Today, the study of regional and social dialects is offering valuable assistance to language teachers. Although studies comprehending all regions of the United States are still unrealized, linguistic geographers have undertaken comprehensive field studies of many regional language variations, making available (1) atlases describing the regional language variations in several parts of the country, (2) studies indicating vocabulary change and regional variations in grammar and pronunciation (3) maps showing the frequency of distribution of language items, and (4) files of alphabetized lexical information on regional patterns. Because many Americans are handicapped by nonstandard varieties of English, the study of the social dialects of Negroes and other ethnic groups has recently assumed prominence. American dialectologists are also studying the language patterns of non-urban groups, giving special attention to language variations which correlate with age, education, and social class. (JB)