The theme chosen for the 31st BAAL Annual Meeting, held in September 1998 at the University of Manchester, UK was Language and Literacies. This volume contains selected papers from the Meeting. Contents Introduction - Teresa O'Brien, University of Manchester 1. National Literacy Strategy: A debate - Jill Bourne, University of Southampton; Gunther Kress, Institute of Education, University of London; Brian Street, King's College, University of London; Alison Sealey, University of Warwick 2. Literacy and Oracy Assessment in an Early Years Intervention Project - Sheena Gardner, University of Warwick and Pauline Rea- Dickins, University of Bristol 3. The Role of Social Class and Home Literacy Practices in Literacy Proficiency in a Group of Chilean Adolescents - John Gibbons, University of Sydney; Elizabeth Lascar, University of New South Wales; Maria Isabel Mizon Morales, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile 4. `How Many Bumps does a Dromedary Have?' Literacies in the EFL classroom - Paula Kalaja and Anne Pitkdnen-Huhta, University of Jyvdskyld 5. Critical Literacy as Classroom Interaction - Catherine Wallace, University of London 6. Authoring in Student Academic Writing: Regulation and desire - Theresa Lillis, Sheffield Hallam University 7. Contrastive Rhetoric: New research avenues - Ulla Connor, University of Indiana 8. The 1998 Reform of German Orthography - Sally Johnson, University of Lancaster 9. Women's Literacy in a Rural Pakistani Community - Shirin Zubair, University of Cardiff 10. Issues for a Working Agenda in Literacy - Gunther Kress, University of London 11. Label Literacy: Factors affecting the understanding and assessment of baby food labels - Guy Cook, University of Reading and Kieran O'Halloran, University of London