Recent experimental work in teaching standard English to speakers of nonstandard dialects of English has shown that such speakers often have a good receptive command of the standard dialect, and readily re-encode stimuli presented in the standard dialect into their own nonstandard forms. This fact shows that some modification is needed in the concept of "understanding" as "analysis by synthesis," and suggests that a distinction is necessary between "receptive competence" and "productive competence." Whereas the latter may be inferred to a large extent from free performance, the former is not so directly attested, and special eliciting techniques are required in order to get at it. Materials and methods for second-dialect teaching need to give greater recognition to receptive competence, and its relevance for developing productive competence in speakers. This recognition may have importance for second-language teaching, as well as for native-language teaching programs in the schools. (Author/FWB)