Includes bibliographical references and index. Also includes Ngaanyatjarra glossary and language notes.

Introduction Practice-Based Ethnography -- The Evolution of a Social Approach to Literacy -- A Social Theory of Learning -- Language Socialisation -- An Ethnography of Changing Social Practice in the Ngaanyatjarra World -- Structure of the Book - Introducing the Ngaanyatjarra -- Ngaanyatjarra Language and Culture -- Yarnangu - The People

Part 1: Living in the Now

1. From Forgetting to Remembering In Loving Memory of... -- In Celebration of the Birth of... -- Naming as Social Practice -- The Speeding Up of Time: An Accelerated Modernity -- Conclusion

2. Transmitting Orality and Literacy as Cultural Practice Domestic Domains -- Community Domains -- Institutional Domains -- Conclusion

Part 2: New Figured Worlds

3. 'Mission Time': Adapting to the New Mt Margaret Mission -- Schooling at Mt Margaret -- Learning to Work -- Warburton Ranges Mission -- The Schooling Imperative -- Building a Christian Value Ethic -- Conflicting Values and Practices -- Conclusion

4. Everything was Different because of the Changing 'Native Welfare Time': Literacy and the State Narrative of Advancement Education for Unemployment -- Everything was Different -- 'Government Time': Self-Determining Practices and the Assertion of Control -- 'Homeland Time' - Outstations and the Return to Country -- Conclusion

5. The Cultural Production of Literate Identities From Oral to Literate: Changing Modes of Communication -- Literacy, Christianity and Adults at Warburton Ranges Mission -- Literacy as an Emergent Social Practice -- Letter-Writing as Social Practice -- Literacy as a Political Strategy -- Literacy and Leadership -- Literate Identities -- Conclusion

Part 3: Past, Present, Future

6. The Meaning of Things in Time and Space Altered Spatio-Temporal Practices -- The Social Construction of Lived Space -- Things in Space -- Social Space and the Artefacts of Literacy -- Conclusion

7. You Fellas Grow up in a Different World Altered Developmental Trajectories -- New Technologies, New Modes of Communication -- Adaptive Learning -- Linguistic Creativity -- Styling the New - Conclusion

Conclusion Changing Social Practice: The Ontological Shift -- Newly Literate or Failing? -- An Altered Language Socialisation Framework -- New Learning for New Times -- In Conclusion

Appendix: Literacy Assessments

"Talk, Text and Technology is an ethnographic exploration of language, learning and literacy in remote Indigenous Australia. This unique work traces the historical transformation of one Indigenous group across four generations. The manner in which each generation adopts, adapts and incorporates new innovations and technologies into social practice and cultural processes is illuminated - from first mission contact and the introduction of literacy in the 1930s to youth media practices today. This book examines social, cultural and linguistic practices and addresses the implications for language and literacy socialisation." (Book Cover)

Description based on print version record.