Noting that many instructors involved in teaching writing to students of differing cultural backgrounds seek to pinpoint the origin of the differences in communication between the form of written language conveyed to students and that which they use in their everyday language, this paper recommends ethnography to provide evidence as to what is valued and considered skillful use of language in different cultures. As ethnographic research, the paper analyzes verbal "performance" (e.g., sermons) directed at the Mexican Catholic community in Chicago. According to the paper, the sermons chosen for comparative analysis show rhetorical effectiveness and cultural rapport with the audience. The paper examines in detail three different sermons (delivered by three different priests) both for communicative norms and as literary texts. Based on Dell Hymes'"Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach" and the help of two interpretive consultants, the paper concludes that Hymes' components of communication combine to create successful speech events out of the sermons examined. The paper calls for further research into the norms of interpretation and interaction of different speech communities to understand what plays a role in the evaluation of the way people communicate and the outcome of such evaluations so that some of the gaps in communication that still exist between cultural groups (especially in the educational system) can be bridged. Contains seven notes and six references; texts of the sermons are attached. (NKA)