Language and social practices: Everyday talk constructing school-literate practices

A wider definition of literacy takes into account understandings that language is a social practice where teachers construct and maintain particular versions of school-literate classroom practices. By focusing on how young children accomplish their everyday talk in the classroom, this chapter shows a view of childhood language that describes children as already competent communicators within their social worlds. Extracts of children’s talk and conversations are used to show children’s competent use of language and interpretations of the social worlds in which they operate. An investigation of a particular type of classroom language experience, show-and-tell, analyses how teachers use this experience to inform children about how to become literate in the practices of the classroom. In addition, analysis shows how children display their language and social competence in operating in both the teacher’s social order as well as their own