In 1960 I was looking for an interesting thesis topic. My advisor, Professor Harold Hand of the University of Illinois, suggested that I combine my two interests of language teaching and psychology and gave me a month to research the possibilities in this area. After a concentrated period of reading and searching, I gathered together my 3 by 5 cards and went to see Professor Hand. I reported to him that, from my reading, it was clear that, in the present state of the field, it would be impossible to apply the psychologists' theories to the processes of language learning and teaching. To this he replied “Then you go and do it.”