A study examined the basic patterns of oral discourse in five lower-track, high school English classrooms, and the purposes driving the activity from teachers' and students' perspectives. Five experienced literature teacher-researchers each studied one teacher as that teacher taught an instructional unit on literary text. Results showed that: (1) teachers dominated the discussions; (2) teachers used their turns largely to inform, question, and respond; (3) the kinds of informative remarks made by students reflected almost exactly the kinds of questions their teachers asked them; and (4) teachers responded to their students' contributions most often by restating what had been said. Students in lower-track classrooms seemed to require more supportive information and response from their teachers than students in non lower-track classrooms. These results suggest that teachers should do more to involve their students in classroom talk, but that the problems and patterns observed were actually due to larger social and cultural forces that seemed to resist teachers' strategies and theories. Results showed that a teacher's challenge is to remember that school is only part of a larger culture, and that the larger culture will always find a way to enter the classrooms. (Fourteen tables of data are included; an excerpt of a class discussion is attached.) (PRA)