Why does almost every discussion about flying turn into arguing over semantics?
I think its because we're all masochists Chuck...otherwise, we wouldn't be pilots.
If I have approached the stall in stable deceleration, and the controls are fully back, the plane is defined as being stalled. If I land it that way, it was a full stall landing. I have not cited CLmax as a stall criteria.
Unfortunately Step Turn, you have to. Even with the controls held fully aft the aircraft may not yet have exceeded CLmax. It may, as it pitches in response to the input, but until you exceed that critical angle you are not stalled. Simply holding the controls in a specific position is not the definition of a stall...if I may from one of my favourite books on the subject, Mechanics of Flight by AC Kermode (Kermode, Pearson Education Limited, 10th Edition, 1996)
...when a certain angle is reached any further increase will result in a loss of lift. This angle is called the stalling angle of the aerofoil, and, rather curiously, perhaps, we find that the shape of the aerofoil makes little difference to the angle at which this stalling takes place, although it may affect considerably the amount of lift obtained from the aerofoil at that angle.
It's the "we find that the shape of the aerofoil" that we are concerned with here. By holding the controls, you are simply changing the shape of the aerofoil. But, as Mr. Kermode notes, this does not change the stalling angle. Therefore, just by holding the controls in their full aft position does not mean you are stalled.
Also...I don't like teaching the whole "hear the horn." I never did as an instructor and I cringe at it now (although I admit, they do end in pretty good landings in GA aircraft...not so much in the Transport Category world though). Putting that idea into a new students head at such impressionable stages of development could become a problem were that student to go out and try the same thing with a decent crosswind. A bit of aileron and suddenly they've wing dropped it onto the runway all because they remember their instructor saying "all good landings begin with a stall horn."