Over a 10-year period, the oral language development of 338 pupils was studied from kindergarten through grade 9 to establish the most crucial and frequent oral language difficulties. Recorded samples of oral English from each subject were segmented by oral intonation patterns and syntactic units, and were analyzed yearly in terms of 21 oral language problems or deviations from standard spoken English. Progress in resolving these difficulties was than plotted for four groups--Caucasians with high and low language proficiency, Negroes with low language proficiency, and a random sample. Results indicated that the most persistent difficulties for those children not handicapped by social dialect are not in usage but in developing coherence and organization and that individual instruction in this area is much more helpful than drill in usage. On the other hand, the most persistent problems for Negro children are those of usage, particularly compound verbs and the verb "to be." Oral drill based on expressing ideas, attitudes, and values of concern to the learners is more effective instruction than workbook drill. (This report is based on an earlier study, ED 001 275.) (DL)