A total of 96 Canadian elementary school children (48 "natives" and 48 nonnatives) participated in a study to determine if there were differences in the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills of native and nonnative children in the same grades in the same school. The subjects were tested for oral and silent reading skills, constrained oral expression, unconstrained oral expression, and written expression. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the native and nonnative groups in terms of oral and silent reading skills; that the nonnative group performed better than the native group in responding orally to the constrained response questions; that their performance dropped drastically when responding to the unconstrained response questions, whereas the native group's performance on this task receded more slowly; and that there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of written expression. (FL)