This paper is concerned with the theoretical and pedagogical issues emanating from the practice of teaching Spanish to Hispanic bilingual college students. First, it addresses the distinction between standard and dialect and the educational implications of this dichotomy. Second, it addresses the major structural dissimilarities between standard Spanish and the two most important varieties of U.S. Spanish (i.e., Chicano and Puerto Rican). Finally, using current sociolinguistic theory, it makes suggestions to teach the standard language to speakers of Chicano and Puerto Rican Spanish. It presents examples of dialect drawn from students enrolled in Spanish for Native Speakers courses.