A study investigates how asking-for-information interactions are managed in actual talk and how they are represented in textbooks for learners of English as a second language (ESL). Data are confined to opening and closing sequences in interactions, and are derived from 60 real-life and 60 textbook dialogue interactions. The real-life interactions took place at a university information desk and in calls to the Port Authority of New York for transportation information. Textbook interactions were intended for adult learners. Three features of the opening and closing sequences were examined: (1) average utterance length in turns and the percentage of the overall dialogue that is opening- or closing-related; (2) the number and percentage of politeness markers; and (3) one-part and two-part interactions for greetings and leavetakings. Analysis suggests that significant differences exist between real-life and textbook dialogue characteristics. In addition, important differences between telephone and face-to-face interactions in information requests were found, and, therefore, the reliability of telephone data for drawing conclusions about conversation in general is called into question. (MSE)