This article examines how sociocultural perspectives that recognize literacy as language use in context is played out in novel-based learning of four English as a Foreign Language (EFL) junior high classrooms taught by one teacher. The study is teacher-research centered around the classroom practices and student writings of the first author's junior high grade 2 classes from 2013-15. Member-checking conducted in 2020-21 with former students triangulated and enriched the data in ways unique to educational research. Findings trace how the first author's classroom activities helped students recognize literacy as the contextualized use of language that connected English to their lives in localized and critical ways.