Despite the surrounding controversy, second language instruction for America's language minority children is an important educational issue for continued methodological innovation and examination. The most effective and productive classroom interaction processes and dynamics in bilingual and second language instruction are still not appropriately described. Researchers must work to measure the effects of particular instructional approaches on student learning outcomes and to "unpackage" those approaches and accurately describe what they entail. Using the technological tools of videotaping and the methodological tools of microethnography, researchers are just beginning to construct the detailed, multifaceted description of the processes of classroom interaction, and use it to facilitate second language learning in limited English-speaking children. (MSE)