The purposes of this dissertation are to develop a model which can be used to evaluate programed instructional materials in English; to apply this model to currently available programs in language, composition, and literature; and to describe both the early historical developments in programed instruction as an educational strategy in general and the specific details about early attempts at programing portions of the English curriculum. The model developed was based on four major components and applied to the programs, with some conclusion drawn concerning the degree of fidelity existing between the theory of programed instruction and the actual programs. Among the major conclusions arrived at in this dissertation are the following: most of the programs currently available omit one or more of the four necessary programing elements of pretest, posttest, validation data, or behavioral objectives; the programs generally create the conditions necessary for the student's attainment of the higher categories of learning as defined by Gagne (1965); and few, if any, of the programs exhibit more than superficial alignment with the goals of a secondary English program as defined by English educators. (Author/JM)