Concentrating on theoretical perspectives on reading, writing and language research, this yearbook contains 33 articles which cover the politics of literacy, emergent and early literacy, vocabulary, comprehension, content area reading, writing, and teacher effectiveness. Articles include: (1) "Tomorrow's Readers Today: Becoming a Profession of Collaborative Learners" (Jerome C. Harste); (2) "Storytelling, Reading, and the Micropolitics of Literacy" (Ron Scollon); (3) "Young Children's Explanations of Spaces between Words in Written Text" (Beth R. Spencer and Peter P. Afflerbach); (4) "Transitional Knowledge in Emergent Literacy" (George Kamberelis and Elizabeth Sulzby); (5) "First Graders' Perceptions of Reading and Writing" (Alice Boljonis and Kathleen Hinchman); (6) "Sixth Graders' Use of Mnemonic Imagery in Recalling Content Material" (Nancy L. Williams and Bonnie C. Konopak); (7) "The Effects of an Elaborated Directed Reading Activity on the Metacomprehension Skills of Third Graders" (Maribeth Cassidy Schmitt); (8) "Carl: A Case Study of Executive Control in a Gifted Adolescent Reader" (Elizabeth E. Sparks); (9) "Enhancing Children's Comprehension through Previewing" (Susan B. Neuman); (10) "Extended Wait-Time and Its Effect on the Listening Comprehension of Kindergarten Students" (Marilyn J. McKay); (11) "The Development of Teacher Explanations during Content Reading Lessons" (Mark W. Conley and Scott Warren); (12) "How Ethnographers of Communication Study Writing in School" (Susan Florio-Ruane); (13) "Peer Conferences as Social Contexts for Learning about Revision" (Karen L. Dahl); (14) "An Exploratory Study of Preservice Teachers' Evolving Knowledge Structures" (Beth Ann Herrmann); and (15) "The Relationship between Preservice Teachers' Evolving Instruction of Reading and Their Emerging Conceptions of Reading" (Janet Johnson). The program for the 1987 National Reading Conference is appended. (MM)