ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the negotiations around printed word-recognizing, however, that the boundary between oral and print language is not as clear as some would think. In the introductory fieldnote excerpt, Karla detailed her brief moment of uncertainty about spelling. She remarked on the confusion between the sound of E in English and I in Spanish. She described the reading of social cues that are key to linguistic negotiations in contact zones: her reading of Andreana's puzzled look, and Andreana's quick self-correction once she realized the source of the confusion. Children who were learning to do this dance had to learn to read the cultural landscape, even as they were also learning to read and write. It's important to note that children didn't necessarily feel the confusion that adults seemed to think they must feel as they worked with the tools in their linguistic toolkits.
