This study describes a language intervention approach using telephones in a classroom to motivate and facilitate spontaneous oral language in a group of language-delayed kindergarten children. Specific purposes of the investigation were (1) to determine what effect the availability of telephones had on the spontaneous oral language of language-delayed children, (2) to determine if an increase in oral language participation occurred as a result of the intervention, and (3) to determine if the children's language developed. Participating were 32 language-delayed children of multiethnic backgrounds, 18 boys and 14 girls, who were assigned to experimental and control groups within a regular kindergarten class. Subjects were observed during dramatic play, and their speech was recorded verbatim by their teacher and an aide who made anecdotal notes. Subjects in the experimental group were free to use telephones; control group members did not use telephones in the classroom. To assess oral language output several measures were used, including mean length of response, mean of five longest sentences, and Tough's Language Variety Classification. Analyses of data gathered over a 3-month period indicated that for the experimental group there was an increase in oral language participation, an increase in sentence length, and and an increase in mature use of language. It is suggested that an innovative technology-based intervention designed to incidentally encourage talk seems to be an appropriate approach to oral language development. (RH)