Studying contemporary vernacular literacies can be described as aiming to catch sight of the invisible. The things people do with written texts in their everyday lives are sometimes hidden from themselves as well as from the researcher. People are not always aware of how they use written texts in their everyday lives and therefore cannot answer the reseacher's curious questions on the subject. Making observation of people's actions in their day-to-day lives is not always a realistic option. Such circumstances lend vernacular literacies aspects of invisibility.
This partial invisibility is something that I need to deal with in my research on literacies in homes and classrooms among adult Kurds living in Sweden. In my article, I describe and discuss ways of visualizing vernacular literacy practices. I provide examples of things to consider when conducting interviews and classroom observations. I also argue that the concepts of context and domain are very useful tools for analyzing vernacular literacies, and especially if a clear distinction is made between the two concepts.