Abstract:
Our education and culture involve us daily in one of the defining activities of humankind
the expression of knowledge and emotions through oral language. However sophisticated
communication technology becomes, we remain living and breathing creatures of oral
habit. We express ourselves through songs and poems, through narrative, through
anecdote and language play, as well as through rational argument and exposition. Print
culture has obviously brought great advantages for both the storage and the dissemination
of information. However, I shall argue that we should not carelessly ignore the relevance of
oral culture to the postulation of knowledge. In the context of language knowledge oral
communication is crucial both to language learning and to language use. It is a defining
characteristic of being human. Therefore, in this paper, I shall emphasise the importance of incorporating theories of orality in the development of materials for language education.
