The complexity of language use can be illustrated by the storytelling of three different language users. The first is a college freshman, retelling a story in three different situations. In a test-like situation, her language is short and choppy, whereas in more natural settings involving family and friends, her language is more spontaneous. In the test situation, she fully develops a few centers of interest, while in the less formal settings she tells what interests her most. In the case of the second subject, a black adolescent beginning reader, his first story--told to a tutor in a friendly atmosphere--is spontaneous and rich in centers of interest. His second story, told in a different social setting for the purpose of providing reading material, is short, choppy, and dull, and reflects his experiences with reading instruction. The third subject, a six-year-old, says that people write at school to learn their letters and words, and they write at home because they like to do so. If teachers want to discover their students' potential, they must let them write, read, and tell stories limited only by their own linguistic resources, rather than by the teacher's restrictions imposed upon them. (HTH)