This study investigated the influence of teacher language related to a specific network of strategies for problem solving, self-monitoring, and self-correcting on (a) the development and use of independent strategic activities and (b) metacognitive awareness variables in emergent readers. Descriptive analyses of 120 individual lessons conducted daily by eight specially trained early literacy intervention teachers indicated there were positive correlations between the types and frequencies of teacher language that served as a scaffold in support of specific reading strategies and subsequent student demonstration of behaviors reflecting independent strategy use as evidenced by an analysis of their observable oral reading behaviors.