The United States is one of the world's most populous Hispanophone countries, with over 35 million Spanish-speakers. In addition, Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the United States, with more students enrolled in Spanish at the higher-education level than in all other modern languages combined. How, then, is the United States' status as a top Spanish-speaking country reflected in the treatment of sociolinguistic variation in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) curricula at the university level? This case study of a large, public university, which is home to an SFL program among the largest in the country, explores that question using a two-tiered approach. First, an analysis was conducted to examine the ideological underpinnings of how varieties of U.S. Spanish are presented in beginner and intermediate SFL textbooks used at the university. Second, focus groups of SFL instructors were conducted to gain insight into their beliefs and practices regarding the presentation of language variation in the classroom. The study finds evidence of a systematic reinforcement of standard language ideology in the university's beginner and intermediate SFL curricula, with little attention paid to regional varieties of Spanish and, at times, an explicit de-legitimization of U.S. Spanish varieties in particular. _______________ 1 The RAE is not the only Spanish language academy. In fact, there is a consortium of Spanish language academies, (Asociación de las Academias de la Lengua Española; Association of Spanish Language Academies), most of which are located in former Spanish colonies. The consortium, known as ASALE, even includes a location in the United States, which was founded by a member of the RAE in 1973. However, ASALE is firmly under RAE leadership-the director of the RAE is also its president. The existence of additional Spanish language academies in Latin America and elsewhere, which in some sense are simply satellite branches of the RAE, has not mitigated the historic or present-day influence of the RAE and the colonialist 'standard' language it promotes. For more information, please see www.asale.org. 2 Catalan is a Romance language that is spoken mainly in northeastern Spain. It has co-official status with Castilian Spanish in three of Spain's autonomous regions: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian