Graduate students in Communication Disorders were found to become enculturated in the use of a specific literacy strategy to help struggling young readers. Supervisors used four transmission modes: modeling, feedback, collaboration and humor as symbolic channels to transmit knowledge and actions (defined as mechanisms) that were needed for the enculturation process. Mechanisms included negotiating power, linking classroom to the clinic, employing reflection, planning, extending thinking, using contrastiveness, verification, affiliating, making positive acknowledgements, employing cognitive dissonance, highlighting, using recurrency, explicit contextualizing, and employing independence. Situated learning experience was also identified as a necessary aspect of enculturation. Powerful mechanisms for struggling students were identified as reflection, employing cognitive dissonance and peer sharing (employing independence).