Abstract

As part of BYU's Distance Learning Project to teach English for gospel purposes, a committee created a survey to assess the English needs of LDS non-native English speakers in native-language units in the United States. This thesis uses several sections of the survey to correlate proficiency, callings in the Church, and demographic information. In addition to survey data, this thesis uses qualitative information from focus groups, and interviews to illustrate the statistical findings. The theory underlying this research is that learning precedes involvement in a community. Although learning in the LDS Church community is multi-faceted, this study examines the learning of English tasks and involvement in the Church community, defined as callings.

The results indicate that male leader (high councilors) callings correlate with church tasks, and that female vice-leader callings correlate with survival English and church tasks. Demographic information, although relevant, does not alter the correlations. The qualitative findings supports these findings, whereas the trend indicates that bilingual leaders are preferred to monolingual non-English language leaders.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Linguistics and English Language

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

1995-08-01

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etdm218

Keywords

language proficiency, English, immigrant, LDS Church, callings, assignments, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Language

English

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