Society is not in a crisis of literacy, but in a crisis of literate skills. Being literate in today's formal education system means being able to talk and write about language, to explain and sequence implicit knowledge and rules of planning, and to speak and write for multiple functions in appropriate forms. Literate understanding requires far more than basic literacy skills, and the current emphasis on basic skills to eliminate the "literacy crisis" will not produce literate students. This paper gives details of research activity recently undertaken that brings teachers, students, and researchers together in classrooms in a collaborative study of language and that helps students improve their handling of basic mechanics and understand what it means to be literate speakers and writers. In this research, student improvement in basic English skills and increased facility in spoken and written English come as part of the natural process of meaningful research on the types and functions of language in their daily lives. (MSE)