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Dr Norman Whitney, ELT Journal, Volume 76, Issue 3, July 2022, Pages 409–411, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccac025
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Extract
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.
