Information on current trends and issues in English instruction, compiled by directors of the following National Council of Teachers of English groups, is presented in this report: Commission on Composition (Charles Schuster); Commission on the English Curriculum (Eileen Lundy); Commission on the English Language (James C. Stalker); Commission on Literature (Darwin T. Turner); Commission on Media (David A. England); Commission on Reading (Dorothy J. Watson); and Standing Committee Against Censorship (John M. Kean). Some of the topics discussed include curricular matters, teacher training, computer assisted instruction, academic partnership arrangements between colleges and high schools, legislative mandates, the disappearance of texts in classrooms, the dangerous circularity inherent in the "effective schools" research and modeling, the "whole language" concept, developments in the area of bilingual education, the place of literature in the English curriculum, teachers' lack of discrimination in the selection of literary works, the effect of budgetary restraints on the teaching of literature, the integration of all the media into the language arts curriculum, reading materials that do not respond to the needs of students, reliance on standardized testing, the Hatch Amendment, and pornography. (EL)