Book excerpt: The essays in this collection are designed to provide an overview of the most pressing issues and ideas with which English teachers contend today and will contend in the near future. The contributors, 22 English teachers and educators, have attempted to view change in a sufficiently broad perspective to enable them to make responsible predictions about the 1980s, taking into account the social and economic variables that will necessarily affect the United States during this time. Titles of the essays reflect concerns for the following topics: (1) writing and the English curriculum; (2) literature study in the 1980s; (3) language and the English curriculum; (4) holonomic knowing (a very generalized model of holistic learning); (5) oral English and the literacy imperative; (6) reading and the teaching of English; (7) the basics in the 1980s; (8) English in the elementary and middle schools; (9) the training of English teachers in the 1980s; (10) the media, media literacy, and the English curriculum; (11) computer-assisted English instruction; (12) English as a second language in the 1980s; (13) English and vocational education; (14) dealing with sexual stereotypes; (15) English for minority groups, for the gifted and talented, and for the handicapped; and (16) needed research in the teaching of English. (RL)