Developments since May 2011

* BAAL Archive entrusted to our care (transferred in December 2011)

* Ongoing further work on British Council project to develop 'An Archive and Record of British Council involvement in ELT, 1934-2009'.

Richard Smith : 13 Jan 2012 15:42 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Developments since December 2010

Since the last blog post Penny Trigg (formerly of the British Council) has been making great progress with two projects: (1) sorting out and taking notes from the archives of the A.S. Hornby Educational Trust, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year (this work has been sponsored by the Trust itself) - this work has borne fruit in a presentation at the IATEFL conference in Brighton in April 2011 by Roger Bowers (Chair of the Trust), which made extensive use of Warwick ELT Archive resources and research, as well as the research Penny has more recently been carrying out (Roger and I are also writing a piece for ELT Journal on A.S. Hornby's life and legacy); and (2) building up a comprehensive bibliography of British Council publications in the field of ELT (this work has been financed under the research grant made to the Warwick ELT Archive, mentioned in previous blog entries). In April we heard that the Council is willing to extend this project, with further funding, and the fruits of our labours will appear in due course in the form of further texts uploaded to the Council's Milestones in ELT website, associated notes on the Warwick ELT Archive website, and an annotated bibliography / mini-history of British Council involvement in ELT over the years, to be published in pdf and possibly book form. Not to mention updated catalogues of the Archive, which have been made possible by the British Council's grant. So we're busy!!

Richard Smith : 01 May 2011 15:05 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

'Forbes Collection'

This morning I drove up the M6 and picked up 13 boxes of books and journals at Manchester International Freight Terminal. These had been shipped over from the USA by Dr Charles Forbes, who taught in ESL programs in Lebanon and Iran in the 1960s. We chose books and journals from index cards sent over by Dr. Forbes in advance, selecting those we didn't already have in our collection.  As a result of this generous donation the Warwick ELT Archive collection has been significantly enhanced viz-a-viz the US TESOL/ESL tradition and in relation to the Arab world and Iran, and because of the importance of this donation we're intending to refer to the books/journals in this shipment as the 'Forbes Collection' (along the lines of the 'Dakin Collection' previously received from the University of Edinburgh).

Update (16/12/10):

Dr Forbes writes: 'I am so glad that they arrived safely. When you leave thirteen boxes, wrapped in plastic on a not very sturdy looking pallet, you can't help but have a few worries. I was delighted to get your report.

I do want to note that you are to be complimented for creating such an archive. I could find no equivalent in the United States. Schools of education tend to maintain "Resource Centers" for textbooks, and the books are removed when they are no longer in regular use. Historical research is very difficult. I was delighted to learn of your efforts, and to learn more as the effort to actually get the books to you progressed.

My wife is delighted to have them out of the house. And I was delighted to go to the little trouble that I did in shipping the books. That way they went somewhere useful, rather than to a recycling center. One is always reluctant to see one's once prized collection go that way. My effort was worth it to see that it didn't'.

Richard Smith : 15 Dec 2010 15:15 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Recent donations and interviews

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/catalogue

Some news of donations and interviews since September:

* Mary Trimble drove up from Devon to generously donate a number of journal back issues to fill in gaps in our collection. We also recorded an interview with her about her career and that of her late husband, Louis Trimble.

* Gareth Owen contacted us from South Africa having seen the Hall of Fame Lionel Billows page. During a trip to Birmingham he gave us some books on our request list, and also donated a copy of his own privately printed book, Recollections of a Wayfaring TEFLER: English Language Teaching in Four Continents 1966-1998, for which we're very grateful. We recorded an interview with him at the time of his visit.

* Roger Bowers also kindly agreed to be interviewed for the 'British Council involvement with ELT' project.

* Shelagh Rixon and I interviewed Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn at Brian's home about their long-standing and ground-breaking creative partnership writing coursebooks (since the 1970s). This included asking Brian to reminisce about and contextualize some of the pre-publication materials he donated to the Warwick ELT Archive some time ago.

* We sent a shipment of duplicate copies of books to the Bangalore Regional Institute of English to fill in gaps in their own collection, and hope to build further on this link in the future.

Richard Smith : 15 Dec 2010 14:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Louis Alexander – new entry to Hall of Fame

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/halloffame/louis_alexander/

L.G. Alexander (1932-2002) is the latest addition to the Warwick ELT Archive Hall of Fame. Author of New Concept English, and the man behind Follow Me! (BBC/Longman), he was also a co-author of the Council of Europe's Waystageand Threshold 'communicative' syllabuses. Recently a statue was erected in his memory in Beijing, a mark of recognition for the phenomenal popularity of his works in that country. More notes on his life and career are available via the link above. By clicking on the 'Archive' button, you can also hear a very interesting 'off-the-cuff'  talk by him (recorded in 1981)  on the history of English language teaching in the 20th century. This is the first recording we've uploaded to the site - more should follow soon.

UPDATE (10th October): Julia Alexander, the widow of L.G. Alexander, has contributed some very interesting notes on his life and family history, also available via the link above (click on the 'Archive' button).

Richard Smith : 25 Sep 2010 22:20 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

recent acquisitions

Writing about web page http://www.warwick.ac.uk/go/elt_archive

We're very grateful to Robert Phillipson for donating the tapes of interviews with ELT professionals he made in the course of researching the thesis which became Linguistic Imperialism (Oxford University Press, 1992). He handed these over to me at the BAAL (British Association of Applied Linguistics) conference in Aberdeen and we'll be both digitalizing them and requesting permission from some of the interviewees for their interviews to be made public and even put online.

Another welcome development at the BAAL conference - approval was given to transferring the records BAAL has kept relating to its own history to the Warwick ELT Archive, some time in the near future. These will complement the documents we already have relating to the early history of applied linguistics in the UK, particularly at Edinburgh.

Richard Smith : 13 Sep 2010 19:58 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

British Council project update

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/britishcouncil/

select_bibliography_1980_onwards_11.7.10.pdf

unpublished_elt_project_evaluation_reports_and_bowers_papers.docx

I've just sent an update to the British Council about our Jan-Dec. 2010 project 'Building an archive and a record of the history of British Council involvement with ELT, 1934­-2009’. Achievements so far this year (against project aims) have included:

·        cataloguing and shelving of remaining published material

The main catalogue now contains 4,458 entries (up from 3,643 entries at the end of 2009). A Third Edition of the catalogue will be published online at the end of the year.

A list of 525 duplicate pre-1980 publications has been made and circulated to RIE South India in the first instance (for a possible donation of historical material).

We have also catalogued a selection of 1980+ publications, with a focus on British Council publications (currently, 176 items) – attached above

·        completion of cataloguing of unpublished materials

The catalogue of unpublished materials now extends to 37 box files (up from 24 at the end of 2009). A Third Edition of the catalogue will be published online at the end of the year. A sample of work completed so far this year (catalogue of all unpublished reports on British Council administered projects received during last year’s project, plus Roger Bowers papers) is attached above

   ·        gaining permission to republish or publish for the first time selected published and unpublished items (books, reports, photographs and interviews)

·        when permissions are granted, scanning or otherwise digitalising, and then uploading selected items to our website; otherwise, encouraging/enabling copyright holders to upload to their own websites

Scanning of selected unpublished items (photographs and autobiographical accounts) has begun recently, and permissions have begun to be gained for uploading some of these materials by the end of the year. Support is continuing for the British Council’s own ‘Milestones in ELT’ scanning initiative. Links have been made on the website to further documentation of the career of Lionel Billows.

·        publicising the Warwick ELT Archive to the wider ELT community

Publicity has been gained via presentations at IATEFL and to Accreditation UK inspectors; also, a forthcoming presentation at the BAAL conference.

The research dimension of the proposed project involves systematically increasing the stock of knowledge relating to the overall history of British Council involvement with ELT, 1934­-2009, by means of:

·        systematic review of both secondary and primary sources in our collection

This process has begun, with an initial focus on British Council support for the establishment of applied linguistics and other postgraduate ELT teacher training in the UK; also, support for the South India MELT campaign and Bangalore project.

·        recording, transcription and analysis of interviews with selected informants

Transcripts have been made of reminiscences by Council officers which are already in the Archive collection (specifically, Bernard Lott and L.A. Hill).

·        continued updating of the UK-funded ELT Projects database

There has been some updating as a result of information received following publicity within the British Council network.

Richard Smith : 12 Jul 2010 02:36 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lionel Billows (1909–2004) in Hall of Fame

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/halloffame/billows/

This is not 'new' news, but I've been away from this blog for a while. Back in May I created pages for Lionel Billows (1909-2004) within the Archive website 'Hall of Fame', incorporating biographical details, along with a good photograph courtesy of Hans-Joachim Lechler. There are also links to further information on pages maintained by Professor Burkhard Leuschner, to a blog entry by Mark Andrews and associated personal reminiscence by Rod Bolitho, and to an unpublished account of 'A crash education programme - the Madras snowball' (uploaded on Prof. Leuschner's site).

Another candidate for induction into the Hall of Fame might be L.G. Alexander, author of New Concept English among many other books (I've just come across an interesting article in English Today (no. 78, 20/2, April 2004) describing a statue erected in his memory in Beijing.

Any other suggestions for candidates gratefully received!

Richard Smith : 12 Jul 2010 02:29 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

TESOL Quarterly back issues donated

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/catalogue

Thanks to Ros Mitchell for donating some copies of TESOL Quarterly not yet in our collection.

See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/cataloguefor details of other journal issues we're interested in acquiring

Richard Smith : 29 Mar 2010 16:36 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

livening up the history of ELT

Reading two things today has made me think of trying to liven up the style of presenting information on the Warwick ELT Archive website and in this associated blog.

* The story of A.S. Hornby as presented by OUP in marketing the Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary:

http://www.oup.com/elt/local/global/promotion/hornby?oup_jspFileName=document_full.jsp&cc=hu

This is a rather embellished account, presenting A.S. Hornby as a romantic individualist and de-emphasizing the way his work grew out of a collaborative research programme with Harold Palmer in Japan. The Warwick ELT Archive page on Hornby's life  is more accurate, but pretty dull in comparison (I thought on re-reading it)  (see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/halloffame/hornby/life). It'd be good to - and I should - add some pictures, for example!

* An interesting blog post by Mark Andrews on James Joyce as a (subversive!) Berlitz teacher, at around the time (1904) Harold Palmer was teaching with the Berlitz Method - and subverting it in his own way - in Belgium:

http://markandrews.edublogs.org/2010/02/19/did-joyce-teach-unplugged-as-an-efl-teacher-in-trieste-or-yssel-entertaining-and-talking-at-his-students-the-limatt-to-what-he-did/

I enjoyed the imagining here of how Joyce might have used to teach. My overriding impression is that both the OUP page and Mark's blog entry are very attractively presented and entertaining 'reads', making me want to 'lively up' the presentation of history of ELT on the Warwick ELT Archive site and in this blog. 

Richard Smith

Richard Smith : 06 Mar 2010 15:54 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem