Foreign language teaching is held up and mirrored against current social realities and the "contemporary scene" and found to be lacking in both content and appeal. To combat certain negative trends in the teaching profession, the author discusses five characteristics of education now considered to be vital to successful teaching. They include the concepts that language instruction should be oriented toward: (1) a student-centered curriculum, (2) linguistically developed programs, (3) new media and technology, (4) development of proficiency, and (5) concern for basic moral values. Integration of these principles is suggested as a means of improving the teaching of English as a second language or dialect to speakers of non-standard English. (RL)