ABSTRACT
Around the world, children of refugees and immigrant workers have to learn the educational language of their host country as a second language (L2). This learning must take place during regular school activities, which are primarily conducted in the L2. Therefore, L2 learning depends heavily on the interaction during these regular activities. Interaction in the L2 and self-initiated output in this interaction by the L2 learner are of crucial importance for second language acquisition (SLA). However, research has shown that interaction in traditional school activities is often rather poor with respect to enhancing SLA. In addition, non-native speaking (NNS) students do not get involved often in higher level thinking in classroom discourse, and hence they do not acquire the L2 well enough to succeed in school. Consequently, to improve classroom interaction, the teacher must adopt a new role.
