An experiment (N=103) using 15 pairs of cartoon-like pictures to illustrate the meaning of 30 stimulus words printed in capital letters showed significant prediction of Hawaii island dialect usage in the perception of meaning of written stimuli. Hawaii dialect usage was found to be inversely related to SCAT and STEP scores. Errors in perception of meaning of the written stimuli were positively and significantly related to more back-lax articulatory gestures and relic forms of the Hawaii island dialect. Students who demonstrated an awareness of island dialect use by overcorrecting had significantly fewer errors in the perception of meaning of written stimuli and also had higher SCAT and STEP scores. A discussion of the possible efficacy of linguistically-oriented educational experience was included.