A number of claims made by Bereiter and Engelmann, two of the strongest proponents of the verbal-deprivation hypothesis, are examined in light of data gathered during a longitudinal study of two children acquiring Black English Vernacular. The "giant-word syndrome" and its proposed concomitants of absence of developmental stages, deviant imitation, and confusion about homonym use are rejected on the basis of evidence from these children, who are members of the same speech community as the Bereiter-Engelmann subjects. It is suggested that different discourse constraints, not linguistic deficit, are the source of the Bereiter-Engelmann findings. The problems inherent in the Bereiter-Engelmann language program, which is based on a behavioristic model, are briefly discussed. Instruction such as that advocated may be beneficial for the limited number of children involved because it teaches them the school-honored dialect, but the overall effect is to augment the antipathy that already exists toward stigmatized varieties and to increase the difficulties that their speakers have in adjusting to the school culture. (Author)