Talking shop: Earl Stevick on humanism and harmony in language teaching

Abstract

The 1983 TESOL Convention in Toronto offered an opportunity to talk informally to Earl Stevick, the distinguished author of Memory, Meaning and Method (Newbury House 1976), A Way and Ways (Newbury House 1980), and Teaching and Learning Languages (Cambridge University Press, 1982), to be reviewed in the next issue. Earl Stevick, whose base is the Foreign Service Institute of the State Department, Washington D.C., has also written many articles, and spoken at several conferences on language learning and teaching. One of his more recent articles appeared in Humanistic Approaches: An Empirical View (ELT Documents 113, published by the British Council, 1981). This collection of papers (reviewed in ELT Journal 37/4) on ‘alternative’ approaches to language teaching was edited by Patrick Early, who also took part in the conversation. Patrick has served on the Editorial Advisory Panel of ELT Journal for three years. He is currently English Language Officer for the British Council in Madrid, and has long been interested in ‘humanistic’ approaches