Return-Path: <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h08K7eP19382; Wed, 8 Jan 2003 15:07:40 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 15:07:40 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <5.0.0.25.2.20030108150448.0207cb00@postoffice.brown.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Christina Zarcadoolas <Christina_Zarcadoolas@brown.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-HEALTH:3860] Re Oral Communication X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0 Status: O Content-Length: 1987 Lines: 51 The sources posted on oral communication with low literate people are definitely very practical and useful. I'd like to throw another aspect of oral communication into the hopper. Language theory researchers - specifically what we know from studying and understanding more about the specific and often powerful differences between oral communication skills and competencies and literacy ( in the written word). Theorists and applied sociolinguists, ethnographers - David Olson, Scribner and Cole, Searle... have demonstrated both the differences and the synergy between these two forms of human communication. They've been central to my work with low literate populations for many years. I routinely see and study the abilities of low literate people to speak in sentence structures and use vocabulary that they could neither read or write. The marvelous AMA tape demonstrating the challenges of low literate adults is an excellent example of this if you want to take a closer look. My point in this too-long email is that what we know about the structure and functions of spoken and written language should play an important part in how we perceive what low literate people understand and, thus how we train and advise people to speak with them. Here are references for some of the folks I've referred to above. Olson, D.R. (1980). Some social aspects of meaning in oral and written language". In D.R Olson (Ed.). The Social Foundations of Language and Thought. New York: Norton & Co. Olson, D.R. (1977). "From utterance to text: The bias of language in speech and writing". Harvard Educational Review, 47, 257-281. Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. Thanks, chris Christina Zarcadoolas PhD Center for Environmental Studies Director, Environmental Literacy Initiative Brown University Box 1943 Providence, RI 02912 401-863-7347 caz@brown.edu www.envstudies.brown.edu
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