By focusing on the literacy event, this chapter will use perspectives which combine linguistics with ethnography to explore how children talk about texts in both formal and informal social settings. What might analysis of such talk contribute to teachers' understanding of the literacy curriculum and its role in fostering children's development as readers?

Introduction

In a discussion paper outlining the distinctive characteristics of linguistic ethnography Rampton and colleagues define what sets it apart from other research traditions that are concerned with studying language in context, such as applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, in these terms: ‘linguistic ethnography generally holds that to a considerable degree, language and the social world are mutually shaping, and that close analysis of situated language use can provide both fundamental and distinctive insights into the mechanisms and dynamics of social and cultural production in everyday activity’ (Rampton et al. 2004).

If applied linguistics and sociolinguistics give primacy to understanding the role of language in specific contexts, linguistic ethnographers explore the ways in which an ensemble of linguistic, material and cultural resources shape social interaction. Linguistic ethnography is very much attuned to the way in which the social world in its many facets is continuously remade in particular encounters which are both shaped by the past but also have the potential to transform how things stand. Change and continuities are equally important with an accent on individual agency, tempered by an understanding of the social history which structures how any social interaction takes place and the resources which constrain as well as enable the choices individuals can make.