Seeing the invisible: Situating L2 literacy acquisition in child-teacher interaction

The author revisits her earlier qualitative research on ESL children's emergence into literacy, which she conducted with 5- and 6-year olds at a multilingual K-12 school in Casablanca, Morocco. Through further reflection and study, she arrives at the notion of "synchronicity" - a dynamic oneness between teacher and child - as the distinguishing feature of three classrooms where children's literacy development was taking place at an extraordinary pace. This work presents readers with new insights into the affective complexities of child-teacher interaction and its role in literacy development. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.