Learners' spontaneous speech beyond interaction patterns such as teacher's initiation-learner's response-teacher's evaluation (I-R-E/F) (Heap, 1988; Mehan, 1979; Ohta, 1999) helps lead them to negotiated interaction (Boulima, 1999), which is effective for foreign language learning. This study examines both an instructor's and a learner's perceptions of self-expressive speech in a Japanese language classroom at an Australian university. Methods of data collection and analysis included classroom observations, audio recording of the speech of the instructor and the learner in class, stimulated recall interviews, and discourse analysis. The data showed a gap between the instructor's and the learner's perceptions of the learner's self-expressive speech. The instructor's negative evaluation of the learner's self-expressive speech is related to "act" and "stance" (Ochs, 1993, p. 288), as well as social pressure (Allwright, 1996) within classrooms. (Contains 5 notes.)