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 Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

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 Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, earned a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) 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. Tho ...

in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in linguistics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. 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 C ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

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

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

(now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

) and

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked 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 kn ...

(now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

) 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 The School for International Training, widely known by its initials SIT, is a private non-profit regionally-accredited institution headquartered in Brattleboro, Vermont, United States. The institution has two main divisions. SIT Graduate Instit ...

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.

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 Setukura & 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 from the United States Linguists of Yoruba Columbia University faculty Cornell University alumni Linguists of Chewa Linguists of Shona 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists American expatriates in Angola American expatriates in the Belgian Congo American expatriates Expatriates in Southern Rhodesia