The paper discusses some issues that language variation creates for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction, identifies research strands relevant to program development, and describes two dialect program exemplars. It also suggests considerations for educational policy formation with respect to dialects. The introductory section gives background information on dialect issues in school programs, the growth of World English, mutual intelligibility of language varieties, vernacular dialects in the United States, and challenges presented for teacher education. The second section outlines research traditions in dialectology, interactional language studies, critical language study, and World English. Concerns in program development are then examined, including language awareness curricula and the teaching of standard English. Finally, the dialect policy statements of two professional associations (National Council of Teachers of English and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) are presented and discussed briefly, and concerns in formulating dialect policy are considered. Contains 64 references. (MSE)