Aiming to provide a case-study account of features of the ZPD (zone of proximal
development) in language teaching and learning, we analysed 95 exchanges in
interactive dialogue journals written over 10 months between a 6-year-old Farsi
speaker beginning to learn English and his Canadian teacher. Using a scheme of
language functions developed by Shuy (1993), we show how the teacher and student
constructed and sustained a long-term written conversation involving intricate
patterns of complementary, asymmetrical scaffolding. We interpret the findings to
suggest the value of analysing language learning and teaching as integrally unified,
interactive phenomena. We suggest questions worthy of future research into features
of the ZPD in language teaching and learning.
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