ABSTRACT
The New Literacy Studies (NLS) has contributed to understanding the diverse and complex ways reading and writing take place across multiple contexts and has highlighted written language practices as plural and socially situated. One of its key contributions is the identification of collective literacy practices and how the interaction of two or more participants accomplishes literacy (Barton and Hamilton, 1998; Baynham and Masing, 2000; Kalman, 1999; Street, 1995). The notion of learning through the guidance of more expert others (Vygotsky, 1978) — those circumstances where one participant brokers literacy practices, language use, and the consequences of reading and writing for others — is referred to as mediation (Kalman, 1999; Reder, 1999).
