The first part of this study explored the form of verbal exchanges in the classroom, the effects of various conditions upon the exchanges between child and adult, and the child's competence in producing questions and narratives. Research was carried out in two first-grade classrooms located in a predominately Hawaiian working-class suburb of Honolulu. Children were found to be more likely to volunteer narratives in recorded conversations with a familiar adult when they were not answering questions. Since individually directed questions were generally interpreted as negative attention, the typical forms of classroom communication apparently are not the most productive ones. The second part of the study, using the same subjects, evaluated whether the use of nonstandard speech by first-grade children interfered with their learning to read. Evidence implied that improvement in reading sentences written by the child correlated with an index of the use of standard speech and that the use of nonstandard verbs correlated negatively with the correct identification of pictures used in "reading readiness" tests. (Author/LH)