Sear

Louis George
Alexander

Louis George Alexander (15 January 1932 – 17 June 2002) (commonly referred t o as L. G.
Alexander) was a Brit ish t eacher and t he aut hor of numerous EFL course books, including New
Concept English.

In 1977, he sold 4.7m books, which was recorded in t he Guinness Book of Records as t he
great est number of copies sold by an individual aut hor in one year (1977).[1]

Biography

Louis Alexander was born Elias George Ft yaras in London. His fat her, George Ft yaras, was Greek
and his mot her, Mary Ft yaras née Manolas,[2] was an Aust ralian of Greek ancest ry – "so he spoke
perfect English and perfect Greek".[3]

During much of World War II he was wit h his mot her in Aust ralia, lat er t hey ret urned t o Brit ain,
where was educat ed at Godalming Grammar School and t he Universit y of London. From 1954 t o
1956 he was on nat ional service in t he Brit ish Army Germany (1954–56), where he had his first
experience as an educat or, t eaching A-level English as an Educat ional Corps inst ruct or.

He t aught English in Germany (1954–56) and Greece (1956–65) where he was head of English at
t he Prot ypon Lykeion, At hens (what is now t he Scholi Moraït i).[4]

In t he 1960s he st art ed being published wit h Longmans. In 1962 his first book, Sixty Steps to
Précis, was published and became a best seller. His second book, A First Book in Comprehension,
was published in 1964. New Concept English, his first major book series, was published in 1967.
Wit h Longman he also published such series as: Look Listen and Learn (1968–71), Target (1972–
74), Mainline (1973–81).

Louis was a member of t he Council of Europe Commit t ee on Modern Language Teaching (1973–
78), and one of t he aut hors of The Threshold Level (1975) and Waystage (1977), works developed
for t he Council of Europe t hat have been t he bases of many communicat ive language courses
and forms t he Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. He served on t he
Commit t ee of Management of t he Societ y of Aut hors (1980–83).[4]

In t he 1980s Alexander wrot e reference books such as Longman English Grammar (1988;
pract ice book 1990) and Longman Advanced Grammar (1993).

In t he lat e 1980s he worked for UNESCO on Junior English for China course. He creat ed t he
blueprint for t he Survive self-st udy series (1980–83, reissued 1989) for modern languages and
published courses in t he field of comput er-assist ed language learning.[4]

In 1986-88 he was adviser t o t he Universit y of Cambridge Local Examinat ions Syndicat e for t he
Cambridge Cert ificat e in English for Int ernat ional Communicat ion.

He was a writ er of EFL course mat erials from t he 1960s onwards. Alexander consist ent ly
support ed t he cause of t he relat ively unt rained non-nat ive speaking t eacher of English.

Louis Alexander died of leukemia on 17 June 2002 in Chambéry, Savoie, France.[2]

Legacy
Tim Rix, former chairman of t he Longman Group, praised Alexander as having "part icular abilit ies
and knowledge", combined wit h a "use of linguist ics", which "meshed perfect ly well wit h t he
requirement s of ELT [English language t eaching]" in his t ime.[3]

Alexander had an immense influence on English language t eaching in China. In recognit ion of t his, a
st at ue was raised in his honour in t he grounds of t he "Foreign Language Teaching and Research
Press..., one of China’s largest schoolbook publishers".[5] The st at ue bears t he following
inscript ion: "...t he man who cracked t he linguist ic code of t he English language and made it
learnable for millions of st udent s worldwide t hrough New Concept English and many ot her course
books".[5]

Personal life

Louis Alexander married At hina Voyat sis in At hens in 1956. They had had a daught er, Marianna
(born 1961) and a son George (born 1963).[2] At hina died in 1979.[1] Louis married Julia née Mendus
in 1980.[2]

Bibliography

His publicat ions[6] 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)[7]

Mainline (1973–81)

Follow Me (1979–80)

Excel (for Egypt ian 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)

Not e: Many ot her books by Alexander are list ed in his For and Against (1968).

Articles …
"Fads and fashions in English language t eaching" (ht t ps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/en
glish-t oday/art icle/fads-and-fashions-in-english-language-t eaching/34752B29EEAA0D3F6B21
5A51EFDBA2E8#) , English Today, 21: 35-56, 1990.

References

1. David Mortimer, "Louis Alexander: A revolutionary teacher of English to the world" (https://www.theguar
dian.com/news/2002/jul/09/guardianobituaries.obituaries) , The Guardian, 9 July 2002. Retrieved 31
March 2002.
 2. Julia Alexander, Louis Alexander's family and life history (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/coll
ections/elt_archive/halloffame/louis_alexander/archive/julia_alexander/) , warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 1
April 2020.

3. Tim Rix, in: Sue Bradley, ed., The British Book Trade: An Oral History (https://books.google.com.au/book
s?id=SoAnAQAAIAAJ&q=so+he+spoke+perfect+English+and+perfect+Greek&dq=so+he+spoke+perfect+
English+and+perfect+Greek&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSkrvT48ToAhUPOisKHRa8CWQQ6AEIOTAC) ,
London: The British Library, 2008, p. 193.

4. Richard Smith, L.G. Alexander's life and career (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collections/el

t_archive/halloffame/louis_alexander/biography/) , warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2020.

5. Xia Xu, "Learning Text by Heart and Language Education: The Chinese Experience" (http://www.academ
ypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol03/01/07.pdf) , in: Theory and Practice in Language Studies,
Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 41-50, January 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2020.

. The Writers Directory 1980-82 (https://books.google.com/books?id=Hi-xCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA1

7&dq=louis+george+alexander+writer#v=onepage&q=louis%20george%20alexander%20writer) ,
London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Company, 1979, p. 17. Retrieved 31 March 2020.

7. Louis G. Alexander (https://web.archive.org/web/20100325225334/http://www.linguaphonegroup.com/

englishlanguagetraining/louisalexander.cfm) , linguaphonegroup.com. Retrieved 1 April 2020.

Further reading

Barry Tomalin, "Seeking t he philosopher's st one" (ht t ps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/en

glish-t oday/art icle/seeking-t he-philosophers-st one/A11D6A7B05CBD091EACCA6BE65C1A
A23) (int erview t ranscript ), English Today, 7: 17-18, 1986.

Tom McArt hur, "Louis Alexander: We looked, list ened and learned" (ht t ps://www.cambridge.or
g/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/cont ent /view/1C7FFE724576CCDD54E01181BF55F39
B/S0266078402004017a.pdf/louis-alexander-we-looked-list ened-and-learned.pdf) , English
Today, 72: 3-7, 2002.

P.-Y. Li, W. Et hridge, X. Yang, and Julia Alexander, "L.G. Alexander: a st at ue in Beijing" (ht t ps://ww
w.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-t oday/art icle/l-g-alexander-a-st at ue-in-beijing/563AC3
A857A719D6C98C89FEA2B4922E) , English Today, 78: 20-25, 2004.

External links
 Louis Alexander on t he hist ory of English language t eaching in t he 20t h cent ury (ht t ps://warwic
k.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect ions/elt _ archive/halloffame/louis_ alexander/archive/)
(audio recording in ELT Archive, Universit y of Warwick)

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