Reading back through February, found this discussion the most fascinating to be found on PPRuNe, with contributions from wise old birds as well as those comfortable with automation....
One of the basic lessons we teach in gliding is knowlege of and RECOGNITION of the stall. DC8 retells his story of how he wised up his instructor that it might be a good idea to react to the symptoms, instead of waiting for the stick to shake. Stick shaker and stick pusher are gadgets designed to wake up the dozy pilot who fails to recognise promptly what is going on in his real world.
Symptoms of approaching stall: nose high attitude, decreasing airspeed, tailplane buffet, sloppy controls.
Symptom of actual stall, the elevator (so named because it ELEVATES the NOSE of the aircraft) does not work in the normal sense. As your glider is diving toward the terraine, and you are pulling back madly on the stick to raise the nose, it don't work. Not easy to push the stick forward under these circumstances. That's what training is about.