ABSTRACT This work focuses on the analysis of self-selection of Chinese students in a class of Portuguese as a second language. Based on works like Deborah Tannen (1992), Maria das Graças Dias Pereira (2002), Erving Goffman (1975), John Joseph Gumperz (1982) and Luíz Antônio Marcuschi (1991), we discuss how the Chinese students take the self-selection in a class of Portuguese as a second language. The methodology used in this work is Ethnographic Microanalysis (Erickson, 1996). The results point out that, unlike the stereotypical and conservative vision that sees Chinese student as passive, in the interaction analyzed, i) there are several moments in which the students use self-selection, what indicates an active participation; and ii) the students' self-selections are fundamental for the discursive construction of knowledge, once collaborated for the organization of talk in interaction. Keywords: classroom interaction, self-selection, Portuguese as a Foreign Language, China