Societal differences among ethnic groups and other geographically remote bodies of peoples within a culture are often caused by dialectal variation. The social and educational implications of societal division by such linguistic differentiation are discussed in this article. The author touches on concepts relating to dialectology, paralanguage, kinesics, and bi-dialectalism. Concluding remarks point out the potential contribution of dialectology and linguistics, particularly in the area of instructional materials development. (RL)