This paper serves as an introduction to a group of papers produced by the Classroom Interaction Project of the Center for Research in Social Behavior at the University of Missouri in Columbia. This project has been chiefly concerned with ascertaining if black-ghetto and white-suburban classrooms use language differently and, if so, in what ways. Finding earlier methods used in classroom interaction research inadequate, the project has concentrated on the development of formal concepts and methods for the analysis of classroom discourse, and these papers are meant, therefore, to illustrate the application of these formal tools for classroom discourse analysis to the problem of racial differences among classrooms. The paper begins with a description of the methods used in producing the videotape recordings which serve as the data bank for the project. The data bank, which consists of more than 250 videotaped classroom lessons, and the sampling procedures used in obtaining it are then discussed, followed by an explanation of the various stages involved in processing the data. Finally, general conclusions are presented. Although differences between the languages spoken in black and white classrooms were found, there was no indication that black classroom usage is inferior to white classroom usage. See related documents AL 002 751-753. (FWB)