Abstract
Research on the acquisition of Portuguese by Spanish speakers has traditionally minimized the relevance of the sociohistorical conditions in which language development occurs. Consequently, linguistic production has been described as a univocal object of analysis dissociated from contextual features and from the influence of the interaction which characterizes the production. This paper is a case study that discusses the extent to which a learner's voice varies in three different settings and how these settings influence and/or constrain the occurrence of this polyphony. Central to the authors' argument are the complexities involved in oral practices.