This position paper presents the beliefs of the California Association of Teachers of English about priorities and goals in the teaching of the English language arts. The first section of the paper describes desirable objectives and practices in teaching many aspects of language study, oral and written composing, and reading; it then examines numerous issues of concern to English teachers, including teacher responsibilities, accountability, and evaluation techniques. The second section provides a bibliography of sources that give more specific information about the topics discussed. Items are grouped according to the topical categories in the first section. (GW)