In its first edition Social Linguistics and Literacies was a major contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary field of sociocultural approaches to language and literacy and was one of the founding texts of the New Literacy Studies. This book serves as a classic introduction to the study of language learning and literacy in their social cultural and political contexts. It shows how contemporary sociocultural approaches to language and literacy emerged and Engages with topics such as orality and literacy the history of literacy the nature of discourse analysis and social theories of mind and meaning Explores how language functions in a society Surveys the notion of discourse with specific reference to crosscultural issues in communities and schools.