A study investigated the effects of eight sessions of classroom instruction on the ability of adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) to produce Wh- questions orally. Preliminary assessment of the students' writing samples enabled classification of two groups: "proficient" (n=6), consistently able to produce written samples of Wh- questions with subject-verb inversion; and "non-proficient" (n=5), who had not attained this stage. Comparison of pretest and post-test oral scores found that neither group improved in grammatical accuracy of these interrogatives. The "proficient" group had been expected to show statistically significant improvement. However, the instruction was effective in increasing students' oral readiness to produce these questions. Contains 17 references. (MSE)