by Diane Larsen-Freeman

It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge the passing of (Helen) Joan Morley, teacher, author, mentor, and friend, on Wednesday, March 27, 2025 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, following a period of declining health.

Born on May 4, 1931 in York, Nebraska, Joan was the second daughter of Myrtle Grover and Foss Bailey. Joan’s parents taught her the value of education. She heeded the lesson, and their aspiration for her was realized many times over during her lifetime.

Joan began her career as an undergraduate Theatre and Speech Communication major at the University of Northern Colorado. Upon graduation in 1952, she accepted a position as a speech therapist in the State of Washington, caring for public school students and adults.

After some time in Washington, she decided to seek further education at the University of Michigan, earning an MS degree in Speech Pathology (1957), a Teacher Education Certificate in English as a Second Language (1966), and an MA in Linguistics (1968). It was at Michigan that she met and married Dick Morley, Professor of Speech Pathology, her union with Dick a happy one that lasted until Dick’s passing in 1978.

In 1968, Joan accepted a position as a lecturer at the famed English Language Institute at the University of Michigan, the first such institution in the US. Serving on its faculty until 2004, her influence was immeasurable.

Observing that little attention had been paid to the skill of listening in English teaching, she set about to do so herself. Her 1972 textbook, Improving Aural Comprehension, was revolutionary in replacing the relatively meaningless drills and pattern practice with contextualized (more communicative) activities. The text was farsighted in a number of respects, defining aural comprehension as “listening with understanding,” this definition running contrary to orthodoxy in an era when speaking and listening were thought to be the product of automatic habit formation.

If that were not pioneering enough, she next applied her innovative thinking to the also overlooked teaching of pronunciation. No one who taught with her book, Improving Spoken English, can forget her clear and distinctive voice recording that accompanied her books and the mnemonic words she associated with the four front vowels of North American English: “See it. Say yes.”

Joan always declined to write instructor manuals for her texts, instead incorporating into them statements such as, “Your teacher may want you to….” In this way, Joan recognized that teaching is a contingent act, and she set out to be less prescriptive and to give teachers the respect and latitude they deserved. She was a teacher’s teacher at heart.

Following the success of these first books, she published six more textbooks. By 2004, at the time of her retirement from the University of Michigan, the combined sales of all of her textbooks exceeded one million copies, one measure of her far-reaching influence on English teaching and a major contributor to the University of Michigan Press. In addition to her textbooks, Joan edited 4 books, wrote technical reports and manuals, and published a number of journal articles.

A popular speaker at conferences, Joan’s trademark approach was to tell the audience that she had 3-4 points to make, elaborate upon them, and then return to them in convincing fashion in an impressive and memorable conclusion. It is no wonder, then, that she was widely sought as a speaker, delivering more than 100 keynote/plenary addresses around the world, often at the behest of the US Department of State. One such request led her to Bucaramanga, Colombia, where she later became Academic Director of IDEI (Instituto de Ensenanza, Ingles) and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at the Universidad de Santander.

Over the decades that she was at Michigan, she served as Acting Director of the ELI, filling the interregnum on four occasions, but never accepting the position for herself. She nevertheless provided invaluable counsel to the ELI Directors with whom she served. In 1983, her professional stature led to her appointment as a tenured associate professor with a joint position in the Department of Linguistics and the ELI. She was promoted to full professor in 1995, and was appointed professor emerita of linguistics in 2004. In the Linguistics Department, she led the effort to establish a sub-concentration in Applied Linguistics. In addition, she served on the Board of Directors for many years of the prestigious top-tier journal, Language Learning, which historians of the field credit for being the first publication to mention the term “applied linguistics.”

Her service to the field was also formidable. She was president of the TESOL International Association (1986-87), chair of its 11th Annual Convention (1977) in Miami, co-director of the 1990 TESOL Summer Institute, and served ten years on the TESOL Executive Board. She was a founder and generous supporter of The International Research Foundation for English Language Teaching (TIRF), which raises funds to support research on language teaching and learning.

A most fitting tribute to Joan’s career was the establishment of the Morley scholarships, which brought almost 80 scholars from 28 countries to the ELI to do research on second language learning and teaching. Her numerous acts of exemplary service were acknowledged by her being awarded the (Michigan) MITESOL Distinguished Service Award (1987), the TESOL International Association’s James E. Alatis Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession (1992), and Honored Alumni and Service Award from the University of Northern Colorado (1996).

Perhaps her most enduring legacy at Michigan was realized in her personal influence on those she worked with. Directors were grateful for her wisdom, colleagues were appreciative of her collaboration, and she was beloved by the many graduate students, who sought her guidance over the years, as they taught at the ELI and beyond. Joan was a generous mentor, encouraging when academic loads appeared heavy. Always cheerful (indeed, always a cheerleader and loyal Wolverine fan at Michigan football games), her bright presence, enthusiasm, and distinctive laugh, brought light to many a hallway and heart. Her memory is cherished well beyond Ann Arbor, and her spirit lives on.

“Aunt Jo” is survived by her nephew, William Bailey and his husband Mike Fernholz, and their son Matthew, her niece, Patricia Laury and her husband, Alan, a Great-Niece, Autumn Cleary and her husband Daine and Great-Great Nephews, Nick Cleary, Jake Cleary, Joseph Cleary, and Bradley Cleary, and Great-Great Niece, Addison Cleary.

(Sandra Silberstein's entry on Joan Morley in the Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics was the source for some details here.)