1150/

Ong, W. (2005). Orality and Literacy The Technologizing of the World. New York: Taylor & Francis e-Library.

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For the longest time in history, primary oral cultures and literate cultures have coexisted in various periods in time. Therefore, allowing comparative observation of how the both of them function.

Primary oral cultures and literate cultures may be different in most parts but they are very much alike in certain aspects.

First is their potential to be inaccurate. By passage of tongue, orality can be twisted as it’s told. On the other hand, literate culture has the possible bias of the writer. In the delivery of a message, both cultures are prone to inaccuracy or deficiency of facts and disproportionately much of unnecessary details.

Second, is their use of methods in communication in order to disseminate information.  Both cultures can develop one’s active and receptive skill, since it helps people to learn producing and sustaining language in the capacity of the corresponding culture where a person exists in.

Among their apparent differences lies the discontinuity of knowledge in orality. Oral traditions have the tendency to be stagnant due to redundant traditions, while literacy enables abstract concepts to be perceived.

The content of orality cannot survive alone without the aid of literacy, while literacy will lack basis of the history if orality will not matter. Therefore, orality and literacy are related through its dependence to each other.

At the dawn of media, however, comes chirographic conditioning wherein the transit of knowledge becomes a one-way affair. That is to say when the sender of the message makes a text or manuscript, the receiver is usually not present in the same area of the writer. Feedback is not usually directed to the writer.

This is unlike the human communication of discourse where sender and receiver are both active participants in the process. Communication is intersubjective in a way that the message is a subject that is distinctly identified or familiar to the sender. It is similar thinking or experience that allows the receiver to give a passive or active feedback.

Introduction to Oral Storytelling

The History of Writing – Where the Story Begins – Extra History

4 4 1 5 Key terms literacy and orality 952)

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Orality and Literacy – In What Ways Are Oral and Literate Cultures Similar?

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ORAL TRADITION

What’s the Difference between Speech and Writing?

Difference Between Oral Communication and Written Communication

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ORAL/VERBAL COMMUNICATION AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION.

Communication Media and Intersubjectivity in Small Groups

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Anna Lou B. Gulbique

Jorielle Ann J. Panoy

Shawnee Shaine M. Salanap

Manichie Habuyo

Oral culture is the most ancient way of transmitting and receiving information. It is by word-of-mouth and used by communities to tell stories, impart knowledge and culture. Meanwhile, literate culture is observed through writing and print.

The following insights are based on Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word.

 

Mnemonics

According to Oxford Dictionaries, mnemonics is a system of patterns of letters or associations to aid in memorization. This has become a useful tool to fit copious amounts of knowledge into a handy pattern of letters.

Concretization of Ideas

Since oral societies cannot rely on writing to record their knowledge, they instead refer their ideas from the real world. For literate cultures, this has become a good strategy in learning and recalling concepts.

 

 

Modes of Storing Knowledge

Oral cultures cut off information that have no value in the present in order to be practical. Unlike literate cultures that can preserve their knowledge into written accounts.

 

Reliability of Information

Literate cultures are more objective in their accounts of information than oral cultures. For oral cultures, memory bias can alter shared information. Oftentimes, people just accept certain knowledge as truths because its source cannot be traced back. Contrarily, literate cultures have the means to analyze various accounts and arrive at an objective conclusion.

Communication is intersubjective because one person can share something – interests or relationships to have a connection with another person. The media model suggests that information must pass through a “medium” before reaching the receiver in order for communication to occur. For Ong, communication can exist without the need for a medium. Some people can communicate using eye contact alone. Despite the absence of a “medium”, communication still happened through intersubjectivity. 

 

The media model of communication shows chirographic conditioning by not always expecting feedback. It removes the concept that the recipient’s feedback is required for a communication to happen. The recipient may not always give feedback, thus, communication may not take place. Similar to writing, where the writer may anticipate not having a reply from his recipient at all.

 

References:

Edmonson, Munro E. (1971) Lore: An Introduction to the Science of Folklore and Literature (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston).

Jkendell. (2012). Orality and Literacy – In What Ways Are Oral and Literate Cultures Similar?     Retrieved on August 21, 2018 from https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540sept12/2012/09/30/1150

New Learning Online. (n.d). Chapter 5: Authentic Literacy Pedagogy. Retrieved on August 21,       2018 from http://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-5.

Patnaik,P.(2017). Pradosh Patnaik’s Answer to “What is the difference between oral tradition and written history?”. Retrieved on August 26, 2018 from https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-oral-tradition-and-written-history

 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton