These proceedings contain six conference papers with commentary and discussion: (1) Dell Hymes, "On Communicative Competence," (2) David McNeill, "How to Learn a First Language," (3) Wayne O'Neil, "A Theory of Linguistic Performance," (4) William Stewart, "Social Dialect," (5) Paul Cohen, "Some Methods in Sociolinguistic Research," and (6) S. Alan Cohen, "A Curriculum Demonstration Project for Teaching Literacy Skills to Disadvantaged 7th and 8th Graders." Also included are topical summaries of the conference workshops and a summary of an earlier conference on the language development of disadvantaged children, held at Yeshiva University in 1965. (EF)