Focusing on the role of language in learning, this paper discusses schemata and symbolic thinking that help students learn from unfamiliar experiences. The first part of the paper introduces the idea of symbolic thinking by comparing students encountering new ideas with convention-goers making their way around a new city. The section suggests that the convention-goers can do this because they relate unfamiliar experiences to things that are already held in the mind symbolically and adjust old ideas on the basis of new information. The next part of the paper discusses language use in school, and contrasts Transmission teachers, those who see themselves as experts imparting a fixed body of knowledge, with Interpretation teachers, those who acknowledge and work with the ideas with which students come to school. The third part of the paper offers a communication model of language for learning, which encompasses individual capacities for language, language functions, communication modes, and audiences, while the fourth section suggests ways in which the model may be used to facilitate students' self-expressive uses of language. (Four references, a diagram of teaching styles, a diagram of the communication model, and a form for mapping current curricula are included.) (JC)