In a case study investigation of six black college freshmen from low socio-economic and black nonstandard English-speaking backgrounds, it was found that, as hypothesized, the students reflected in their writing a performance capability in standard English sufficient to render them functionally bidialectal. For these students, certain hypothesized psycho-cultural barriers to standard English did not appear to operate significantly in their writing. When they did operate, these barriers served to spark [students'] resistance to efforts to eradicate the black dialect and to intensify their desire to maintain their dialect for cultural group identification. The students' apparent awareness and acceptance of the instrumental benefits to be gained through their conformity to prevailing socially and academically accepted norms of linguistic behavior seemed to act as a significant constraint for standard English performance in their classroom writing. The study urges that the students' bidialectal ability be recognized and exploited to build greater linguistic facility through writing that is personally meaningful. (Author)