Orality,Literacy,and Stars Wars

Abstract

Speech that is authentically oral tends to avoid language that is abstract and conceptual in favor of “down to earth” language. Literacy tends to encourage the former at the expense of the latter. Our educational system starting at the primary level should encourage the latter even while teaching habits of reading and writing. This can be done by including oral recitation in the curriculum and in particular recitation of popular poetry accompanied by music, dance, and also memorization. The modern media, despite their use of electronic sound and image, tend to overuse conceptual language to disguise the hard meaning of what is being communicated. The management of the public relations of the shuttle disaster offered a striking illustration of this habit.