Henry Widdowson

Henry George Widdowson (born 28 May 1935, in Leicester, England) is an applied linguist, internationally well known for his ideas about discourse and the nature of communication in relation to a wide range of areas of English study, including literary stylistics, critical discourse analysis, and English language education. He is an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of London, an Honorary Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vienna.

In the early 1990s, he collaborated with Barbara Seidlhofer in initiating enquiry into the description of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and its significance as a global means of communication both for disciplinary study of language and for the pedagogy of its teaching. In 2015, he received the British Council's Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his research and his wider involvement in the English Language Teaching (ELT) community.

Career Widdowson was educated at Alderman Newton's School in Leicester. Later he studied English, French and German literature for his first degree at King’s College, Cambridge (1953-1956). In November 1958, after two years of military service in the Royal Navy, he took the post of lecturer in English literature at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. In early 1962 he joined the British Council, first as an Education Officer in Sri Lanka, then as an English Language Officer in Bangladesh. This experience persuaded him of the need for further research into discourse analysis. He left the British Council in 1969 to take up a temporary lectureship to do a PhD in Edinburgh under the supervision of Pit Corder. In 1971, he successfully applied for a permanent lecturer post there and gained a PhD in the subject at the same institution in 1973. he launched the new journal Applied Linguistics. At about the same time, he became chairman of the British Council’s English Teaching Advisory Committee. Between 1980 and 2008, he was the advisor for Applied Linguistics publishing at the Oxford University Press.

Between 1983 and 1986, together with Ann Brumfit, Scott Windeatt and Christopher Hyde, he has written several books of activities designed to make learners aware of the significance of grammar as a communicative resource. The rational of their design appeared later as Chapter 10 of his book Aspects of Language Teaching (1990). In this series, he and his colleagues presented their areas of expertise to enable pre-service and in-service teachers, students in general to critically appraise the ideas and findings of linguistics and related disciplines, and to give them a clear understanding of what these ideas and findings are. Over ten years, a dozen titles appeared at fairly regular intervals: Henry Widdowson on Linguistics (1996) were followed by Bernard Spolsky on Sociolinguistics (1998), Thomas Scovel on Psycholinguistics (1998), Rod Ellis on Second Language Acquisition (1997), Claire Kramsch on Language and Culture (1998), Peter Roach on Phonetics (2001), Peter Verdonk on Stylistics (2002), Tim McNamara on Language Testing (2000), Herbert Schendl on Historical Linguistics (2001), Guy Cook on Applied Linguistics (2003), Michael Swan on Grammar (2005), Henry George Widdowson Discourse Analysis (2007). Widdowson is co-editor of Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher Education (1987). He has also published such seminal works as On the subject of English: the Linguistics of Language Use and Learning (2020), and Practical Stylistics: An Approach to Poetry (1992). series (edited by Ronald Mackin and Peter Strevens). Here he pioneered the ideas now known as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).

His PhD thesis titled “An applied linguistic approach to discourse analysis” Explorations in Applied Linguistics (1984-1990), for instance, has become a key paper in the rationale behind English as a lingua franca and what has become known as the "ownership" of English.

Selected books

Widdowson, H. (2019). On the subject of English: the linguistics of language use and learning (1st ed.). De Gruyter Mouton. Widdowson, H. (2007). Discourse Analysis (Oxford Introduction to Language Study Series). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. (2004). Text, Context, Pretext: Critical Issues in Discourse Analysis (1st ed.). Blackwell Publishing. Widdowson, H. (2003). Defining Issues in English Language Teaching (Oxford Applied Linguistics) (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. (1996). Linguistics (Oxford Introduction to Language Study) (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. (1992). Practical Stylistics: An Approach to Poetry (Oxford Applied Linguistics) (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. (1990). Aspects of Language Teaching (Oxford Applied Linguistics) (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Howatt, A.P.R. and Widdowson, H.G. (1984). A History of English Language Teaching (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Explorations in applied linguistics (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication (Oxford Applied Linguistics) (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. Widdowson, H. G. (1975). Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature (Applied Linguistics and Language Study) (1st ed.). Routledge.

Articles (brief extract)

Widdowson, Henry G. (2026) "WE, ELF and ELT: Perspectives on English and applied linguistics." World Englishes 1-10. Widdowson, Henry G. (2015) "ELF and the pragmatics of language variation" Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 4/2, 359-372. Widdowson, Henry G. (2012) "ELF and the inconvenience of established concepts" Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 1/1. 5-26. Widdowson, Henry G. (1998a) " EIL: squaring the Circles. A Reply." World Englishes 17/3 397–401. Widdowson, Henry G. (1998b) "Communication and Community. The Pragmatics of ESP." English for Specific Purposes 17/1 3–14. Widdowson, Henry G. (1998c) "The Theory and Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis." Applied Linguistics 19/1 136–151. Widdowson, Henry G. (1997) "EIL, ESL, EFL: global Issues and local Interests". World Englishes 16/1. 146–53. Widdowson, Henry G. (1994) "The Ownership of English". TESOL Quarterly 28/2 377–89. Widdowson, Henry G. (1993) "Proper Words in proper Places." ELT Journal 47/4. 317–329. Widdowson, Henry G. (1992) "ELT and EL Teacher." ELT Journal 46/4. 333–339.