An answer to the question of what sociolinguistics has to offer to the art of language assessment is sought in exploration of the following topics: (1) a history of the development of sociolinguistics and an outline of the research on dialectology; (2) a review of basic sociolinguistic foundations and theories about language, society, domains of language activity, variables influencing one's performance in a given language, community vs. home standards, and insights for the classroom; (3) application of these notions to language assessment and related operations, with emphasis on implications of language variation for both second language instruction and bilingual education; (4) the objective of sociolinguistics to sensitize the individual to discriminate among the language varieties and to be more aware of the existence of options in the world of language and speech; and (5) a discussion of various types of research which can be performed inexpensively at the community level. In connection with the research section, a number of examples of such projects are given along with explanatory charts. While acknowledging the magnitude of the task, the study suggests that instruments be so constructed that allowance is made for varying linguistic options and that teachers, testers, and administrators be programmed sociolinguistically. (AMH)