An interpretive account of two schools participating in the piloting of a new English program in Botswana junior secondary schools is presented in this paper. Methodology involved observation; analyses of school documents and student texts; and interviews with students, teachers, and administrators. Based on the perspective that teaching is an interactive exchange mediated by language, the study sought to describe the nature of classroom interactions in Botswana junior secondary schools. Examples of oral and written texts produced by teachers and students during lessons are described. With regard to communicating messages, teachers saw their goal as one of transmitting the information needed to pass the examination. This resulted in a lack of student cognitive engagement and in an emphasis on authority. With regard to creating meaning through communication, students concentrated on replicating rather than "re-presenting" information. With regard to language and learning, teachers' use of English as a second language hindered students' ability to develop language and communication skills. A conclusion is that as long as teachers rely on a transmission-of-information approach to teaching, students will be constrained by the imposed frameworks of others' knowledge. Two figures are included. Appendices contain sample lessons. (Contains 7 references.) (LMI)