This paper studies the teaching of reading in a normal classroom where all the children speak several languages and come from underprivileged backgrounds (Lire-Écrire en CP corpus). The teacher has had a great deal of experience with reception classes for non-French speaking students recently arrived in France ; he is particularly effective with his weaker students. Using an intersubjective qualitative method (self-confrontation and video analysis) the study picks out professional behaviours susceptible of enabling the entry into reading of these plurilingual pupils in their first year of primary school. The teacher adapts his methods when the issue is that of decoding texts. But when the issue is understanding what is read, he uses scripts well known for the didacticism of French, without using the diversity of his pupils as a resource ; he trains them in the written code practically without being aware that he is doing so. Despite his long experience of pluri-lingualism, he does not allow himself to develop expli-citly an education to pluri-lingualism. It is not considered to be a potential resource and yet a certain number of his behaviours are effective for the weaker students.