The Man Who Made Dictionaries | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

This is the story of Albert Sydney Hornby and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Behind the dictionary’s creation is the fascinating story of a ‘simple teacher’ with a brilliant mind, whose passion for language teaching changed the way the world learns English. A. S Hornby was the man who made dictionaries.

Find out more about A. S. Hornby and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

Find out more about the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 10th edition!
Watch this video: https://oxelt.gl/43QY4Q5
Go to our website: https://oxelt.gl/30VIdis
Read the digital brochure: https://oxelt.gl/3f4TGSc

For more information about the Hornby Trust, visit www.hornby-trust.org.uk.

0:00 Introducing Hornby
0:25 Introducing the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
0:40 The story begins in Japan
1:49 Creating a new dictionary for English learners
3:09 Oxford University Press requests samples of Hornby’s dictionary
3:39 The world at war
4:26 Hornby held as a prisoner of war
5:06 Getting it into print
6:16 Hornby’s legacy
7:26 The Hornby Trust
8:04 The dictionary today

The images of A. S. Hornby at the Oita Higher Commercial School in 1925 are from an album which was donated by his daughter to the University of Warwick ELT Archive. Many thanks to Richard Smith at the Hornby Trust for making the album available to be featured.
The other images of A. S. Hornby are from the ELT Dictionaries archive at Oxford University Press. Other real items from our archive featured in this video include Hornby’s handwritten notes on the pinboard, pages from an original copy of the first edition of the dictionary, and a transcript of Hornby’s radio interview in Tokyo in 1969.
Although every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders before publication, this has not been possible in some cases. We apologize for any apparent infringement of copyright and if notified, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.