Humanism in Language Teaching

0 For some years now, Earl Stevick has been one of a number of writers who have explored humanistic ideas and techniques in the teaching of languages (see, e.g., Moskowitz, 1978; Morgan & Rinvolucri, 1983). In previous books, notably his Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways (Stevick 1980), he has employed a personal style and used the example of his own teaching to explore how humanistic methods, particularly the Silent Way and Counseling Learning, are realized in the language classroom. Though these methods have often been popular with teachers, and in some areas of our profession they have been adopted on a large scale, they have also met with skepticism from applied linguists who have often dismissed humanistic methodology as unscientific, that is, as rooted in dogma that has no basis in scientifically ascertained fact. In Stevick's latest book, Humanism in Language Teaching, he attempts to do what has not been done before: to meet the critics of humanistic