Albert Sidney (or Sydney A. P. Cowie
‘Hornby, Albert Sydney (1898–1978)’
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004) Hornby, usually just A. S. Hornby (1898–1978), was an English grammarian,

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

, and pioneer in the field of English language learning and teaching (ELT). Hornby was born in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

and educated at

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. In April 1924 he went to Japan to teach English at Oita University (Oita Higher Commercial School at the time). He joined Harold E. Palmer in his programme of vocabulary research at the Institute for Research in English Teaching (IRET). Palmer invited him to Tokyo in April 1933 as an assistant; in 1936, Hornby became the technical adviser and editor of IRET's ''Bulletin''. He began to work the following year with E. V. Gatenby and H. Wakefield on a new type of

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

that was aimed at foreign learners of English, the first monolingual learners' dictionary. It was completed in 1940 and published by Kaitakusha two years later in Tokyo as ''The Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary''. After leaving Japan in 1942, Hornby joined the

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and later became the first editor of the journal ''English Language Teaching'', launched in October 1946. In 1948 his dictionary was reissued by

as ''A Learner's Dictionary of Current English''. The subsequent editions of the dictionary were (1963 second, 1974 third) and continue to be a great commercial success in ELT publishing. It is now in its tenth edition and is known as the ''

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary The ''Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary'' (''OALD'') was the first advanced learner's dictionary of English. It was first published in 1948. It is the largest English-language dictionary from Oxford University Press aimed at a non-nativ ...

''. The A.S. Hornby Educational Trust was established in 1961. The Trust supports ELT practitioners from low and lower-middle income countries. The Trust has supported over 480 ELT professionals from around the world via Hornby Scholarships, and thousands more via regional schools, a scholar alumni network and Teacher Association project awards. The Trust also supports dictionary-related research and research into the history of ELT.

References

External links

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
*A. P. Cowie
‘A. S. Hornby: a Centenary Tribute’
EURALEX'98 Proceedings, 1998

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58806 1898 births 1978 deaths Teachers of English as a second or foreign language Linguists of English Alumni of University College London 20th-century British lexicographers {{England-linguist-stub