The treatment of educational trends is seldom fine-grained enough to communicate the complexity of the issues involved. A "beyond-the-trend" analysis of movements and countermovements in composition, reading, literature, and oral language reveals some new wrinkles in trends that are now well established in the professional literature of English and language arts. In composition, the writing process movement has recently come under scrutiny that has resulted in some useful clarifications and refinements. A central point is that "natural process" instruction is less effective than instruction that combines theory with clearly defined goals and procedures. Other issues in composition include writing evaluation, the role of computers in writing instruction, teaching composition to basic writers, and teaching expository writing in the elementary school. Two major issues in reading instruction are the teaching of vocabulary and the use of basal readers. In literature instruction, few aspects have generated more comment than the teaching of values through literature and the related question of content of the literature program. The absence of empirical data about whether and how values are discussed in literature instruction does not make the question any less significant. Finally, issues in the area of speaking and listening instruction include the concept of guided oral discourse (using techniques of reciprocal teaching, scaffolding, inquiry teaching, and cooperative learning), and the "English First" movement. (Eighty-nine references are attached.) (MM)