Video interview with John Trim

Link to: An interview with John Trim on the history of modern language learning and teaching

Published on 17 Apr 2013

John Trim was interviewed by Dr Richard Smith and Dr Nicola McLelland on September 19, 2012, for their AHRC-funded project on the History of Modern Foreign Language Teaching and Learning.(see home page of this website). John was very supportive of the project and we had hoped that he would be able to give the opening address at our first workshop in Nottingham in December 2012. He was prevented by illness from doing so but agreed to our interviewing him instead on video for showing to workshop participants and for wider dissemination. 

John Trim was Director of the Council of Europe's Modern Languages projects from 1971 to 1997, and the lead author and promoter of the Common European Framework of Reference for Language. He was also Director of CILT (the Centre for Information on Language Teaching) from 1978 to 1987, where he was influential in supporting adult education, the Graded Objectives Movement and developments in communicative teaching methodology. In this interview he reflects on the history of modern language learning in the UK and Europe, particularly the period in which he himself played such an important role. John Trim passed away on January 19, 2013.

For more information about John Trim's career, see
http://www.all-languages.org.uk/news/...