Linguistic and pedagogical considerations about children's use of a second language in the classroom are discussed with reference to samples of speech obtained from ten to twelve year old children in Germany. The children had been taught the second language of English. The speech is examined in relation to functional and sociolinguistic criteria of discourse analysis. Speech is analyzed as a series of three transactions: the first two transactions are mixed informing and eliciting transactions, and the third is a directing transaction. Classroom discourse in which the students' speech behavior is tightly controlled by the teacher and free speech in the classroom are both analyzed. A German version of classroom discourse is contrasted with an English one. Language functions are viewed as integrated into a model of communicative competence. Two texts are discussed that are meant to show how children play the roles of adults. Pragmalinguistic and sociolinguistic analyses of the English and German samples of free speech in the classroom give a clue to the behavioral strategies children use in order to participate successfully in second language discourse. Four strategies are discussed, and illustrations from texts are included. (SW)