All speakers bring to even simple verbal encounters complex presuppositions and expectations that may create discourse interference. A second-language encounter carries a complex and often inexplicable expectation load. Language expresses meaning and intentions, but also carries social import. The value or appropriateness of speaking itself varies interculturally and intraculturally when it is considered in combination with sex, age, or participant status. Styles of presentation, including speech style, use of phatic communion, overlapping and turn-taking, and nonverbal behavior, vary considerably within and among groups. Nonnative speakers who do not know the codes or rituals of a group, or who use them inappropriately, will be judged, consciously or unconsciously, as inefficient in the communicative task. Discourse interference can even be produced by aspects of the second-language learning process, including instructor attitudes, the availability of appropriate social and functional models, and structural forms. The type of second language, its formality, elaborateness, registers, code systems, and the interest with which it is presented will color the learner's perceptions, competence, and successful communication with native speakers. An instructor can and should create awareness of the variability of intercultural encounters and potential areas of misinterpretation. (MSE)