{"id":23454,"date":"2012-11-22T21:57:47","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T02:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=23454"},"modified":"2012-11-22T21:57:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-23T02:57:47","slug":"missions-and-language-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2012\/11\/missions-and-language-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Missions and language training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Will lowering the age of missionaries to 18\/19 from 19\/21 hurt the language preparation of missionaries serving foreign-language missions? Perhaps, although there are some possible steps one could take to counteract that. Which steps to take, or whether to take any steps at all, depends on how much language skills are affected, and on how much you think foreign language preparation matters for missionaries.<\/p>\n

Lowering the missionary age will have little effect in and of itself. Whatever you might think of the critical period hypothesis\u2014the idea that learning a second language becomes more difficult after a certain age\u201418\/19 is still so far past any proposed critical period that lowering the age by one or two years won\u2019t make any positive difference.<\/p>\n

What will have an impact\u2014and what\u2019s still not known\u2014is how much the reduced age of service affects the stage of life when people choose to serve. Many American young men have until now started their missionary service after two semesters of college, giving some of them access to college-level foreign language instruction. The quality of high school-level foreign language instruction in the United States is uneven; there are some excellent programs, but also many spotty ones. Foreign-language instruction is much more consistent at the college level. A semester or two isn\u2019t a lot, but it\u2019s enough to provide a solid foundation in a language\u2019s basic structure and vocabulary, and to get a sense of how differently other languages work and what it means to learn a foreign language. Those are helpful even if the mission language ends up being different than the classroom language. If most young men start leaving before college, that preparation will be lost. How much will that matter? It’s hard to say. Perhaps it won’t matter all that much.<\/p>\n

The most significant impact, however, affects young women. At 21, many have had time to complete much or even all of a bachelor\u2019s degree, sometimes including significant foreign language coursework. In a mission composed largely of young men, these women can provide an important core of more mature and motivated missionaries who provide examples of high-level language proficiency and, often, foreign-language instruction for other missionaries. Reducing the number of these highly proficient missionaries might have a substantial effect.<\/p>\n

If this is a concern, there are some possible steps to consider.<\/p>\n