Jane's voice: I have been fortunate to have maintained personal contact with Earl Stevick over many years. When I called to wish him a happy birthday in October 2010, while he was, as usual, speaking so wisely and well, it suddenly occurred to me that it would be a very worthwhile project to put together a volume which would be a tribute to his signifi- cant influence on the language teaching world.

Tim's voice: Jane mentioned her project to me and it seemed such a wonderful idea that I immediately offered to co-edit the book, sending a playful working title ‘The Earl of Language Teaching: Stevick's Enduring Impact on the Profession’.

The idea grew and grew as many key professionals in the field joined us. We are indebted to them not only for their thought-provoking chapters, which themselves are examples of meaningful action, but also for their enthusiasm and support in many different ways. Our special thanks to Carolyn Kristjánsson, who has been in close contact with Earl and has worked with him in recent years, for preparing the Epilogue, A Way with Words, about Earl and his influence.

The sense of community created among the contributors is a clear validation of Earl's philosophy and teachings. This community was greatly facilitated by frequent email exchanges. Tim's computer counts 320 emails between Jane and himself in little over seven months, with more than a thousand involving all the contributors.

Comments and anecdotes about Earl made by language teaching professionals in many parts of the world can be found in the Appendix.

In the final stages of this book's preparation, the contributors were very sad to learn of the passing of our esteemed colleague, Leo van Lier. His light will continue to shine.