Since the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its leaders and members have been commanded and encouraged to learn foreign languages. With the gift of tongues and diligent effort Latter-day Saints have made great progress in the last 152 years in meeting the challenge of learning and teaching languages. This paper is an attempt to compile what has been done by Church members, programs, and organizations to promote language in a world where international communication is increasingly important. It will also be a resource for the LDS Church, the Missionary Training Center, Brigham Young University, and other interested scholars or Church members.

The purpose of this study was to make an evaluation of Instructional Television in the College of Religious Instruction at the Brigham Young University.The overall findings of the study indicate that there was much discontent manifest, from both students and faculty, with the present TV enrichment program. This discontent seemed to be strongest in the areas of the types of presentations made on TV, the quality of the productions, and that the TV presentations were required and not optional. The discontent was manifested by the fact that one third of the students did not attend half the TV enrichment presentations during the semester.

Language learning strategies (LLS) are specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques that learners use to improve their rate and level of L2 development. This thesis details the development and validation of a LLS training program designed to measure if training in LLS increases LDS missionaries' awareness of LLS as potential language learning tools. Specifically, it explores the question as to whether missionaries trained in LLS use and intend to use LLS more frequently, more appropriately, and with a greater range than those not trained in LLS. The development of the LLS training program involved selecting a set of 48 specific strategies in 10 categories, developing 17 strategy training lessons, and designing a nine-week training schedule. Five different instruments were used to investigate strategy of use with German and Portuguese learning missionaries: (a) a Missionary Background Questionnaire, (b) a Situational Strategy Evaluation Worksheet, (c) a Learning the Language in the Mission Field Worksheet, (d) a Missionary Language Learning Questionnaire, and (e) a Missionary Task Performance and Retrospective Interview. The effects of training on the variables of training, language, and gender were analyzed. Results showed that for intended strategy use, those missionaries having received the LLS training showed significantly higher scores for frequency, appropriate usage, and range over those with no training. Results also showed evidence that different languages may react to training differently for intended strategy use. Although in both German and Portuguese those trained scored higher, the difference between trained and untrained Portuguese-learning missionaries was greater than for German-learning missionaries in measures of frequency and appropriate usage. Influence of gender indicated that German-learning males intended to use more strategies than German-learning females while the opposite was found for Portuguese learners.Results for actual strategy use for missionaries in the Missionary Training Center showed that LLS training had no significant impact on frequency, appropriate usage, or range. Results also showed that Portuguese learners reported using more total strategies and in particular more speaking strategies. For grammar strategies, untrained learners reported using more strategies than those trained. Gender showed no effect on the actual use of strategies

This thesis is a replication of a study conducted at Oklahoma State University in 1986. This study measures the percentage of Brigham Young University press releases published in Utah newspapers during a four month period in 1989. The results of the two studies are analyzed and compared.Additionally, personal interviews were conducted with thirty Utah newspaper editors to help determine any additional factors that may affect publishing decisions among Utah's newspaper editors.

Chapelle (1997) states the following as a vital question to be asked with respect to computer assisted language learning, “How good is the language experience in CALL for L2 learning?” (n.p.) In order to truly answer this question, investigators need to look to the learner and his concerns. In planning curriculum or designing a program, teachers and administrators normally look toward learner needs. However, these educators are also known to fully implement a new program, at times, without consideration of learner concerns. This appears to be especially true with the use of technology in the second language classroom. Research is needed to look at how the learner feels about technology. Former studies (Fuller, 1969; Hansen, 1996) have focused on the concerns of teachers or preservice teachers, but little research has been done focusing on the actual concerns of the learner.The current study focused on the concerns of over two hundred young adult missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who studied foreign languages at the LDS Missionary Training Center (MTC) for two months, with the aid of a Technology Assisted Language Learning (TALL) program. The subjects answered a background questionnaire upon beginning their study of a foreign language. At the end of their study program, the missionaries responded to a questionnaire where they could express their concerns about learning through technology. In addition, interviews with selected participants were conducted at the end of the missionaries' program.The data were analyzed and categorized and focus was given to the types of concerns expressed and how the concerns differed for language group, learner rate, gender, and other background factors. Four major categories of concerns were identified: instructional, language, software, and none. Most of the concerns expressed by the learners dealt with instructional issues such as the amount of variety and learner control as well as how learners review material and receive feedback from the computer. Chi-square post hoc analyses showed the greatest differences in the number of concerns within the Portuguese learners. Concerns of fast versus slow learners appeared different as well. Tests showed that slower learners were significantly more concerned about the computer going at a pace that worked well for them, becoming bored easily, and not having enough time on certain computer activities. Profiles describing those and other differences were created based on the interviews conducted with several learners.

This study was an analysis of the relationship between LDS religiosity of college students and their attitudes concerning birth control and abortion. The respondents in this research were LDS college students attending Brigham Young University Fall Semester 1970. Goodman and Kruskal's gamma and a difference of means test were used to measure association and difference to determine the statistical significance of the responses as related to religiosity and attitudes concerning birth control and abortion. The results of the study showed that (1) there was a positive relationship between conservative attitudes toward birth control and abortion and one's degree of measured religiosity, (2) there was a significant difference between the attitude toward personal practice of birth control and abortion and the practice permitted to others outside the religious group membership, (3) attitudes toward birth control and abortion within the religious membership group were significantly more particularistic than universalistic, (4) there was a positive correlation between a person's attitude towards birth control and abortion and perception of church teachings and (5) of the cluster factor influencing the attitudes towards birth control and abortion, religion was found to be the most significant.

This study was conducted to survey the practices and feelings of a selected group of young mothers concerning: (1) their family life and (2) their activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Search and rescue operations conducted in wilderness environments can be greatly aided by the use of video filmed from mini-UAVs. While lightweight, inexpensive and easily transportable, these small aircraft suffer from wind buffeting and may produce video that is difficult to search. To aid in the video search process, we have created a system to project video frames into a 3D representation of the search region. This projection allows us to tie each frame of video to a real-world location, enabling a myriad of novel views, mosaics and metrics that can be used to guide the search including a new metric dubbed “see-ability.” The “see-ability” metric is the primary contribution of this research as it indicates what portion of the search area has been viewed and provides an estimate of the quality of that viewing. The research includes a validation of the “see-ability” metric as it correlates to objective performance in the search task by real people.

The author argues that beyond religious beliefs and conservative politics, rhetorical identification played an important role in the relative calmness of the BYU campus during the turbulent Sixties. Using Bitzer's rhetorical situation theory and Burke's identification theory, the author shows that BYU's calm campus can be explained as a result of communal identification with a conservative ethos. He also shows that apparent epistemological shortcomings of Bitzer's model can be resolved by considering the power of identification to create salience and knowledge in rhetorical situations. During the Sixties, BYU administration developed policies on physical appearance that invited students to take on a conservative identity, and therefore a conservative behavior. Relationships of power and hierarchy at BYU can be understood not as quantitative and oppressive matrices, but as rhetorical choices of students to identify with the character of school president, Ernest Wilkinson, and the administration. Power, then, is as Foucault envisioned it—as a field wherein identity and discourse are negotiated. This thesis argues for a more broad understanding of identification, ethos, and power for explaining rhetorical behavior in communal situations.