A single teaching event is open to many types of interpretation, or misinterpretation. A lecturer may have a specific intention, and be focussed on helping his or her students to learn, yet students may receive different messages concerning what is intended. This discussion is based around four case studies, of a lecturer and three first-year students, reflecting on the same lecture. Discussion will explore the different ways in which a lecture event and its content may be interpreted by students as a communicative event, and the implications of such a variety for teaching in the first-year lecture environment.