John Trim

Who was John Trim?

John Leslie Melville Trim, Director of the Council of Europe's Modern Languages projects from 1971 to 1997, was a key promotor of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

After graduating from University College, London in 1949, he remained there lecturing before moving to Selwyn College, Cambridge as University Lecturer in Phonetics in 1958. As well as setting up the Department of Linguistics at Cambridge in 1966, Trim was also president of the British Association for Applied Linguistics and vice-president of the International Association of Applied Linguistics.

The Language Centre at University of Cambridge named its independent learning centre, the John Trim Centre, after him.