This book brings together nine case studies of teachers and young learners worldwide. In each setting, classroom interaction is interpreted to illustrate how teachers and their students verbally co-construct culturally appropriate learning attitudes and behaviours.

Roger Barnard is a senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He has spent many years working with language teachers of young learners in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Professor María E. Torres-Guzmán is a professor in bilingual/multicultural education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY. She has primarily focused on teacher development and cultural aspects of the education of language minority populations in the United States, Spain and elsewhere.