人物簡介
L.G.ALEXANDER路易斯·亞歷山大（Louis Alexander）生於1932年1月15日，逝於2002年6月17日。
亞歷山大（英）L. G. Alexander是世界著名的英語教學權威，曾任歐洲現代語言教學委員會理事。其中，NCE（《新概念英語》）和Follow Me（《跟我學》）已成為經典教材。 他的《朗文英語語法》也是語法書中的佳作，至今暢銷世界。Direct English（《直捷英語》）是他在有生之年最後為英語學習者奉獻的巔峰之作。
作品
《新概念英語》（New Concept English）作為享譽全球的最為經典地道的英語教材，以其嚴密的體系性、嚴謹的科學性、精湛的實用性、濃郁的趣味性深受英語學習者的青睞。這套世界聞名的英語教程一如既往地向讀者提供一個完整的、經過實踐檢驗的英語學習體系，使學生有可能在英語的四項基本技能——理解、口語、閱讀和寫作——方面最大限度地發揮自己的潛能。
《新概念英語》是以情景式教學理念為依據，採用循序漸進式的語法大綱，在情景中學習語法、套用語法；同時，每隔一段時間在新的內容中循環複習已學的語法，使得學習者在即將遺忘的時刻及時溫故知新。通過這種方法，學生能夠奠定非常堅實的語言基礎。另外，《新概念英語》從第1冊開始就注重語言學習規律，先聽再說，先讀後寫。從語言學習初期就注重語言技能的培養，將語言知識的套用同語言技能培養有機結合，相互平衡和補充。這樣，學習《新概念英語》可以一石兩鳥——提高英語能力和提高學習成績。 再者，《新概念英語》的課文蘊含的幽默感是其他同類教科書不可比擬的，而這種幽默感可以引領學習者保持持久的學習興趣，讓學習變成聽講故事一樣有趣。有了興趣，學習效果會自然提升。 作者亞歷山大先生在課文的甄選和編排上表現出了深湛的功力和慧眼卓識。這些課文文思兼優、雅俗共賞，難度由淺入深，篇幅由短到長，層層遞進，有條不紊。教材選文的題材相當廣泛，而同一單元的課文長度大體相當，實在令人拍案叫絕。
第一冊以日常對話為主，簡單對話中蘊含生活智慧；第二、三兩冊的課文，一般以幽默故事為主，適應了不同專業、愛好的學習者的閱讀口味。這些課文的題材是相當廣泛的，涉及社會、政治、人物、藝術、考古、科技和自然等方方面面。各篇課文的語言風格大體一致，即便是科技類文章行文也是活潑生動的，沒有多少刻板的學究氣。這些課文不僅宜於閱讀，還可以作為學習寫作的良好範本。第四冊的課文大多選自英文原著，語言難度加深，題材更加多樣，其中包括了羅素和邱吉爾等名家的作品。學完了第四冊，讀者便可以將精讀的學習告一段落，直接進入閱讀原著、名著的階段了。
NEW CONCEPT ENGLISH跟我學
作為20世紀80年代的經典電視英語教程，本套書以全新的功能教學理念和豐富新穎的教學手段風靡了整箇中國。本套書採用循環式教學法，提供大量的聽說訓練，話題多樣，輕鬆幽默，可以有效提高學習者的口語和聽力水平。
此外，本套書還通過靈活多樣的情景教學方式，帶您走進英國社會，領略英國的風土人情。為了滿足國內廣大英語愛好者的需求，外語教學與研究出版社與BBC通力合作，組織中外專家，對原書的素材進行了重新整合和編排，並邀請國內著名節目主持人楊瀾女士以及BBC英語教學顧問Kathy Flower女士對節目中的教學難點及重點進行了全新詮釋。
改版的《跟我學》保留了第一版《跟我學》的諸多優點。其一，依然由60集組成，包括60個主題，涵蓋了日常生活中常用的10項語言功能，而且每學10課後會針對已學的語言功能言功能相似，可以使學習者溫故而知新。其二，保留了由BBC廣播公司《跟我學》劇組拍攝的原版情景劇。生動、滑稽的表演充分體現了英國人的幽默感，加上純正的英式發音，給人帶來真正的視聽享受；其三，在情景劇中間，穿插了與情景劇語言功能相關的實景對話和歌曲，便於學習者擴展所學的語言知識；其四，我們在其中40集裡穿插了一個句為Follow Me to Britain的紀錄片，向學習者介紹英國的本土文化，使學習者有身臨英國的感覺；其五，其作20集裡穿插播放了4個系列短劇，情節起伏跌宕，生動有趣。
改版的《跟我學》還增添了一些新的特色。60集的錄像節目分別由著名主持人楊瀾(前30集)和BBC廣播公司的Kathy Flower(後30集)擔綱主持，在原版的錄像節目的基礎上設計了更詳細和更富有時代氣息的講解，以滿足當前學習者的需要。同時，我們為改版的《跟我學》增另了兩個學生的角色，設計了師生互動的句型練習活動和口語活動，由此加強了節目的互動性和交際性，對於學習者提高交際能力大有幫助。改版《跟我學》分為上、下冊，各配10張VCD，適合具有初級水平的英語學習者。
Follow Me《直捷英語》
《直捷英語》（Direct English）是專門為英語學習者設計的一套聽說強化教程，是《新概念英語》（New Concept English）的作者路易斯·亞歷山大（Louis Alexander）的又一套經典教材。與《新概念英語》不同的是，《直捷英語》（Direct English）採用系列短劇的形式，將語言知識貫穿劇情之中。學習者通過模仿地道美語，達到強化英語聽說能力的目的。
提供全新英語 聽說解決方案
* 獨特的短劇形式，激發濃厚學習興趣
* 合理的結構編排，蘊涵科學學習理念
* 翔實的輔助講解，培養自主學習習慣
* 充足的聽說訓練，營造互動學習空間
* 豐富的配套產品，滿足不同學習需求
《直捷英語》（Direct English）採用系列短劇的形式，將語言知識貫穿劇情之中。學習者通過模仿地道美語，達到強化英語聽說能力的目的。該套教程的編寫依據英語學習的一般規律，根據學習過程中的“積累（building）—鞏固（consolidation）—擴展（expanding）”三個階段設計教材的結構；同時，短劇劇情貼近美國生活，人物個性鮮明，語言生動風趣，不斷發展的故事情節可以讓學習者保持持久的學習興趣，從而達到預期的學習效果。
Direct English寫書歷程
Julia AlexanderMy late husband, Louis Alexander, was born on 15 January 1932, and died on 17th June 2002. He published his first book, Sixty Steps to Précis, in 1962, and for the rest of his life, he continued to travel, to research, to write and to publish at a furious rate. You have a list of his published works here.
When Louis was travelling and meeting people, one of the obvious questions they would ask him, in fascinated tones, was how many books he had published. Although this question may seem obvious and reasonable, Louis would gently explain that it was not possible to count how many books he had written. ‘For,’ he said, ‘how can you define a ‘book’? A little story, such as April Fool’s Day has only thirty-two pages, and is written in a day or two. A four-level course, like Look, Listen and Learn, has 4 Pupil’s books, 8 Workbooks, 4 Teacher’s Books and 8 storybooks. It took five years to write. Both these are separate titles, but they cannot in any way be compared.’
Looking at the list of his works, therefore, we should avoid making a crude tally of their number. The point is that they represent forty years of committed hard work and creativity by a man who had thoughts and ideas flying from his fingertips. He was a Colossus by any standards. His work defined the field of English as a Foreign Language, in terms of teaching, and in terms of publishing. Nothing has happened in the field during his lifetime and since his death that he did not prefigure in his work. He laid down the map of the subject for others to follow.
Louis always knew he was going to be a writer. As a small child, he wrote a ‘magazine’ of articles and stories which he shared with his friends. Later, he wrote for, and edited, the magazines of his school and university. He also directed his fellow students in some of Shakespeare’s plays, played the piano, wrote poetry, went climbing in Wales and Scotland, and studied his chosen subject – English Language and Literature – with passion.
After university, for his military service, he was sent to the British Army’s Higher Education Centre in Germany. His job there was to teach men who were about to go back to civilian life. They needed to pass public examinations, so as to get a good start once they left the army. Those 2 years in the Army represented the perfect preparation for his life-work. His students had only 6 weeks to master the material needed for their exams. Their success depended on truly efficient teaching. Louis got excellent results by planning every detail of the syllabus and writing materials to match. He also employed one of the locals to give him private lessons in German. This was his first language syllabus, created for his own needs, since of course he decided what he wanted to know, and how he wanted to learn. His teacher administered the lessons according to Louis’ plan. Louis had already learned French in school and Greek by listening to his father’s friends, but this time, he was in charge of his own language lessons. He learned German by comparing and contrasting it with English, and so began to look at English inside out. And finally, it may not seem important, but it is basic, that he taught himself at that time to touch-type with great speed and accuracy. Typing was for him as easy as breathing. How else could he have written so much?
I have explained this to you in some detail, so as to illustrate how Louis worked. He had an extremely high energy-level. That was his nature. He was also very self-disciplined. In every area of his life, he would define what had to be done, and then work steadily towards the target. Because he knew what he was doing, he was very patient. Some things take a long time. For example, The Longman English Grammar took seven years to write, and he wrote seven editions in manuscript before it was published. The task of writing a reference work was to decide what to say, then to refine how to say it, and finally to decide what not to say. His aim in all his work was to cut through to the essence of the language, and he knew when he had done so.
The list of Louis’ published works is rather like a map of my own life, since I taught New Concept English and Look, Listen and Learn before I ever met him – and I recognized their greatness immediately. They freed me to become a really good teacher, so that I enjoyed my work. When Longman took me on as a teacher-trainer, I was in a position to follow all Louis’ works as he wrote them, for a period of nearly nine years. Before I got to know him well personally, I observed his work from inside Longman as a privileged observer. I could see that he was working at the cutting edge of syllabus and materials development, and that he was as much at home in the classrooms of developing countries, like Brazil and Egypt, as he was in the highest academic committees of the Council of Europe. I could also see a man who was really keen on new technology. He wrote for all new audio-visual media as soon as they became available, so that he was working in the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning as early as 1979, long before anyone else. The publications of those years included a number of course-books, including Target, Mainline, Follow Me, and the first ever Computer-Assisted Language Courses (published by EMI/Longman with Atari for French, Spanish, German , and Italian).
At the end of those nine years, I married Louis in 1980, and we were invited to come to China the following year. We had a wonderful time here, and were pleased and excited by the connexions we made Soon after that, Louis was invited to provide the blueprint and to advise on Junior English for China, written by Neville Grant and published by The People’s Education Press, Beijing in collaboration with Longman, and sponsored by UNESCO.
In the 1980’s, Louis’ preoccupation with syllabus and learning-processes led him to write reference works rather than course books. In this period, he wrote The Longman English Grammar, The Longman Advanced Grammar and Right Word, Wrong Word. This was a quiet time of deep concentration and seriousness, bringing together all the different insights he had had. By 1992, Louis was ready to write another course. He approached Longman with a proposal to write a course for complete beginners upwards. His plan was to provide a bi-lingualised course, in which every aspect of the syllabus would be defined, so that the student would have full control over the material as he progressed, and would not be dependent on the teacher to mediate any gaps or difficulties. This is a quotation from a letter Louis wrote to his publisher, Michael Johnson, at the time:
I strongly believe we have to work from the bottom upwards, so as to exercise absolute control in the development of the entire course, so there are no inexplicable non-sequiturs and items that haven't properly been accounted for. The basis of the entire undertaking is an accurate definition of levels. You can only really describe a level if it is based on a well-defined syllabus. It comes back to the old contrast between attainment and proficiency. To measure attainment, you need an immutable, objective syllabus which applies equally to everybody. Students and teachers thus have the reassurance of knowing what they have to cover and what they will be tested in. Proficiency is measured by real-life performance, and some students will become more proficient more rapidly than others, but by such a rigorous definition of level, we shall give all learners the maximum opportunity to account for everything in each level as they progress, regardless of whether their teachers are brilliant or not.
Longman’s response to this proposal surprised and delighted him. Instead of letting Louis work alone on a self-study course for those learning English by reading, the publisher, Michael Johnson, proposed a multi-media course, with a bilingual component, with investment on a scale that no publisher had undertaken since Follow Me.
Louis had strong views about the use multi-media teaching purposes. He believed that all communications media should be true to their type: that film should be real film, that radio should be real radio, that course-books should be written by professional authors, and so on. There are only two English Language teaching courses that have ever been published that fit this requirement, and Louis Alexander was the author of both of them. One is Follow Me, and the other is Direct English. All the rest fit into one of two categories:
the first, either the books are written first, and the films follow. Because they are made by teachers and course-writers, they are not ‘real film’, or ‘real TV’. They can be very dull, because they tend to use the screen like a blackboard.
- the second, the films are made by TV and film professionals, who also devise the teaching materials. Because they have no syllabus, they do not serve the purposes of teachers and learners, even if they seem to be amusing.
Follow Me was financed by the German Government. It included network TV, radio and classroom materials. All of these were prepared by experts in the media concerned, but all were locked together by the mighty syllabus Louis had created. The course-material and the multi-media were created together, but each product was true to itself. That’s why it was so successful. In the early 1980’s, Follow Me was viewed by more than a billion learners world-wide.
When Michael Johnson proposed to Louis that he write Direct English, Louis knew exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to deploy all the insights he had ever had about language, syllabus-design and the learning process into one great course, addressed directly to the learner. Given the opportunity to use all available media, he wanted the film and CD-Rom material to be created seamlessly, together with the Student’s Books and the bi-lingual Companions. He wanted to work closely with a specialist scriptwriter and film-maker, and with specialist designers of CD-Roms. He himself would write the course-books, and he would write the language-analysis to be addressed to the learner in his own language. The Learner’s Companion would be the bi-lingual component, and he and the Editor would take specialist advice on the adaptation to each different language, so as to take account of the different problems of mother-tongue interference. Above all, he wanted to work in a small, closely-knit team. This is what Michael Johnson offered him, when he commissioned Direct English. It was a dream-project. He was in an author’s heaven!
Discussions began in 1992, and by the end of 1993, they had defined the syllabuses and the working method. By the end of May 1994, Louis had submitted the finished script for his pilot-version of Book 1 – the first 3 Levels. This was sent out for trials world-wide, including to Shanghai. Of course, Louis’ name was not attached to the pilot version. We were charmed by a perceptive commentator in Shanghai, who remarked, ‘This material would be successful if it were by L.G. Alexander, and the author has been successful in imitating him. But since it is not by him, it is unlikely to emulate the success of New Concept English.’
Although Louis had written the story-line for the pilot version in British English, it was always intended that the film-sequences would be written by a professional script-writer, who would take Louis’ scripts as a demonstration of the language syllabus, and generate a completely new story-line, written in American English, and set in America. In May 1994, Longman commissioned a documentary film-maker, Mike Raggett, and Mike brought in Daisy Scott, an experienced script-writer from Boston who quickly understood the dimensions of the syllabus. Daisy wrote the 27 dialogues for Level One in collaboration with Louis. She generated the story, and Louis kept her within the syllabus, while not interfering with her American English. Then everyone, including Louis, went to Boston for the filming. Meanwhile, Louis wrote the rest of the material for each level, developing the language, the characters and the plot as he went, and sending each unit as he worked to an American English language specialist, Ellen Shore, at the University of Nevada. Ellen advised on American idiom, and Louis adjusted his material until she accepted it as real American English. (The differences between British and American English are mainly phonological, though there are also some lexical and stylistic differences, especially in the spoken language. Grammatical differences are really very few.) And this process was repeated for the next two levels as well. The writing continued into 1998. By 1999, the ongoing tasks were mainly editorial, to do with the production of language-specific versions of Direct English for all the different languages. This was carried forward by Sarah Gumbrell, Louis’ Editor, the best Editor he ever had. This process continues today, as you can see now, with the Chinese Edition that has been prepared with FLTRP.
In preparing this document, I have gone back through the letters-file from that period, and I am struck, as I have always been, by Louis’ cheerful curiosity, his generosity towards his colleagues, and the sheer, affectionate, burning energy of the man. His tone is always bright and optimistic, and his work rhythm as steady as a power station. He was also working on New Concept English Chinese New Edition, published by FLTRP at the end of 1997, though the work on the new Teacher’s Books and Workbooks for that edition continued until 2001. I note in his letters that he was annoyed to have very bad flu several times in 93, 94 and 95, since it wasted his time and was very boring. I remember saying to him that he was working too hard, and that we needed to take more time out. He brushed my concerns aside. He was happy. He would never retire. He was doing what he wanted to do.
In January 1998, we learned that he had a very serious blood-disease. Even so, he still pursued all the things that had always mattered to him. He was determined to go on being like himself. He still worked, still communicated constantly with his friends and colleagues, went to concerts and art-galleries, and lived every minute of every day with the same intensity. In one of his periods of illness, he was deeply pleased when Mr. Li Pengyi visited him in hospital in London. Meanwhile, the news about Direct English was excellent. People liked it. It had the lowest ‘drop-out rate’ of any course ever written; 98% of people inscribed for Level One went on to do Level Two. We talked a lot about Direct English. He and I were cheerfully convinced that it was his best course – that he had achieved his desire to realise, in one great work, the insights that he had gained through 40 years of tireless work in the field of English Language teaching and learning. The bi-lingualisation into so many different languages world-wide was slow, but each new issue was followed by success with the learners.
Today marks the launch of Direct English Chinese Edition. As our partners in New Concept English, FLTRP are the natural home for L.G. Alexander’s last, finest, most complete course. It is a matter of great personal satisfaction to me to be here for such an event. I thank Mr. Li Pengyi and his valued colleagues at FLTRP for their kindness and loyal hard work, and congratulate them on the quality of the books. My particular thanks go to Ms Zhang Lixin for her attentive and intelligent editing. I wish every success to Direct English in China, and hope that every learner who takes it up may feel entertained, and engaged, and confident in the learning of English as a International Language.
Julia Alexander
Beijing
22 September 2005
先夫路易斯·亞歷山大生於1932年1月15日，逝於2002年6月17日。自1962年他的第一本著作 Sixty Steps to Précis 出版以來，他一直暢遊各地，致力於研究、寫作和出版 。現附上他的著作年表。
許多人都曾驚奇地問路易斯，他到底出版了多少書籍。這個問題似乎很容易回答，但路易斯會溫和地解釋說，他寫了多少書，是無法統計出來的。他說：“你如何定義‘書’呢？像 April Fool’s Day 這樣的一個小故事，只有32頁，用一兩天就能寫完。而像《看、聽、學》這樣的一套四級教程，有4本學生用書，8本練習冊，4本教師用書和8本故事書，花了5年的時間才完成。兩者都是‘書’，但完全不具可比性。”
因此，對他的著作我們不能只看表面的數字。它們是四十年的努力和智慧的結晶，為後人奠定了英語作為外語的教學和出版的基礎。無論從哪一方面來看，路易斯都是當之無愧的大家。
路易斯自小就知道他會成為一個作家。幼時他就開始編寫“雜誌”，和朋友們分享他的文章和故事。之後，他為學校校刊撰稿並擔任編輯。同時，他執導學生出演的莎士比亞戲劇、彈奏鋼琴、寫詩、登山，並滿懷熱情地學習英國語言文學。
大學畢業後，作為服兵役的內容，路易斯被派去駐守在德國的英國軍隊高等教育中心工作。在軍中的2年為他日後的事業發展打下了很好的基礎。他負責給即將復員的軍人上課，這些軍人只有6周的學習時間來準備公共考試，因此老師的教學方法尤為重要。路易斯進行了精心備課並準備了相應寫作材料，教學效果非常好。他還請了一位當地人教他德語，為自己設計了教材——這是他寫作的第一套教材。之前路易斯在學校學過法語，通過聽父親的朋友聊天學習了希臘語，但這一次，是他自己決定了他要學習的內容和方法。在學習的過程中，他通過將德語與英語進行比較，開始深入研究英語。最後，他還學會了快速準確的盲打，這看似不重要，卻是寫作的基本要求。
路易斯精力充沛，自律力極高。做任何事情，他都會實現設定目標，然後穩步向目標邁進。因為清楚認識自己的目標，他對工作很有耐心，不一蹴而就。例如，《朗文英語語法》花了他7年時間，共寫了7稿。
在我還沒有和路易斯見面之前，我就在教授《新概念英語》和《看、聽、學》。我一接觸這兩套教材就意識到了它們的偉大之處。它們讓我成為了一位好老師，讓我真正喜歡上我的工作。成為了朗文出版社的培訓師後，在9年的時間裡，我都在關注著路易斯的寫作。當時他為歐洲理事會工作，推動歐洲理事會各國語言教材的發展。此階段他出版了教材、English Grammatical Structure 及 The Threshold Level for Schools. 其他幾部教材如 Target、 Mainline 、《跟我學》及首部計算機輔助教材（後由EMI/朗文和Atari出版，有法語版、西班牙語版、德語版和義大利語版）也在醞釀中。
1980年我和路易斯結婚，第二年應邀來到中國。我們在中國度過了一段難忘的美好時光，結識了很多朋友。不久，路易斯就受邀為人民教育出版社和朗文共同出版的《國中英語》編寫大綱和提供參考意見。
80年代，路易斯開始將工作重心轉移到編寫教輔上。他陸續出版了《朗文英語語法》、《朗文高級語法》和Right Word, Wrong Word。這段時期，他一直在思考如何融合他所吸收的各種理念，為出版新教材做準備。到1992年，路易斯覺得時機已經成熟。他向朗文提交了一個教程編寫方案，針對群體是零起點的初學者。他的目標是為學習者提供一個雙語教材，教材的每一方面都有詳盡說明，學習者可以自主控制進度，不需依賴教師來解決困難。
朗文對此方案表現出了很大的熱情，出版人Michael Johnson建議路易斯編寫一套雙語多媒體教程，投資規模可以與《跟我學》相媲美。
路易斯對多媒體教學有自己的見解。他認為多媒體教學中的所有語言介質都應該是真實的：電影就應該是真的電影，廣播是真的廣播，教材應該由專業作者編寫等等。目前出版的教材只有兩套是符合這個標準的，作者都是路易斯：《跟我學》和《直捷英語》。其他的教材不外乎兩種：
第一種，教師或教材作者先編寫教材，隨後製作電影。因此它們不是真的電影或電視，很可能會很無趣，因為編寫者將螢幕當作了黑板。
第二種，電影和輔助資料都由影視專業人士製作。電影也許很有意思，但因為沒有對應的教材，它們也不適用於教學。
當Michael Johnson提議 路易斯編寫《直捷英語》時，路易斯對這套教材有著非常明確的目標。他希望能將他對語言、課程設計和學習過程的理念全部融合進去，和專業的編劇、導演及光碟設計師合作，將電影、光碟和學生用書完美地結合在一起。這是他理想中的作品！
從1992年開始洽談相關事宜，到了1993年底，基本確定了教材的框架和合作方式。1994年5月底，路易斯提交了第一冊書的試行稿。雖然路易斯是用英式英語來編寫故事大綱的，但從一開始，就計畫請專業編劇以路易斯的大綱為參照，撰寫一個全新的美式英語版，場景設定也在美國。在波士頓拍電影的同時，路易斯繼續編寫其餘級別的內容，並請美式英語專家幫助審定修改。編寫的過程一直持續到1998年。到1999年，基本上就是編輯工作以及編寫不同語言的版本了。這項工作一直持續到今天，像外研社出版的《直捷英語》中文版就是其中一例。
1998年1月，路易斯被診斷患有嚴重的血液病。儘管如此，他還是堅持追求他的理想，做他想做的事情。他仍然工作，和朋友同事保持聯繫，去音樂會和畫廊，每一分鐘都過得很充實。在倫敦的一次住院期間，李朋義社長來到醫院探望他，讓他非常高興。《直捷英語》推出後的反響也非常好，有98%的人學習完級別一後繼續學習級別二。這個比率是所有的英語教材中最高的。
今天是《直捷英語》首發式。作為我們《新概念英語》的合作夥伴，外研社是亞歷山大這部巔峰之作的最好歸宿。能來到北京參加這個重要儀式，本人感到非常欣喜。在此我要感謝李朋義社長和外研社的工作人員，謝謝他們的誠摯和辛勤工作。特別感謝張黎新小姐為此書編輯。願《直捷英語》在中國獲得成功，也希望中國的學生們能開開心心地學習本套教材，掌握世界通用語言——英語。
Julia Alexander
北京
2005年9月22日
