The John and Muriel Higgins Home Page

 

Professional interests

Minimal pairs,   homophones
and  homographs
CALL Software
for downloading
Hidden words:
a listening activity
Tim Johns's
Kibbitzer pages
A language museum

Personal interests

Victor Canning,
thriller writer
(1911-1986)
David Cargill
(Fiji missionary,
1809-1843)
Schubert Institute
Cossington Concerts
A voyage to Australia,
1852
Wordscapes:
Words as art
Shaftesbury
Arts Centre

Between 1963 and 1986 we lived and worked in Thailand, Norway, the USA, Tanzania, Turkey, Egypt and Yugoslavia, teaching EFL. John joined the British Council in 1971. Muriel published several textbooks with Longman and a book on patchwork with Batsford. In 1980 we became involved in CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) and put together a number of innovative pieces of software, including the first versions of a program later released as STORYBOARD, ECLIPSE, and (in an uncredited version) DEVELOPING TRAY. John wrote or co-wrote (with Tim Johns) three books on CALL and numerous articles.

In 1986 John left the British Council and taught in the School of Education of Bristol University, and from September 1993 to August 2000 taught the M Sc in CALL and TESOL at CELT (the Centre for English Language Teaching) in the University of Stirling. He has retired and we now play golf and table tennis, swim, sing, dabble in computer programming just enough to keep our CALL software running, and research our favourite authors. In 2005 we moved from Scotland to Shaftesbury in Dorset.


There is no such thing as a stupid question, though there may be such a thing as a stupid silence.


You can reach us by e-mail on marlodge1 at tiscali.co.uk (replace at with @ when mailing).

Tributes to Tim at Birmingham University

Tim Johns (1936 - 2009)


innovative educator
inspiring teacher
playful programmer
enthusiast
friend

 


Page last updated on 25 February 2012.