Translator's Preface 5

Introduction 12

Chapter 1: Ideology 19
Ideology│Marx and 'False Consciousness'│Experience vs. Theory: An Example│Implicit vs. Explicit Theories│The Linguist's Theory│Bad English Theory│Implicit and Explicit Theories, Primary and Secondary Theories│Back to Ideology

Chapter 2 Meaning 43
What does 'meaning' mean? │ Democracy

Chapter 3: The Literacy Crisis 51
Literacy and Politics│Some Facts About Literacy│A Case Study

Chapter 4: Literacy as Social Practice 72
New Literacy Studies│Discussion on the Perspective on Literacy as a Social Practice│The Problem of Aspirin Disease

Chapter 5: The Great Divergence of Orality and Literacy 85
Literacy │ The Primitive and the Civilized │ Concrete Science vs. Abstract Science: Documenting the Difference Between Primitive and Civilized │ Literacy: The Great Divergence │ Literacy as 'Taming the Wild Mind' │ Orality and Literacy as Two Different Worlds │ Not Literacy vs. Orality, Integration vs. Intervention │ Literacy: An Ideological Model

Chapter 6: The Myth of Literacy and the History of Literacy 102
The Myth of Literacy│Plato│Religion and Literacy

Chapter 7: The Role of Literacy and Paulo Freire 115
Literacy, 'Higher Cognitive Abilities' and Schools | Scribner and Cole | Schools and Professions | Prairie and Liberative Literacy

Chapter 8: New Literacy Studies 133
Different Worldviews Replace the Contrast of Orality and Literacy│Diverse Ways of Speaking│Unequal Childhoods: Two Models of Child Rearing│Conclusion

Chapter 9: Social Language, Situational Meaning, and Cultural Models 148
Language and Social Languages│Heteronyms│Similarity in the 'Eye of the Beholder'│Meaning│Cultural Models/Reflected Worlds

Chapter 10: Cultural Models in Practice/The Reflected World 172
Parents│Self-Judgment and Actual Behavior│Dominant Myths│Education

Chapter 11 Discourse Analysis 187
Introduction│Language Variation Revealing Social Identity│A Case Study of Discourse Analysis in Argumentation

Chapter 12 Discourse Analysis: Stories at School 210
Discourse Analysis of the Story and Its Context│Comprehensive Meaning of the Text│Why Leona's Story Fails in School

Chapter 13: Discourse and Different Literacies 242
New Literacy Studies│A Case Study on Language Use and Human Types│Discourse│Becoming a 'True Indian'│Discourse Again│Discourse in Law School

Chapter 14: More Discussion on Discourse 269
Acquisition and Learning│Literacy and Discourse│Copy

Chapter 15: Language, Individuals, and Discourse 289
Language in Discourse│Language at Home and School│Discourse of Boundaries│Discourse, Individuals, and Performance

Chapter 16: Discourse, Individual, and Performance 309

Chapter 17: Science and the Living World 331
Science and the Living World│Birds and the Brain

Conclusion 345

Reference 358
Search 376

A representative introductory book leading the new literacy research

In 1990, when the first edition of this book was published, the prevailing view was that literacy was a personal thing that happened inside one's head.
In this book, James Paul Gee, a leading American sociolinguist, presented the view that literacy must be understood within a social context.
Research conducted from this sociolinguistic perspective was called ‘new literacy research’ because it was a new paradigm at the time.
New literacy research has now become a fully fledged field of study, and this book has become a sought-after introductory text for those studying literacy as a social language.
Through the book, we can confirm the problems with the cognitive perspective on literacy and the need for a sociocultural approach.

'Different literacies' by different people

An individual's literacy cannot be explained separately from society.
To explain that literacy is closely related to society, the author presents the English word 'discourse' as a distinction between 'discourse' starting with a lowercase d and 'discourse' starting with a capital D.
According to the author's definition, 'discourse' refers to the individual speech or writing used by an individual, whereas 'discourse' encompasses the unique ways in which a social group reads and writes, speaks and acts, and makes value judgments and believes.
Every social group has its own discourse.
And because an individual belongs to multiple groups and is influenced by the unique discourse of each group, when using language, he or she follows the language usage style of the discourse to which he or she belongs.
Therefore, literacy reveals who a person is and what he or she does, in other words, what his or her identity is.
Everyone's literacy varies depending on their identity and discourse.
Therefore, literacy is always ‘literacies’ or ‘different literacies’.

Literacy that reveals its true meaning only in a social context

In this book, we analyze various discourses to understand the aspects of discourse that influenced them.
The warnings on aspirin bottles reflect the pharmaceutical company's values.
The story a seven-year-old child tells in class incorporates the oral traditions of the child's community.
African-American, working-class, and upper-class students read the same text and interpret it differently.
By analyzing everyday discourse commonly encountered around us, the author shows how literacy varies depending on an individual's sociocultural background.
This allows us to understand that literacy only has true meaning within a social context.

A book for literacy research and education that is consistent with social justice

This book reminds literacy researchers and educators of the importance of a sociocultural perspective.
Interpreting words and understanding sentence structure alone cannot fully understand the meaning of a text or improve literacy skills.
A story told by a seven-year-old child is an interesting text with profound meaning for those studying oral culture, but in school, it is treated as an inappropriate story because of its grammatical errors and unclear subject matter.
The reason why minority students in law school fail to keep up is not because they lack literacy skills, but because they are unfamiliar with the competitive discourse conventions of law school.
Studying or teaching literacy without considering these points excludes anyone who does not fit into the mainstream discourse.
Therefore, for fair literacy research and education, we must always pay conscious attention to discourse.
This book will serve as a theoretical foundation for anyone considering ethical and critical literacy research and education.