Presents findings from a 9-month ethnographic study of cross-cultural learning for the purpose of helping teachers better understand classroom conditions and behaviors that support and hinder students' comprehension of teachers' spoken language. Follows an 8-year-old native English speaker in an Icelandic classroom. Suggests that incomprehensibility as well as students' discomfort and sense of vulnerability can be greatly reduced when teachers scaffold their use of language in specific ways. (SG)