Earl Wilson Stevick (; October 23, 1923 – August 13, 2013)Woodson, Daryl "Earl Stevick passed on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013, at the Mayflower in Lexington, where he had been residing. He was 89 years old." The News Gazette. Retrieved 2013-08-16 was an expert in language learning and teaching. Stevick was influential in developing the communicative approach to language learning. He was a practicing

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

and his approach to education was very much influenced by his faith.

Academic career

Earl Stevick studied government at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, earned a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in linguistics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. After he received his PhD, Stevick began teaching at

Scarritt College for Christian Workers Scarritt College for Christian Workers was a college associated with the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. The campus is now home to Scarritt Bennett Center. History of Scarritt College (1892–1988) The Scarritt College for ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. He applied for and received a Ford Fellowship and went to teach in

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

(now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

) and

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

(now

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

) for two years. He then worked for the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, creating courses to learn local African languages. As a linguist, Stevick was particularly interested in recording the tones of African tonal languages. In the language courses which he edited for the Foreign Service Institute, Washington, especially in the courses of Yoruba, Chinyanja, Shona, Kirundi, and Luganda, the tones are marked with a detail and precision not seen in previous grammars. Stevick was one of a small group of language educators who created the Master of Arts in Teaching degree at the SIT Graduate Institute in 1969. It was called the School for International Training at that time. He continued to help with that program as a member of the advisory board. Stevick's person-centered approach to education influenced humanistic foreign language educators such as

Gertrude Moskowitz Gertrude Moskowitz (1928–2021) was an American teacher, professor of foreign language education, mentor, author, conference speaker and film strip editor. She employed student-centered, participatory approaches in her work as a teacher and teach ...

Family

Stevick married Betty Rae Culp in 1948. At the time of his death he had eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Publications

*Stevick, Earl W. (1959). "Inflection of the Manyika verb". ''Nada: The Southern Rhodesia Native Affairs Department Annual'' 36. 30–45 *Stevick, Earl W. (1960). "The implosive-explosive contrast in Manyika". ''African Studies'', 19, 2. *Stevick, Earl W. & Kingston Machiwana (1960). ''Manyika Step-by-Step''. Central Mission Press, Cleveland. *Stevick, Earl W. (1963). ''Bambara Basic Course''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W., J.G. Mlela & F.N. Njenga (1963). ''Swahili Basic Course''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W. & Olaleye Aremu (1963)
''Yoruba Basic Course''
Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W. (1963). ''A workbook in language teaching : with special reference to English as a foreign language''. New York, Abingdon Press. *Stevick, Earl W. (1964)
"Two Bantu consonant systems"
''Language'', vol. 40, no.1 *Stevick, Earl W. (1965). "Pitch and duration in two Yoruba idiolects".''Journal of African Languages'' 4(2), 1965 *Stevick, Earl W. & Linda Hollander (1965)
''Chinyanja Basic Course''
Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W., M. Mataranyika & L. Mataranyika (1965
''Shona Basic Course''
Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W., Raymond Setukuru & others (1965
''Kirundi Basic Course''
Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W. & Aremu, Olaleye (1965) ''Fula Basic Course''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington. *Indakwa, John & Stevick, Earl W. (1966). ''Swahili : an Active Introduction : General Conversation''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington. *Indakwa, John & Stevick, Earl W. (1966). ''Swahili : an Active Introduction : Geography''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington. *Stevick, Earl W. (1966) ''The substantive paradigms of Manyika''. ''African Studies'', 25, 3. *Stevick, Earl W. (1967) "The teaching of African languages in the United States since 1961". ''African Studies Bulletin'' 10, 1, 16-21. *Kamoga, Fred

rick Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

Katabazi & Earl W. Stevick (1968)
''Luganda Basic Course''
Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W. (1969) "Pitch and duration in Ganda". ''Journal of African Languages'' 8.1-28. *Stevick, Earl W. (1969
"Tone in Bantu"
''International Journal of American Linguistics'' Vol. 35, No. 4. *Stevick, Earl W. & Fred

Katabazi Kamoga (1970). ''Luganda Pretraining Program''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W. (1971) "Adapting and Writing Language Lessons" Foreign Service Institute, Washington *Stevick, Earl W. (1976
''Memory, Meaning and Method''
(1976 & 1996 editions). Thomson Heinle Newbury House ELT. *Stevick, Earl W. (1980
''Teaching Languages, A Way and Ways''
Heinle *Stevick, Earl W. (1982
''Teaching and Learning Languages''
Cambridge University Press *Stevick, Earl W. (1984) ''Double Action English''. Addison-Wesley. *Stevick, Earl W. (1986
''Images and Options in the Language Classroom''
(Cambridge Language Teaching Library). Cambridge University Press. *Stevick, Earl W. (1990
''Success With Foreign Languages: Seven Who Achieved It and What Worked for Them''
Prentice-Hall International Language Teaching Methodology Series *Stevick, Earl W. (1990
''Humanism in Language Teaching: A Critical Perspective''
(New perspectives: personal & professional development for teachers). Oxford University Press. *Stevick, Earl W. (1992) ''Crossroads 2'' (Students Book). Oxford University Press. *Stevick, Earl W. (1998) ''Working with Teaching Methods: What's at Stake?''. Thomson Heinle *Stevick, Earl W. (2002
''Afterwords : A Collection of Miscellaneous Short Pieces Mostly Written since 1998''
(published on the website of the Christian English Language Educators Association (CELEA)) *Stevick, Earl W. (with Kristjánsson, C.) (2009). "Afterword: The dilemma". In M. S. Wong & S. Canagarajah (Eds.), ''Christian and critical English language educators in dialogue: Pedagogical and ethical dilemmas'' (pp. 292–297). New York: Routledge. *Stevick, Earl W. (with Kristjánsson, C.) (2013). "Faiths and practices in language teaching." ''Journal of Christianity and Foreign Languages'', 14, 64-86.

References

External links

*Stevick, Ear
"Autobiographical Statement"
2000. *Washington Post obituar

Year 16; Issue 1; February 2014. (12 articles on Earl Stevick) {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevick, Earl 1923 births 2013 deaths Bilingualism and second-language acquisition researchers People from Sioux City, Iowa Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Harvard University alumni Linguists of Yoruba Columbia University faculty Cornell University alumni Linguists of Chewa Linguists of Shona 20th-century American linguists 21st-century American linguists American expatriates in Angola American expatriates in the Belgian Congo Expatriates in Southern Rhodesia