ONE OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF PRODUCING ENGLISH SKILLS MATERIALS OR TEACHER-TRAINING MATERIALS FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES IS THAT EXTREME VARIATIONS BETWEEN THE STUDENT'S CULTURE AND THE MATERIALS WRITER'S CULTURE CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INTERFERENCE IN COMMUNICATION. A SPEAKER'S VISION IS STRUCTURED BY THE KINDS OF TRAINING, BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL (FOLK, POPULAR, MASS MEDIA), WHICH HIS OWN CULTURE PROVIDES. IT MAY LIMIT OR DISTORT HIS OBSERVATION OF THE FOREIGN CULTURE. THE AUTHOR DISCUSSES EDWARD HALL'S TEN "PRIMARY MESSAGE SYSTEMS," (FROM "THE SILENT LANGUAGE," 1959) AND PRESENTS RELEVANT OBSERVATIONS OF AFGHAN CULTURE WHICH ARE AT VARIANCE WITH AMERICAN CULTURE. VARIATIONS BETWEEN THE WRITER'S AND READER'S CULTURES IN ANY SPHERE MAKE THE TASK OF PREPARING MATERIALS MORE DIFFICULT. THE TEACHING MATERIALS MUST BE PRESENTED WITHIN AN EDUCATIONAL PATTERN FAMILIAR, OR AT LEAST UNDERSTANDABLE, TO THE READER. AT THE SAME TIME THEY MUST EMPLOY THE VERBAL OR VISUAL DEVICES NECESSARY TO MAKE COMPREHENSIBLE THE LANGUAGE CONCEPTS SELECTED FOR TEACHING. THEY MUST ALSO RELY ON ILLUSTRATIONS, EXAMPLES, AND VOCABULARY UNDERSTOOD IN THE READER'S REAL EXPERIENCE. THIS ARTICLE APPEARS IN "TESOL QUARTERLY," VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1, MARCH 1968, PUBLISHED BY THE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES, INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20007. (AUTHOR/AMM)