Career
He was a professor of applied linguistics. Van Els was born in 1936 in Wanssum, he obtained a degree in English language and literature at the Radboud University Nijmegen in 1961. In 1972 he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy at the same university with a dissertation on an 8th-century manuscript of Old English names.
In 1979 he became lecturer and two years later professor of applied linguistics.