Some people are oral learners because of their limited education. They may not read or write at all, or they may read with difficulty. Many oral learners can read but prefer learning by oral means. If their culture is traditionally oral, they frequently prefer to learn through oral methods even if they are highly educated. When many people in a culture are oral learners, it affects the whole culture and permeates many aspects of people's lives, such as thought processes and decision making. Scholars call this whole cluster of characteristics and effects "orality." The Deaf community displays many of these traits that scholars associate with the term orality, though the Deaf cannot properly be called "oral."2 Likewise, there are literates who demonstrate many characteristics associated with the concept of orality, an effect referred to as "secondary orality." (Secondary orality will be addressed in detail in chapter six.)

In summary, approximately two thirds of the world's population lives by orality. Many of them have no other choice because they have inadequate literacy skills, but others who are quite literate strongly prefer to learn via oral means. Together they comprise an oral majority who cannot or will not learn well through print based instruction. This poses a challenge to those who want to communicate effectively with them.

After listening to a speaker discuss the challenge that orality poses, a ministry leader approached the speaker. "If what you say is true," he told the speaker, "we will have to rethink everything we are doing." He was right. Taking orality seriously can revolutionize ministries and has the potential to greatly increase our effectiveness. But what should we do differently? The following chapters describe specific ways to improve effectiveness in making disciples of oral learners. They describe practical steps that various churches, organizations and agencies are taking. A number of them share a common vision that addresses the predominance of oral communicators in the world. That common vision is:

• God's word for every "tribe, tongue, people and nation";
• addressing the issue of orality;
• resulting in church planting movements;
• providing resources for oral, chronological, narrative presentations of God's word, in order to disciple and equip leaders.

To these issues we now turn.

2. Deaf with an upper case "D" by common practice refers to the people group or population segment, in contrast to lower case "deaf" referring to the physical characteristic.