This article, based on a longitudinal, ethnographic study among engineering students, examines the interactional processes surrounding second language (L2) socialization. L2 socialization perspectives argue that the cognitive and the social are interconnected, and that learning an L2 is a process of coming to understand socially constructed meaning distinctions. Recent studies examining L2 socialization have demonstrated that L2 instruction, or L2 instruction in combination with participation in particular speech communities, serves to socialize nonnative speakers into the community's speech norms. This study, with its focus on naturalistic L2 socialization, demonstrates that particular interactional processes define expert, socialized participants, and that particular interactional processes work to socialize novice participants in the electrical and computer engineering team meeting. The study ultimately demonstrates that L2 socialization is part of a larger process of socialization in human development, which is dependent on the novice participants' access to opportunities for interaction with socialized members of the community.