In this article we explore the process and product of languaging as it concerns the learning of the grammatical concept of voice (active, passive, and middle) in French. We examine and analyze the amount and type of languaging produced by a small sample of university students as they struggle to understand the concept of voice. Students who are high languagers learn about the grammatical concept of voice in French with greater depth of understanding than low languagers. We demonstrate that there is a relationship between the quality and quantity of languaging and performance as measured by immediate and delayed posttest stages. These findings suggest that languaging is a key component in the internalization process of second language grammatical concepts. Implications of our research for pedagogy are briefly considered.

The growing literature about the positive effect of languaging or self‐explaining has so far failed to determine why some learners benefit from languaging more than others. We attempt to address this gap through a microgenetic analysis of the languaging behaviour of two university students learning French as a second language, whom we identify as a high and a low languager. We trace the development of their understanding of the grammatical concept of voice in French. Our findings suggest that languaging is a self‐scaffolding tool that our high languager used efficiently to solve cognitive conflicts, mediate mental processes, and construct meaning in general. On the basis of our results, we call for a change in educational practices that would allow for more learner agency through self‐scaffolding mediated by languaging.

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