A study examined the teaching and learning processes in the mother-child interaction that lead to the child's acquisition of the English morphemes for future and past. Data were drawn from transcripts of a mother and daughter's interaction during a period of active acquisition, age 22 to 27 months. Longitudinal microanalytic and macroanalytic methods were combined to study immediate cause-effect relationships, more extended learning periods, and long-term incremental processes that led to performance improvements. Patterns were found in the frequency of future and past morpheme use, context of morpheme use, feedback to spontaneous utterances, progress from restricted formula to generalized use of morphemes, and interaction types (imitative, cued, and spontaneous) involving temporal morphemes. (MSE)