Second Language Acquisition Abroad : the LDS Missionary Experience

278 Pages·2012·15.94 MB·English

by  Lynne Hansen

Second Language Acquisition Abroad
Studies in Bilingualism (SiBil)
The focus of this series is on psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic aspects
of bilingualism. This entails topics such as childhood bilingualism,
psychological models of bilingual language users, language contact and
bilingualism, maintenance and shift of minority languages, and socio-
political aspects of bilingualism.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/sibil
Editors
Dalila Ayoun Robert DeKeyser
University of Arizona University of Maryland
Editorial Board
Kees de Bot Aneta Pavlenko
University of Groningen Temple University
Thom Huebner Suzanne Romaine
San José State University Merton College, Oxford
Kenneth Hyltenstam Núria Sebastián-Gallés
Stockholm University University of Barcelona
Judith F. Kroll Merrill Swain
Pennsylvania State University Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Johanne Paradis G. Richard Tucker
University of Alberta Carnegie Mellon University
Christina Bratt Paulston Li Wei
University of Pittsburgh University of London
Volume 45
Second Language Acquisition Abroad. The LDS Missionary Experience
Edited by Lynne Hansen
Second Language Acquisition
Abroad
The LDS Missionary Experience
Edited by
Lynne Hansen
Brigham Young University, Hawaii

John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Second language acquisition abroad : the LDS missionary experience /
edited by Lynne Hansen.
       p. cm. (Studies in Bilingualism, issn 0928-1533 ; v. 45)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.  Second language acquisition. 2.  Language and languages--Study and teaching--Foreign

speakers. 3.  Language and culture. 4.  Intercultural communication. 5.  Sociolin-
guistics. 6.  Bilingualism.  I. Hansen, Lynne, 1940-
P118.2.S4243 2012
401’.93088289332--dc23 2011043166
isbn 978 90 272 4186 3 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8166 1 (Eb)
© 2012 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
This book is dedicated to the missionaries
– past, present and future

Table of contents
Foreword ix
chapter 1
Introduction: Investigating mission languages 1
Lynne Hansen
section i. Acquisition of mission languages
chapter 2
Language learning and teaching in the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints 13
C. Ray Graham
chapter 3
The development of speaking proficiency of LDS missionaries 29
Dan Dewey & Ray T. Clifford
chapter 4
An examination of the effects of input, aptitude, and motivation
on the language proficiency of missionaries mearning Japanese
as a second language 51
Jenifer Larson-Hall & Dan Dewey
chapter 5
In the beginning was the word: Vocabulary learning
in six mission languages 89

Lynne Hansen, Karri Lam, Livia Orikasa, Paul Rama,
Geraldine Schwaller & Ronald Mellado Miller
section ii. Attrition of mission languages
chapter 6
The lost word: Vocabulary attrition in six mission languages 111
Lynne Hansen, Andrew Colver, Wonhye Chong, Helama Pereira,
Jeremy Robinson, Akihiro Sawada & Ronald Mellado Miller
chapter 7
Vocabulary attrition in adult speakers of Spanish as a second language 135
C. Ray Graham
iii Second Language Acquisition Abroad
chapter 8
Savings in the relearning of mission vocabulary: The effects of time and
proficiency 185
Lynne Hansen, Melanie McKinney & Yukako Umeda
chapter 9
What counts in the retention of numeral classifiers
in Japanese and Chinese? 203
Lynne Hansen & Yung-Lin Chen
chapter 10
Syntactic attrition in L2 Japanese missionary language 221
Robert A. Russell
chapter 11
The measurement of oral fluency in mission languages 245
Lynne Hansen, James Gardner, James Pollard
Joshua Rowe, & Junko Tsukayama
Comprehensive bibliography
of mission language references: Annotated 259
Comprehensive bibliography
of mission language references: Unannotated 263
Index 267
Foreword
When exactly the idea of this volume emerged is not clear. It is probably one of
those projects that are in minds of various people and that just need a spark to
get started. Some of the fuel needed no doubt comes from the work on language
attrition. There is now a tradition of a number of decades of language attrition
research in which various authors from Brigham Young University have contrib-
uted significantly. The leading figure over all these years has been Lynne Hansen
who realized early on the enormous potential of the missionaries from the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church) who as part of their contribution
to the community go to places all over the world to spread the word. For this they
learn the local language at a very high level. The language program in the Mission-
ary Training Centers is well established and over many years remained largely the
same, which from a researcher’s perspective is ideal. The missionaries not only
learn the language and use it extensively during their stay abroad, but after their
return they have little opportunity in their daily lives to use that language. Again
the dream scenario for the researcher on language attrition, since nothing is more
annoying than people who learn a language at a high level, use it in a natural set-
ting and then continue to use it at home. For a nice and clean study of maintenance
or attrition of a foreign language, non-use is highly recommended. Apparently
many members of the LDS church have realized this, while at the same time being
willing to participate in experiments in which they had to face their language attri-
tion. This treasure for language attrition researchers has been studied extensively
in a long series of experiments over the years, providing findings that could not
have been gathered otherwise.
While language at trition may have been a source of inspiration to study mis-
sionary language, it is only a part of the larger picture. During their stay abroad,
the missionaries actually use the local language as a tool and as part of their exis-
tence. How that was done, and what attitudes they and their local contacts had is
largely unchartered territory. The same can probably be said about developmental
aid workers and members of the US Peace Corps.
Missionary language use is part of a larger language policy picture that is
not without its tensions. In the past language and religion were closely linked
to colonialism and the spread of western values. This has come at a price that
is as yet still hard to assess. There is little doubt that the demise of so many lan-
guages is directly or indirectly related to missionary work. Not always was it the
x Second Language Acquisition Abroad
local community that was converted. The magical story of Dan Everett’s work
among the Piraha people of the Amazonian jungle shows that it is not always
the western values of religious beliefs that prevailed. What his story and many
of the contributions in the present volume show is that language is only partly a
tool, and also part of a culture with its own values. What we see here is only the
tip of a large iceberg of reports, letters and stories of missionaries from different
religious groups. In that sense this book may only be the beginning of a journey
that may help us better understand how language plays a role in intercultural and
interethnic encounters.
So what was the spark that led to this volume? It probably was the interac-
tions that took place at the AAAL annual congress in 2002 in Salt Lake City where
Lynne invited me to participate in a session of the general conference of the LDS
church. We had several extensive discussions both during the conference ses-
sions and beyond and we agreed that a volume on this topic would be useful and
timely. That is now almost 10 years ago; that’s what it took to get the right people
together and have their contributions evaluated and finalized. But this is likely to
be a volume that will keep and that is not dependent on the whims of theoretical
approaches to language.
Kees de Bot
University of Groningen