Media - A Bridge to Literacy

From SPARK

Brief Summary

"The film media was the key to introducing vernacular literacy on a large scale..."

Many cultural and geographical difficulties present unique problems when attempting to teach vernacular literacy and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus. In a remote part of Papua New Guinea the literacy specialists found that using a combination of film media and literacy provided the best results in helping people come to know the truth. The strategic use of video presentations of specific gospel stories, followed up with specially designed books of the same stories, and use of national narrators helped the Umainakaina people to determine the validity of the gospel and to view literacy of vital importance in their communities.

Introduction

In a preliterate oral society, where even radios and cassette players are hard to come by, the projection of a movie which tells a vital story can be very effective in generating strong feelings of interest, excitement, fear and even anger. Through this article I hope to illustrate how we used the film media to effectively challenge whole communities to realize their need to seek the truth through vernacular literacy.

We are working as a literacy team in the Umanakaina language which has about 2,400 speakers in a rugged and mountainous area on the mainland of Papua New Guinea in Milne Bay province. Translation of certain New Testament books (Gospel of John and Mark, Acts and several Epistles) are in draft form and a book on the life of Christ has been published. The translation team (Sigmund and Ingjerd Evensen) were serving a term of two years in an administrative role (1988-1990).

Physical and Spiritual Profile of the Umanakaina Program

The Umanakaina people have had very little exposure to any print media because of their isolated location. The literacy rate was at about 10.3% before the Umanakaina literacy program was started. Many of the students (adults and children) had almost no reading readiness and some had never even handled a book. There were no graphic symbols used in communication in their oral culture. The literacy rate would rise to about 25% if all those presently attending classes become literate.

At the end of the initial two years of the Umanakaina program, as we were preparing to leave the program, 30 or more students had become fluent readers who were reading with prediction and reading for meaning. Spelling tests used in about 4 of the 12 villages gave good results and writing ability was fairly good, but they had slow writing motions and needed more practice. A number of middle-aged students who were considered below average had also become good readers and spellers but they took more than one year of once a week full day classes to acquire their skills.

The rate of progress depended a lot on the consistency of the student’s attendance and his/her desire to practice literacy skills outside of formal class sessions. Children who had become fluent and then entered the community school performed very well and the teachers have used them to teach English reading skills to their classmates.

The whole program was run from the start by local volunteers without pay because of their spiritual motivation and commitment as Christians. We appointed supervisors for regional centers and a literacy committee was set up to coordinate the whole program and distribute the literacy books.

There is no means of production of books for the people in this isolated place. They will continue to use a number of books already produced and get reprints through SIL, if necessary, until more books are produced when the translation team (Sigmund and Ingjerd Evensen) returns at the end of 1992. There is a large stock of songbooks, local storybooks, numeracy books and the three main readers in the hands of the literacy committee.

The Umanakaina literacy program is considered a difficult program for the following reasons:

1. Difficulty of movement in the mountainous terrain and inaccessibility during rainy season because of flooding.
2. Low literacy rate of some villages that do not have any children attending the community school.
3. A life-style of spending great lengths of time in “garden houses” in isolation and usually far from their village.
4. A lack of material resources because of inaccessibility due to terrain. The high cost of helicopter transportation is prohibitive.
5. Exodus of schooled villagers to the towns for work (e.g. oil palm industry) results in an increasing number of villages having no readers at all.
6. Very few potential literacy teachers that have completed grade 6 in the community school. Most of them have completed grade 4 or less.
7. Mixed religious influence.
   • Conflicting goals and programs of Christian missions working in area.
   • Cargo-cult beliefs. The Umanakaina people have detailed traditional stories about Jesus, who they claim was born in their area. They even name his ancestors and descendants. They have their own oral gospel which describes Christ’s life and work in the Umanakaina area. According to them, they have the tombs of the 12 apostles and other historical evidence to support these stories.
   • Further confusion due to the Bahai movement, the teaching that Christ did not rise from the dead and that he will not return to judge the world, has caused confusion. Also the belief that all religions lead to God, and that Bahaulah is the final revelation and therefore has superseded Christ’s work on the cross, has resulted in strife and arguments.

The above factors made it very difficult for literacy to be introduced on a large scale in a short period of time. By using a combination of film media and literacy focusing on the above conflicts, we managed to introduce vernacular literacy as the best means to know the truth. At present there are over 300 adults in 12 villages from the different missions, including Bahai believers, attending literacy classes. The film media was the key to introducing vernacular literacy on a large scale. Within two years literacy has become of vital importance to the Umanakaina people.

The Media-Literacy Strategy

Since there was a great desire among the Umanakaina people to determine what is the truth and to settle all the confusion caused by the conflicting doctrines (which have mainly been communicated in a trade or church language), we decided to use the film media to present the truth holistically in the Umanakaina language. We decided to show the Creation Story, the Fall of Man connecting it to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ as the means of God’s salvation for us. We wanted to portray Christ in creation as well as the Savior of the world.

What we did

We showed the Genesis project video of Creation, Adam and Eve, and selected films (based on the Gospel of Luke) on Christ’s baptism, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. We showed these 8mm Super-8 movies in eight strategic locations using a portable generator. The Gospel message was preached by a national and then the literacy program was publicized after each showing.

The subjects of these films parallel the content of the literacy books. The literacy books were designed based on the psycholinguistic method of teaching which emphasizes meaningful reading at an early stage in the literacy program. Therefore, students will be trying to read on the very first day of classes.

We designed three reading books which were in line with the sequence of the films. Our first reader had simplified versions of the Creation and Adam and Eve stories. The one had Scriptures relating to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ. The third book was based on “Jesus, the Bridge to Life”. It presents the Gospel and gives the steps to salvation. The Umanakaina narration used in the films was the actual text in the first two readers.

We followed up these film showings later by visiting the eight locations and teaching them a survey of the Bible using a visual panorama of the Bible which covers the major events from Creation to the Day of Judgment. This panorama portrays all the events in a linear continuum in a pictorial form and gives the ancestral line of Jesus. We had translated and made a number of copies of the Panorama and laminated it, presenting a copy to major mission centers. After teaching and answering questions, especially from Bahai leaders, we suggested that literacy in their own language was the only way for them to determine the truth.

Results

Reaction to the Media-Literacy Strategy

The reaction of the people is summarized below:

1. The videos of the Creation story had an impact because it depicted things that they are familiar with in their environment and points to a Creator.
2. The story of the Fall of Man brought sorrow to many and they seemed to identify with the sin of Adam and Eve. They then understood why God was no more in fellowship with fallen man. This video ended with the prophecy that God was going to send a Savior and this set the stage for the films on the life of Christ.
3. Christ’s life showing him in a different environment and life-style generated confusion to those who held cargo-cult beliefs and this resulted in doubt, anger and confusion in many cases.
4. But all realized that he was a man of power and righteousness and therefore the crucifixion scene brought tears to many, but later resulted in joy at the resurrection of Christ. The reason for his death which was explained in the narration helped them to relate his death to the story of Adam and Eve.
5. Bahai believers were very shaken and wanted to know who Bahai was and whether they will be saved, and if their sins were forgiven through Bahaulah.
6. The panorama of the Bible helped to consolidate what they saw in the film. It was a very powerful tool because they could see the whole history of the world from beginning to end. This answered many doubts and fears, and began to make them feel more secure about the veracity of the video. It made the story of Jesus relevant and credible, especially when they recognized how it is related to creation of the world and the fall of man. Seeing the ancestral line of Jesus was culturally significant to them.

Therefore the use of these visual aids was very effective, especially because of the cultural factors in an oral society that enjoys stories and dramatization. However, we had to repeatedly tell the people that this was only a dramatization of historical events, and that they were not watching the real Jesus.

It was also very vital for them to understand the whole extent of the Bible and realize that by learning to read they can have a holistic understanding of history and even future events with regards to the second coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment. In fact, most questions asked were related to what will happen on the Day of Judgment, when it will occur, and who will be saved, especially because of the constant fear in which they live in relation to the spirit world and their understanding of retribution. Also, the realization that the Bible was one story, from Creation to Judgment, helped to promote interest in the Scriptures because it appealed to their non-analytical and holistic learning style and worldview.

Technical Support

We had many problems when we tried to introduce Umanakaina narration to the videos. Some were unavoidable, such as the relatively shorter length of the English narrative as compared to the vernacular. However, many problems could have been alleviated if there had been a technical person to help us.

During the film screening we used two systems: one was the visual projection by a Super-8 projector onto the screen; the other was audio, using a cassette player. We amplified the volume through a portable amplifier via a hand-held mike.

We prepared the Umanakaina audio narration and background effects by first taping the sound track of the video onto an audio cassette tape. We then had this tape playing on a cassette player and a second cassette player recording. During the recording we would turn down the volume of the first player when the English narration started and had a national narrate the Umanakaina text through a mike onto the second player. When the Umanakaina narration for that section was over, we then turned up the volume to the normal level on the first player. This resulted in very irregular sound levels but it was the best we could do.

Suggestions for Improving Media Technical Support

We feel that it would be in the interest of SIL internationally to set up media packages made up of appropriate Bible films and Scripture-in-Use materials. These packages should be with technical support of personnel and equipment which would allow teams to dub in the vernacular narration easily. These packages could be set up in regional centers. The technical equipment has to be transportable so that it can be brought into isolated areas, and should have good projection onto a large screen so that it can be shown in relatively large population centers.

Conclusion

We feel that it is important to integrate media with literacy and Scripture promotion because of the impact of media in oral societies. Media can be used as a bridge when presented appropriately and relevantly. The holistic approach to teaching Biblical concepts and truths appealed to the learning style of the Umanakaina people, thus motivating them toward literacy in order to learn more about what the Bible teaches.

by Daniel and Wei Lei Jesudason