The problem encountered by bilingual students upon entering school is that they are confronted with 2 vocabularies: the group of words used for speaking and the group of words used for reading. This situation places them in a frustrating predicament because they are acquainted with only a limited amount of English. As students progress gradewise, content materials become more difficult, sentences get more involved, vocabulary becomes progressively harder, and fewer pictures are included. By recognizing that a shift in vocabulary emphasis takes place between the primary and elementary levels, a part of the problem is isolated. Reading development requires an awareness that, to bilinguals, poses a problem comparable to a third-language situation. More difficult vocabulary, idiomatic English, and long involved sentences begin to appear at about the third-grade level. Thus, a teacher must prepare the students. For vocabulary development, the child's speaking vocabulary of 200 to 300 words can be utilized to define new words. Idiomatic English must be recognized by the teacher and presented to the students. Long and involved sentences can be reduced to simple spoken English after the vocabulary is understood. (CM)