The origins of ELT Journal

The journal that gave its name to our field of activity recently reached the age of sixty – in October 1946, the first issue of English Language Teaching, now known as ELT Journal, was sent out around the world from the British Council’s offices in Hanover Street, London. Since then the journal has continuously served as a focal point for the profession, to the extent indeed that its title, abbreviated to ‘ELT’, began to be adopted as an umbrella term for the whole enterprise of teaching English as a foreign or second language. This term gained even wider currency after English Language Teaching was renamed English Language Teaching Journal (ELTJ) in 1973, and then simply ELT Journal in 1981. As a glance at the Appendix will show, successive editors have left their own mark on the journal. However, it is A.S. Hornby, its founder and first editor, who should be especially remembered. Founding English Language Teaching was just one of Hornby’s many achievements, but it is mainly due to his close association with the periodical in its earliest years that he deserves to be called the ‘father of ELT’ in postwar Britain. As we shall also see, however, there is a need to delve deeper, and further back in time, if we are to discover the true origins of English Language Teaching, and of ELT as a post-war enterprise