This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) an alternative high school English curriculum and its relationship to student alienation and pupil control ideology; (2) an oral language program for fifth grade students and its effect on varied aspects of reading achievement; (3) a secondary magnet school; (4) the interrelationships of writing ability, writing interest, reading readiness, and reading performance of kindergarten students; (5) effects of dictionary skills lessons and written composition on spelling achievement in middle grade students; (6) oral-aural communication skills in English among adult immigrants and exiles; (7) spelling achievement and teachers' attitudes toward staff development; (8) elective and traditional English program structures and English achievement; (9) a comparison of a word utility spelling program with a sound structured program; and (10) an analysis of nonconserving and conserving first grade children's dictated language experience stories according to five characteristics of plot structures and J. Piaget's decreasingly egocentric speech features. (FL)