This pamphlet maintains that genuine discussions require a different agenda and teacher approach from other types of classroom sessions, and uses actual classroom transcripts as evidence and illustration. The first section, "Discussion as a Special Event," analyzes the patterns of common classroom interactions, finding a formal and strongly rule-governed pattern in which the teacher has a didactic stance, does most of the talking, asks nearly all the questions, and controls the way the talk develops. This discourse pattern, termed "instructional talk," as well as another pattern termed "cohorting" (treating the pupils as an undifferentiated group), are inhibiting to genuine discussion. The second section, called "Achieving Genuine Discussion," presents two basic suggestions: (1) change the agenda (stop taking a didactic stance, directly evaluating each reply, and controlling the discourse); and (2) play the right game (avoid having a particular response in mind as "the right answer"). The third section offers specific ideas for promoting classroom discussion. Notes include ten references to books and articles representing socio-linguistic classroom research. (SR)