A study examined the teaching behaviors of Mexican American mothers using an "everyday" and a "school-related" task. The sample consisted of 37 Mexican American mother-child dyads. All children were preschoolers, with a mean age of 6.1 years and no history of developmental delays or learning difficulties. All mothers were proficient in English and worked outside the home. The two tasks were shoe-tying (tying shoelaces in a standard bow) and a selective attention task in which children indicated whether two figures were similar in shape and color. The results indicate that the mothers altered their instruction across time and according to the task at hand. Under everyday conditions, the mothers relied primarily on verbal behaviors, such as commands, labeling, directives, and verbal corrections to guide and maneuver children's activity. Under the school task condition, mothers relied on nonverbal behaviors, primarily visual cues and physical corrections. The mothers also instructed their children in a "complementary" fashion, altering their general strategy according to the demand on the child. Regardless of task, however, mothers tended to follow an overall instructional pattern consistent with that proposed by a Vygotskian framework. Finally, mother's educational level was found to be related to her teaching behaviors under the everyday task, but not the school task. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/SV)