When Communication Tasks Become tools to Enhance Learning

Effective communication in the classroom is a key element for learning, yet when and how future teachers should acquire such competence is not clear. In this article we explore students–prospective teachers’ written productions of a set of instructions in a learning situation. Through three emblematic cases we illustrate how a communication task focused on a partner selected by the student reveal snot only the student's domain-specific knowledge, but also a mental frame induced by an assumed paradigm, which is both constrained by the student's knowledge level, and purpose oriented by the need of successful social interaction.