Louis George Alexander (15 January 1932 – 17 June 2002) (commonly referred to as L. G. Alexander) was a British teacher and the author of numerous EFL course books, including '' New Concept English''. In 1977, he sold 4.7m books, which was recorded in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the greatest number of copies sold by an individual author in one year (1977).David Mortimer
"Louis Alexander: A revolutionary teacher of English to the world"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 9 July 2002. Retrieved 31 March 2002.

Biography

Louis Alexander was born Elias George Ftyaras in London. His father, George Ftyaras, was Greek and his mother, Mary Ftyaras ''née'' Manolas,Julia Alexander
Louis Alexander's family and life history
warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2020. was an Australian of Greek ancestry – "so he spoke perfect English and perfect Greek".Tim Rix, in: Sue Bradley, ed.,
The British Book Trade: An Oral History
', London: The British Library, 2008, p. 193. During much of World War II he was with his mother in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, later they returned to Britain, where was educated at

Godalming Grammar School Godalming Grammar School was a state-funded selective grammar School taking both boys and girls, situated in Tuesley Lane, Godalming, England. Organisation Post-war, students were selected via the eleven-plus examination. From the early 1960s, ...

and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. From 1954 to 1956 he was on national service in the British Army Germany (1954–56), where he had his first experience as an educator, teaching A-level English as an Educational Corps instructor. He taught

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

(1954–56) and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

(1956–65) where he was head of English at the Protypon Lykeion,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

(what is now the Scholi Moraïti).Richard Smith
L.G. Alexander's life and career
warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2020. In the 1960s he started being published with

Longmans Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC. Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...

. In 1962 his first book, ''Sixty Steps to Précis'', was published and became a bestseller. His second book, ''A First Book in Comprehension'', was published in 1964. '' New Concept English'', his first major book series, was published in 1967. With Longman he also published such series as: ''Look Listen and Learn'' (1968–71), ''Target'' (1972–74), ''Mainline'' (1973–81). Louis was a member of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

Committee on Modern Language Teaching (1973–78), and one of the authors of ''The Threshold Level'' (1975) and ''Waystage'' (1977), works developed for the Council of Europe that have been the bases of many communicative language courses and forms the

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, abbreviated in English as CEFR or CEF or CEFRL, is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasing ...

. He served on the Committee of Management of the Society of Authors (1980–83). In the 1980s Alexander wrote reference books such as ''Longman English Grammar'' (1988; practice book 1990) and ''Longman Advanced Grammar'' (1993). In the late 1980s he worked for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

on Junior English for China course. He created the blueprint for the Survive self-study series (1980–83, reissued 1989) for modern languages and published courses in the field of computer-assisted language learning. In 1986-88 he was adviser to the

University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) is a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge, which operates under the brand name Cambridge Assessment, and is part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment. It prov ...

for the Cambridge Certificate in English for International Communication. He was a writer of EFL course materials from the 1960s onwards. Alexander consistently supported the cause of the relatively untrained non-native speaking teacher of English. Louis Alexander died of leukemia on 17 June 2002 in

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambér ...

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population of ...

, France.

Legacy

Tim Rix, former chairman of the Longman Group, praised Alexander as having "particular abilities and knowledge", combined with a "use of linguistics", which "meshed perfectly well with the requirements of ELT nglish language teaching in his time. Alexander had an immense influence on English language teaching in China. In recognition of this, a statue was raised in his honour in the grounds of the "Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press..., one of China’s largest schoolbook publishers".Xia Xu
"Learning Text by Heart and Language Education: The Chinese Experience"
in: ''Theory and Practice in Language Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 41-50, January 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2020. The statue bears the following inscription: "...the man who cracked the linguistic code of the English language and made it learnable for millions of students worldwide through ''New Concept English'' and many other course books".

Personal life

Louis Alexander married Athina Voyatsis in Athens in 1956. They had had a daughter, Marianna (born 1961) and a son George (born 1963). Athina died in 1979. Louis married Julia ''née'' Mendus in 1980.

Bibliography

His publications include:

Books

* ''Sixty Steps to Precis'' (1962) * ''Poetry and Prose Appreciation'' (1963) * ''A First Book in Comprehension'' (1964) * ''Essays and Letter Writing'' (1965) * ''A First Book in Comprehension'' (1965) * '' New Concept English'' (1967) * ''For and Against (1968) * ''Look, Listen and Learn!'' (1968–71) * ''Operation Mastermind'' (1971) * ''Target'' (1972–74)Louis G. Alexander
linguaphonegroup.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020. * ''Mainline'' (1973–81) * ''Follow Me'' (1979–80) * ''Excel'' (for Egyptian Secondary Schools, 1985) * ''Plain English'' (1987–88) * ''Longman English Grammar'' (1988) * ''Longman English Grammar Practice'' (1990) * ''Step by Step 1-3'' (1991) * ''Longman Advanced Grammar'' (1993) * ''Right Word, Wrong Word'' (1994) * ''K's First Case'' * ''Good Morning, Mexico'' * ''Dangerous Game (2000)'' Note: Many other books by Alexander are listed in his ''For and Against'' (1968).

Articles

"Fads and fashions in English language teaching"
''

English Today ''English Today'' is an academic journal on the English language, established in 1985 by Tom McArthur (who edited it until 2008) and published quarterly by Cambridge University Press. Its scope covers all aspects of current English and its variet ...

'', 21: 35-56, 1990.

References

External links

Louis Alexander on the history of English language teaching in the 20th century
(audio recording in ELT Archive,

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Louis George 1932 births 2002 deaths Schoolteachers from London Greek schoolteachers Writing teachers Alumni of the University of London People educated at Godalming Grammar School Teachers of English as a second or foreign language People from London