Our History

“No man has ever done more to further the use of English as an international language”

The A.S Hornby Trust was founded in 1961 by A.S Hornby, an English language specialist respectfully known as ‘the man who made dictionaries’. His most famous work is the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, which for over 70 years has helped students of English around the world understand an expansive and complex language.
 
Albert Sydney Hornby, fondly known by his friends as ASH, wanted the Trust’s money – much of which came out of his own pocket – to “go back to the countries from which it comes”.
 
At this time the teaching of English was usually based on traditional language learning principles such as the extensive use of translation, the emphasis on the written over the spoken language, and limited reference to the creative production of spoken language by the learner, all principles Hornby endeavoured to counteract in his approach to a dictionary based on learners’ needs.
Thanks to grants awarded by the Trust, hundreds of teachers have been able to develop their expertise through British Council Summer Schools and postgraduate courses in Linguistics and English Language Teaching at British universities.

The widespread and continuing work of the Trust is an appropriate reflection of a man who was dedicated to the teaching, and to all teachers, of the English language.

For more on the life of A S Hornby, read the summary of his life below, and the following resources published by OUP:

“He was never a remote, dry-as-dust academic, but a man of broad sympathies and practical instincts who believed that the knowledge of the expert should be put to the service of the ordinary teacher”

Dr A.P. Cowie, University of Leeds, Lexicographer.

Albert Sydney Hornby: his life and achievements

Photo of ASH Hornby
1898 – Born in Chester
 
1922 – Completed a degree in English Language and Literature, University College London
 
1923 – Went to teach English in Japan
 
1931 – Invited to join the programme of vocabulary research at the Tokyo Institute for Research into English Teaching (IRET)
 
1936 – Appointed head of research at the IRET
 
1942 – First edition of the Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary published in Tokyo – which was later renamed the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
 
1942 – Hornby returns to England and joins the British Council. He is posted to Iran where he works as a lecturer and teacher trainer
1945 – Appointed Linguistic Adviser to the British Council in London
 
1946 – Founds the British Council journal, English Language Teaching
 
1946 – Initiates the BBC series English by Radio
 
1954 – Publishes A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English, one of many key books
 
1961 – Sets up the A S Hornby Educational Trust
 
1976 – Made a fellow of University College of London
 
1978 – Awarded a Master of Arts degree at the University of Oxford
 
1978 – Dies, aged 80
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