ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on Kelli, a seven-year-old who had just moved from the United States to Iceland and, more than anything else, she wanted a playmate. It discusses her interactions with three Icelandic girls and the impact of their interactions on the development of a system of communication and Kelli's acquisition of Icelandic. Equally important was the fact that, as the girls constructed their communicative system, they created an environment which encouraged experimentation, a condition that would be essential to Kelli's eventual acquisition of the new language. From studies of first language acquisition people understand the development of language to be an interactive phenomenon, a negotiation between two parties. Thought-provoking examples of second-language students and native-speakers investigating subject matter in meaningful, interactive contexts include Barry Taylor's description of 'real communication' in the multilingual classroom, and Burgess and Gore's emphasis on collaborative, mixed-ability grouping.