In order to investigate the effects of dialect interference on learning to read and the ways teachers accommodate reading instruction for first grade black children, observations and tape recordings were made of reading instruction in fourteen predominantly black classrooms, showing episodes of potential dialect conflict and six teaching styles: vocabulary approach, decoding approach, standard pronunciation approach, white liberal approach, black artful approach, and interrupting approach. A dialect measure was administered to 208 black children and reading test scores were obtained, while teachers were placed in accommodation or interference groups and in teaching style groups. The black artful group had significantly higher reading scores than the interrupting and white liberal groups, and significantly lower dialect scores than the interrupting and vocabulary groups. There was a significant negative correlation between dialect and reading scores for all groups. Black artful teachers were high on task orientation and mutuality of communication and interrupting teachers were low on both dimensions. (Author/JM)