An Interview with John Trim (1924–2013) on the History of Modern Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

This text is the lightly edited transcript of the last interview with John Trim before his death in early 2013. John Trim was a Director of CILT, the UK’s national Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research, and was Director of the Modern Languages Projects of the Council of Europe for over a quarter of a century (from 1971 to 1997). In the interview, John reflects on his own history of shaping the direction of language teaching and learning in Britain and Europe (with a legacy lasting well into the twenty-first century via the Common European Framework of Reference, now used world-wide), and on the importance of the history of language learning and teaching for reflecting on current policy and practice. The full video-recording of the interview is available here: <http://www.warwick.ac.uk/elt_archive/resources/johntrim>.