A study was conducted to determine whether and how children with diverse cultural backgrounds, including the cultural mainstream in North America, might differentially identify and acquire rules of discourse appropriate to becoming literate. This study examined the natural language used by teacher and students recorded within selected periods of literacy learning in a desegregated classroom of first grade students. Subjects were a female teacher from the mainstream culture who had six years of teaching experience and three male children, each from a different cultural background. Results showed that the teacher continued to issue procedural directives within lesson times and over all periods of observation. At the same time, there was little cohesion in the talk, either of the teacher over time or between the teacher and her students, save that the latter tended to cohere as requested to particular demands, queries, or comments on the part of the teacher. (HOD)