The study described in this volume investigated the talk of thirteen-year-old boys and girls, recorded while they were working in small groups on tasks set by their teachers. Specifically, research focused on the interplay between cognitive and communicative functions of speech in contexts planned for learning. "The Children and Their Talk" describes the purposes of the study, the population group (56 students from two large secondary schools), and general procedures of data collection. "Making Sense Together" discusses group collaboration, social skills, cognitive strategies, and other aspects of the communication process. "Studying Group Talk" details the students' responses to the task situations and investigates such topics as attitudes toward pupils' contributions, the manner in which tasks are presented, and group composition. "Frames: How to Understand Conversations" describes and illustrates the nature of meanings generated during conversation and investigates the relation of these meanings to the linguistic forms used. "Questions and Questioning" discusses the relationships between questioning and the following: cognition, question forms and functions, and social power. An appendix describes the tasks used. (KS)