ABSTRACT
The chapter gives a description of the whole-class storying project – 'Jessica and Jordan meet an alien' – in the second grade class and some of the subsequent related activities, which seeks to highlight the importance of talk in student learning, and to provide an example of how an inclusive concept of talk – talk in 'many tongues' – can be effectively and enjoyably practised in an English-medium classroom. Bilingual editions of 'Jessica and Jordan meet an alien' provided opportunities for children to reflect on the written and spoken forms of their two languages and to engage in conversation about them in school. There is a large body of research which confirms that this sort of meta-linguistic talk and awareness is of great importance for bilingual students to be able to successfully learn in their two languages and to shift their learning between the two.
