The problems investigated in the present study are the identification of the most effective type of presentation of dialogues in language instruction--auditory, orthographic, or some combination of the two--and the measurement of the accuracy of pronunciation and the amount of dialogue retained by the student. The controlled experiment, performed with a class of first-year college students of Spanish, also examines theory and procedures for teaching writing and reading in the early stages of audiolingual language courses. Major sections contain introductory remarks; experimental procedures; results; summary, conclusions, and recommendations; and a bibliography. Appendixes include various experimental materials. A statistical analysis of the language learning experiment concludes the study. (RL)