One of the most crucial areas of education - the development of oral language and the acquisition of literacy - is examined here with an effective combination of theory and practice. The sociocultural perspective is illustrated through descriptions of learning by populations usually neglected in treatments of literacy: American Sign Language Users, second-language speakers and minority students. The book covers a broad range of ages, ethnic backgrounds, locations, and literacy concerns from pre-school to law school. Although the populations and literacy issues are diverse, the book's unity is provided by a broadly shared theoretical framework. As such, Interactionist Approaches to Language and Literacy will be valuable to educators at every level and to researchers in applied linguistics, psychology, adult literacy programs, and English as a second language.

"This is an interdisciplinary book that...effectively illustrates the impact of the sociocultural perspective proposed by Vygotsky by describing its applicability to the language learning process of a wide range of groups...The major contribution of this book is...the demonstration of the versatility and generalizability of the Vygotskian theory. The maxim that there is nothing better than a good theory is clearly proven in this book." Chieh Li and Ena Vasquez Nuttall, Contemporary Psychology