DESCRIPTORS *Computer Assisted Instruction; *Computer Uses in Education;

This paper details a 2-year study of exemplary uses of electronic texts (information displayed electronically on a computer screen) in two English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learning contexts. Topics include the following: the need and desire to communicate; opportunities for topic control; and opportunities for planned and unplanned discourses. Language and literacy are socially mediated and socially constructed phenomena. Where technology is commonly viewed as a venue for independent, non-social activity, quite the opposite has been observed by researchers. Indeed, the presence of technology in conjunction with the goals, purposes, and epistemologies of these teachers is resulting in a unique and powerful classroom dynamic where children are taking control of their own meaning-making with teachers scaffolding and guiding the process. The manner in which these activities can be orchestrated and supported by technology is instructive for teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and curriculu