In an oral strategies video our team has been working on, Regina describes a piece of candy to her friend Laura. When Jim comes into the picture, Laura has not yet tried the candy. She attempts to tell him what she heard from Regina but she struggles to remember and repeat what she was told. Then she takes a bite of the candy. It’s like the lights come on! Now she gets its! Now that she’s tried it and experienced it for herself, she easily expresses—in her own words—how good the candy is.

       The reality that 2/3 of the world’s adults don’t, OR WON’T LEARN FROM READING, has challenged one of MAF-LT’s clients to move their leadership training materials from 6^th grade to 2^nd grade level. A common mistake made by literates when simplifying training for these “Oral Learners” is the temptation to “dumb down” the material. After all, what can they teach if they are limited to a 2^nd grade vocabulary?

But the adults they are working with are not second graders. Many are intelligent men and women who may be perceptive believers. As Oral Learners they just don’t have the ability (or desire) to use written material. They don’t divide life into abstract categories like “love” or “forgiveness.” Neither did Jesus. He told memorable stories, like the Prodigal Son! 

Since an Oral Learner’s capacity for learning is limited largely to memory, the challenge is to make important lessons more memorable. Here are some ideas: