Three groups of teachers (10 regular teachers talking to 10 normally hearing students, 10 teachers of the deaf using oral communication to oral deaf children, and teachers of the deaf talking and signing with children taught through a manually coded English system) were videotaped in spontaneous conversation and a storytelling task. Children were matched for language age. Results confirmed the hypothesis of significantly greater use of idiomatic language during spontaneous communication with hearing children than with deaf children. In the storytelling task, however, no difference was found between groups, suggesting that when teachers are free to select the language they will use, they choose to omit idiomatic language. Findings further suggested that while use of direct requests may be determined by cognitive-social variables, use of indirect requests may be determined by linguistic level. The prediction of greater difference in the two groups' use of idiomatic language than in their use of indirect requests was also confirmed. Significantly less idiomatic language was used in talk to total communication deaf children than to normally hearing or auditory-oral groups. (CL)