A study examined the effectiveness of a set of instructional activities designed to improve communication of university freshmen in standard-level, first-semester English through teaching interrelatedly the reading of prose literature and the writing of expository essays. Subjects, 24 typical first-semester freshmen, participated in the course, with activities including: (1) focusing on a definition of dialogue and three implied questions asked in all reading and writing; (2) creating microcosmic questions and answers; (3) sentence-outlining sub-questions and answers; (4) dialogical "sentence-debining" and sentence-combining; and (5) keeping journals. Besides assignments in reading and writing, transfer of learning was sought by practicing dialogical communication, arranging opportunities for discovering relationships between reading and writing, providing illustrative exercises, and suggesting ways to transfer learning beyond English class. The semester-long demonstration was monitored by six instruments: cloze reading samples, the Goodman miscue analysis, Buxton-scored writing samples, student interviews and instructor journal, and a questionnaire on instructional activities and the Student-Instructional Rating System (SIRS). Results indicated that the set of instructional activities was helpful in improving verbal and written communication. (Nineteen tables of data are included, and examples of dialogical microcosmic sentences, class schedule, student questionnaire, cloze reading samples, rating committee score sheet, writing sample questions, and 12 pages of references are appended.) (MM)