This contribution documents the strategies bi/plurilingual children spontaneously develop when confronted with a task that demands comprehension of texts in a third language. To illustrate these strategies in context, the paper draws from classroom interaction excerpts: small groups of children (ages 8-10) discover meaning in a text in a language unknown to them (Mandarin written in the Chinese script). International research has long documented the metalinguistic abilities shown by bilinguals in approaching new languages (e.g. Bialystok, 2001; Cummins, 2000), and their facilitative nature for further language learning. This paper documents how competence in two languages, and specifically heightened language awareness, serve as resources to build knowledge in context. (Contains 2 notes.)