John Trim was an expert in the field of phonetics, linguistics, language didactics and policy. He was director of the Council of Europe’s Modern Languages Projects from 1971 to 1997, overseeing developments ranging from the Threshold Level to the Common European Framework of Reference.
After his graduation in German, John Trim occupied several positions in the field of university education and research. He notably taught phonetics and set up the Department of Linguistics at Cambridge University, lectured and conducted seminars in some 40 countries, and acted as director of CILT (Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research) in the United Kingdom.
Concerning his involvement in professional associations, Mr. Trim was, among others, president of BAAL (British Association for Applied Linguistics), vice-president of AILA (International Association of Applied Linguistics) and is an honorary member of AILA and ALL (Association for Language Learning). He is an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (France) and holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Dublin, Prague, Wolverhampton and Oulu. He is the author of numerous published books and articles.