It is never just about 'literacy' and 'oracy': Different ways of communicating is the key to 'making meaning'

How do we strike a balance for our students between knowing what, knowing how, knowing why and knowing whether to? This is one of the tensions that exists when we debate the importance of foundational learning/ studies on developing students' capacity and capability, as well as its inclusion in our formal university programs. There are competing dialogues about the privileging of 'oracy' and/ or 'reading and 'writing' as the most useful means of communicating in an intercultural W'nanga setting, and they both have traditions in ideological discourse. Or do they?In this Paper, government rhetoric concerning strategic emphasis needed by tertiary institutes to improve and stabilise literacy, language and numeracy capacity in students, is used as a background to explore aspects of the practice of oracy and literacy. The isolation of one before the other, or the dominance of one over the other serves as minimalist terrain that overshadows the importance of multiple ways of communicating to demonstrate literate capabilities.