Laurence Wylie, was "Professor Emeritus in French Civilization"
at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is well known
for work in French Civilization studies, the basis of his popular textbook
Les Français (2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 1995). He is also
known for a 1972 book on French gestures called Beaux Gestes. In
spite of the success of this very accessible guide, his most important
work in devising an approach to learning total communication in French
is not very well known. It is hoped that the present work in our
"Face to Face" project will overcome the banalizing influence of "Beaux
Gestes" which in the minds of some has come to symbolize the study of nonverbal
communication in language learning. His article "Communication With
The French" The French Review, May 1985 explains the basis of his method.
Professor Wylie, to our sorrow, passed away on July 28, 1995.