Designed to help instructors become aware of factors that may interfere with teaching composition to Mexican-American students, this paper surveys research findings about attitudes toward Spanish-speaking persons in the United States and about language patterns and attitudes of Mexican Americans. It then briefly recommends techniques for working with Mexican-American students and suggests possibilities for future research in this area. The paper stresses that composition instructors need to acquire multicultural teaching strategies if members of minority cultures are to be given a reasonable chance of succeeding at the university level. (GW)