Barrowman claims to be bidialectal.

"the process whereby bilingual or bidialectal speakers switch back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation".

In the case of the bidialectal "Arlene," the patient thought that her speech was an obstacle to communication because her therapist often asked her what she meant.

Issues caused by the linguistic variation range from "total communication breakdowns involving foreign language speakers to subtle difficulties involving bilingual and bidialectal speakers".

For example, some states that can be easily identified are bilingual or multilingual, others can be viewed as bidialectal, and yet others as monodialectal (but still variable).

Thorson is also bidialectal, speaking in a Canadian/American accent when she is in North America, and a British accent when she is in the United Kingdom.

Although some scholars argue that Gullah has changed little since the 19th century and that the majority of speakers have always been bidialectal, it is likely that at least some decreolization has taken place.

In a study of a psychiatric ward, Bucci and Baxter collected data on the impact of linguistic problems of the patients, which included several monodialectal speakers and bidialectal speakers of AAVE.

Bidialectal speakers, who speak both the standard and their own dialect, are most vulnerable to this problem because they are more aware of linguistic norms and the contexts to which they must adapt their speech to these norms.

Perhaps because of this attitude (as well as similar attitudes outside the African American community), most speakers of AAVE are bidialectal, being able to use Standard American English to varying degrees as well as AAVE.

Although no linguists claim that panlectal grammars have psychological validity, and polylectal diasystems are much more likely to be cognitively real for bilingual and bidialectal speakers, speakers of only one dialect or language may still be aware of the differences between their own speech and that of other varieties.