Show Language r Training raining 1 l Can Be Valuable One of the controversies I in education today is over the I teaching of foreign language i ill in the public schools WITH SO many programs competing for the available money is it worth while for fora a student to spend as little as two or three years or orless orless orless less in language study Is it perhaps not better to wait until college where the student can take the language at a faster pace A STUDY made recently at the Brigham Young University University Uni Uni- Language Training Mission seems seem to indicate that even a year or two of language study in the junior or senior high ig sJ school does give some some advantage to the student and is not entirely lost for man many years This study was made to compare the progress of missionaries missionaries mis mise who had previously studied Spanish with those who had not Given Ghen Test AT THE beginning of an intensive week 12 training period a test was given to those who had studied Spanish in junior or senior high school with a resultant raw score of 45 Those who had not previously previously prevo studied were not given the test lest on the assumption that their resultant score would have been zero At the end of the week 12 training period all missionaries missionaries mis missionaries mis- mis were given the test Results showed that the average of those mis- mis missionaries mis missionaries with previous study was 30 points greater than the average of those who had no previous studies ALSO IN only two cases did any missionary with no previous training score higher than a missionary who had had previous study Nor did they even earn a score equal to those having had training Prior to making the study i there was the theory that possibly possibly possibly pos pos- sibly those with ith previous study would show no advantage at atthe atthe atthe the end of an intensive training training training train train- ing in which the participants spend twelve hours daily in language It was expected that whatever slight advantage might exist at the beginning would disappear in inan inan inan an intensive training situa situa- tion SINCE THOSE with previous training not only stayed ahead but in several instances made greater gains than those who started with and assumed zero score the results indicate that previous training was valuable and even added to greater learning potential in later study courses 1 |