Understanding the Orality of Arabic Culture" — Khaled Islaih, MultiLingual, December 2012

This article examines Arabic culture through the lens of semiotics and orality, arguing that Arabic cultural frameworks are fundamentally oral rather than literate — and that digital interfaces and information systems designed within Western literate paradigms systematically fail Arab users. Drawing on Walter Ong's orality and literacy framework and the emerging concept of ethnocomputing, the article proposes that culturally responsive technology design must incorporate orality as a core design dimension rather than treating literacy as a universal default.