Earl Stevick


Earl Wilson Stevick was an expert in language learning and teaching. Stevick was influential in developing the communicative approach to language learning. He was a practicing Christian and his approach to education was very much influenced by his faith.

Academic career

Earl Stevick studied government at Harvard University, earned a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Columbia University, and a PhD in linguistics at Cornell University. After he received his PhD, Stevick began teaching at Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee. He applied for and received a Ford Fellowship and went to teach in Angola, Belgian Congo and Southern Rhodesia 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.

Family

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

Publications