TY - JOUR
AB - In April this year, our readers and colleagues around the world were saddened to hear of the death of Dr Norman Whitney. Norman was the editor of the ELT Journal from 1987 to 1992. His contribution to the Journal in this period is ably summarized by Richard Smith in A brief history of ELTJ: ELT Journal, 75/1, January 2021, A constant preoccupation for Whitney was to ensure articles were readable and not too specialist—an increasing number of over-academic articles were being submitted, perhaps in reflection of the contemporary increase in academic applied linguistics and TESOL studies (interview). He also recalls . . . having had to repel an increasing number of articles which were uncritically attempting to advertise private-sector enterprise (ibid). Clearly, building bridges between theory and practice was not an easy matter. Aside from editing a special issue which drew attention to under- or misrepresentation of women as a problem in ELT generally (43/3, 1989), Whitney was instrumental in bringing a greater number of women into the Editorial Advisory Panel—by 1990 (44/1: front matter), six women and two men were included, in a big turnaround even from the early 1980s. After stepping down as editor, Norman collaborated with his successor, Tricia Hedge, in editing Power, Pedagogy, and Practice, a collection of key papers published in the Journal between 1988 and 1995 and divided into three main sections. It addressed issues of empowerment, teacher education and development, and classroom practice. Norman studied in the UK and the USA, before beginning a career in education that included the posts of Head of EFL at Ealing College of Higher Education in London and Joint Chief Inspector of The British Council scheme for accrediting EFL schools and colleges in the UK. From 1996 to1999 he was a consultant with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, with special responsibility for the design and content of teacher training programmes. He took on other roles, important in the world of ELT: as a member of the English-Speaking Union working with HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, and as a consultant to a number of organisations on online teaching materials development. He was a prolific and very successful writer of ELT materials. His coursebooks sold over 25 million copies worldwide: Open Doors (a global course for secondary schools), Dream Team (a global course for secondary schools) and Passport to Work (a conversation course for Japanese speakers) were just a few of the titles that were so well-known in the ELT world. In 2016 he published a novel, The Water Babes. Together with Brian Abbs, Norman was the creative force behind The English Place, a website for learners, and its companion, The Teacher’s Place, which they set up in the 2000s. This was an ambitious and innovative attempt to provide a platform for writers to sell their materials directly to learners. The brief summary of Norman’s professional achievements set out above indicates the significant contribution he made to the development and practice of ELT. However, it says nothing about Norman as a person, and for those who met him, or who were in the audience at talks and workshops he led, it is his personal qualities that will stay in our mind. What follows is based on messages we have received from his friends and colleagues. - He was unfazed by pomposity or grandstanding, and had an instinctive sense as to what motivated people, from inside and out. His conference performances—and they were performances!—were spectacular. - I always associate Norman above all with kindness, concern and care for others. For all his experience and expertise, Norman was unassuming and modest. I remember, in particular, his diffidence when taking over as Editor of the ELT Journal, claiming that he was not really qualified to exercise that role – a claim belied by his subsequent success. - He was eccentric in the best sense of the word. You could always rely on him to say something that was unexpected. He liked breaking taboos and could also be relied on to say something that went slightly against the grain of established feeling about what was proper and what was not. Not that he was in any sense improper: he just liked to say things that made people sit up – and laugh. - He had a great sense of humour: allied somewhat to his tendency to break the rules. He was often very funny and that marked his talk and his professional discussions and meetings. I will never forget his wit and ability to deflate potentially conflictual situations. Whilst giving a seminar at the British Council in France, someone burst into the room without knocking or waiting for Norman to pause and asked, ‘Are your fans switched on?’ to which Norman simply replied, ‘My fans are always switched on!’ Everyone laughed. - He was wholly egalitarian: as our head of Division of EFL he would never dream of pulling rank or bullying or browbeating. It was just not in his character. He was unafraid of authority in the institution; he obviously took notice of top-down directives, but he was wholly unintimidated by authority and if he thought the leadership was being silly, he would say so. He was extremely clever: very sharp in his perceptions of people, his grasp of professional issues. - My memories of Norman are of an exceptionally kind and intelligent man, with a wonderful sense of fun, and an intellectual heavyweight who was generous in sharing his wisdom and extensive knowledge of pedagogy and writing. Norman to me is one of the greats of English Language Teaching and our profession is all the richer for having had him in it. - Norman was a brilliant, kind, and thoughtful man. We travelled a lot together. Once we met in Portugal. Norman was coming from the other side of the world. He appeared with a Dundee cake made by him for a teacher who had once requested it. He was warm, funny, and had a wicked sense of humour. - He touched so many lives and will be lovingly remembered as a kind, highly intelligent, cultured, gracious and witty man, with a great sense of humour. He also played great boogie-woogie on the piano! - Norman had extremely high standards and was an excellent leadership role model, maintaining a balance between professionalism and caring. He was incredibly innovative and creative as reflected in his publications, which have had a great impact on the development of ELT. - All of us who worked with Norman and remained his friend can testify to his inspirational support of their work, his creativity and, above all, his humour. Sharp, irreverent, Norman was a master of the ‘bon mot’, witty turns of phrase, quoted by friends to this day. - There was something appealingly mischievous about Norman and his evident delight in challenging convention. He never seemed to take himself—or anybody else—too seriously, and he had the gift of turning this to positive account, which I think is what made him such a uniquely prominent figure in the field of ELT. - I’d like to bring out what fun Norman was, for all his erudition. Every time we met, which wasn’t often enough, he seemed to make it an adventure or a mini sitcom. In Italy in the 1980s Norman was a cherished visitor and much respected teacher-educator but there was always the special bonus of out-of-hours good living and hilarity. Once, we went to La Scala. He loved everything about the experience: the plush, the colour, the sparkle, the fashion, the great music. The only hitch-ette (as he might have called it) was at the beginning of the evening as he peered gingerly over the edge of the Circle and revealed he had a severe fear of heights. I promised to hang on to him if he swayed, and we both collapsed into giggles as the orchestra struck up and the (other) performance began. This comment sums it all up: - Norman touched our lives – his kindness, sensitivity and generosity knew no bounds and he was such fun to be with. It was an honour and a pleasure to work with him and to have known him. Alessia Cogo and Keith Morrow, May 2022 Contributions from: Angela Buckingham John Clegg Yvonne de Henseler Gail Ellis Alan Maley Fiona Mills Philip Prowse Jenny Pugsley Shelagh Rixon Barbara Sinclair Cathie Wallace Cristina Whitecross Henry Widdowson © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model) © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
TI - Dr Norman Whitney
JF - ELT Journal
DO - 10.1093/elt/ccac025
DA - 2022-06-21
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/dr-norman-whitney-UjiCgKjshR
SP - 409
EP - 411
VL - 76
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -