Preliminary results of a comparison of the language modifications made by teachers when telling stories to native English speakers and non-native speakers of English at various proficiency levels suggest that teachers need to do more than make the routine modifications in linguistic input to lower-level learners. Teachers need to: (1) act on the feedback offered by the learners concerning how much of what they are being told is comprehensible, and (2) use caution in making assumptions about the learners' knowledge of the world, not taking for granted that non-native speakers are less knowledgeable than native speakers but first finding out how much they do know. (MSE)