This updated second edition reflects developments in educational research and new information within the areas of language learning and instruction since the publication of the first edition in 1991. Its 75 essays assess the significance of research, evaluates new developments, and examines current conflicts, controversies, and issues, while linking the work in one area to related work in others. Coverage includes the theoretical bases for English language arts teaching; different methodological perspectives; the early years of language acquisition; the multiple aspects of the language arts; teaching specific aspects of the English language arts curriculum; oral and written discourse; computer applications to language learning; and current approaches to studying the many ways and contexts in which people learn language. Some of the essays included in Part I, Historical and Theoretical Perspectives for English Language Arts Teaching and Learning, are: "The History of the Profession" (James R. Squire); "Historical Considerations: An International Perspective" (John Dixon); "Linguistics and Teaching the Language Arts" (Paula Menyuk); "A Psychological Analysis of What Teachers and Students Do in the Language Arts Classroom" (Diane Lemonnier Schallert and Debra Bayles Martin); and "Child Development" (Marie M. Clay). Some of the essays included in Part II, Methods of Research on English Language Arts Teaching, are: "Understanding Research on Teaching the English Language Arts: An Introduction for Teachers" (Sandra Stotsky and Cindy Mall); "Ethnography as a Logic of Inquiry" (Judith L. Green, Carol N. Dixon, and Amy Zabarlick); "Teacher Inquiry Into Literacy, Social Justice, and Power" (Bob Fecho and JoBeth Allen); "Synthesis Research in Language Arts" (Carl B. Smith and Susan S. Klein); and Contemporary Methodological Issues and Future Directions in Research on the Teaching of English" (M.C. Wittrock). Some of the essays in Part III, Research on Language Learners are: "Who Really Goes to School? Teaching and Learning for the Students We Really Have" (Rita S. Brause and John S. Mayher); "Development in the Elementary School Years" (Dorothy S. Strickland and Joan T. Feeley); "The Learner Develops: The High School Years" (Thomas Newkirk); "Children with Reading Difficulties" (Jeanne S. Chall and Mary E. Curtis); "Teacher Evaluation" (Sheila Fitzgerald); and "Pursuing Diversity" (Jerome C. Harste and Robert F. Carey). Some of the essays in Part IV, Environments for English Language Arts Teaching, are: "The Elementary School Classroom" (Gail E. Tompkins and Eileen Tway); "Grouping for Instruction in Literacy" (Jeanne R. Paratore and Roselmina Indrisano); "Evaluating Language Development" (Roger Farr and Michael D. Beck); "Informal Methods of Evaluation" (Yetta M. Goodman); and "The Media Arts" (Carole Cox). Some of the essays in Part V, Research on Teaching Specific Aspects of the English Language Arts Curriculum, are: "Language, the Language Arts, and Thinking" (Robert J. Marzano); "Spelling" (Shane Templeton); "Rhetoric" (Nancy Nelson and James L. Kinneavy); "Response to Literature" (Robert E. Probst); "Reading Comprehension Instruction" (James Flood, Diane Lapp, and Douglas Fisher); "Writing" (Anne Haas Dyson and Sarah Warshauer Freedman); and "Imaginative Expression" (Betty Jane Wagner). An author index and subject index are included. (RS)