Part of
Second Language Acquisition Abroad: The LDS Missionary ExperienceEdited by Lynne Hansen
[Studies in Bilingualism 45] 2012
► pp. 11–28
This chapter provides an historical account of language learning and teaching in the LDS church from its earliest days to the present. By examining primary and secondary sources, it recounts the emphasis placed on language learning by church leaders and the ways in which their instructions were instantiated in the lives of individuals and groups of members. In particular, it examines the ways in which missionaries of the church have learned language and with what results. By so doing, it sets the stage for other chapters of the book which examine the loss of language by missionaries who return to an English-speaking environment where they have varying degrees of access to the use of their mission languages.