ABSTRACT
Sociocultural studies of literacy (Barton 1994; Gee 1996; Street 1995)—sometimes called “The New Literacy Studies”—have argued that “literacy” is not one thing. Rather, there are as many different “literacies” as there are socioculturally distinctive practices into which written language is incorporated. For example, the sorts of writing and reading that people do on a fan fiction site—let’s say one devoted to Sailor Moon—constitute a distinctive “literacy.” However, one family of literacy practices has served for some time now as the most significant gate to economic success and sociopolitical power in our society. These are reading and writing practices that incorporate “academic language.”
