“Once and Future” Directions in Language Teaching and Life: An Interview with Marianne Celce-Murcia

“Once and Future” Directions in Language Teaching and Life: An Interview with Marianne Celce-Murcia Bahiyyih Hardacre University of California, Los Angeles When professor Celce-Murcia retired in 2002, she was interviewed by IAL; back then she talked a little about her early studies and educational background, and about changes she had witnessed not only in the field of applied linguistics and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) but also within our department, with our newly created undergraduate minor in TESL – Teaching Eng- lish as a Second Language. In addition, she outlined two of her most impressive works: The Grammar Book (co-authored with Diane Larsen-Freeman) and Teaching Pronunciation (co-authored with Janet Goodwin and Donna Brinton). But contrary to what one would expect, retiring for her did not mean going home victoriously at last, to find the long-deserved and inviting arms of Morpheus; after all, she had already greatly contributed to society with an impressive list of accomplishments and hallmark books that are still hailed as the best of their kind. Instead, it was just the beginning of a new set of challenges and projects. In this interview, Marianne addresses some of the projects and hardships that awaited her after her retirement, along with her unexpected appointment to serve as dean of English programs at the American University of Armenia, and the creation and co-editing of an innovative discourse-based ESL textbook series. Professor Emerita of Applied Linguistics & TESL at the University of Cali- fornia, Los Angeles, where she taught and mentored graduate students for thirty years, Marianne Celce-Murcia has published widely in the areas of language teaching methodology (including discourse-based approaches), the teaching of pronunciation, and pedagogical grammar. She has administered various TESOL related programs around the world, including the UCLA ESL Service Course pro- gram in 1975, the UCLA Summer Program for Soviet Teachers of English in 1976, and the Fulbright Summer Program for Egyptian Teachers of English at UCLA in 1987. She was awarded the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award in 1976, selected for the Danforth Foundation’s Associate Program in 1977, and she was acting chair of the department in 1990. In 1997, Heinle & Heinle Publishers presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award and New York University awarded her the Malkemes Prize for one of her published papers in 2007. Celce-Murcia’s main research interests are (a) empirical corpus-based studies of English syntax, discourse, and lexicon, (b) the application of findings in functional language analysis or applied linguistic theory to the preparation and testing of teaching materials, (c) developments in language analysis (functional syntax and discourse), and (d) Issues in Applied Linguistics © 2008, Regents of the University of California ISSN 1050-4273 Vol. 16 No. 2, 175-190