Fourteen papers collected under three headings--literature, language, and composition--consider what lies ahead in the teaching of elementary school English. Papers on literature cover the role of literature in elementary English programs (Alan S. Downer), the necessity for developing the student's imagination (James E. Miller, Jr.), the nature of the analytic process in studying literature (Roy Harvey Pearce), and the relationship between the "knowledge explosion" and the values of traditional literature (Edward W. Rosenheim, Jr.). Papers on language treat what children need to know about language (Ruth G. Strickland), the distinction between competence and performance in language (Owen Thomas), the limitations of imitation in language acquisition (Philip B. Gough), sentence growth as explained by transformational generative grammar (Kellog W. Hunt), system and variety in American English (Raven I. McDavid, Jr.), problems of Negro speakers of nonstandard English (William Labov), and E. E. Cummings' creative manipulation of grammar (Priscilla Tyler). Three papers on composition discuss teaching the process of writing, the place of rhetoric in the preparation of composition teachers (both by Wallace W. Douglas), and the interrelationship of composition and literature in the elementary grades (Eldonna L. Evertts). (LH)