Involvement as a Means of Second Culture Learning

Abstract

The effectiveness of a missionary depends to a large extent on his ability to communicate in the foreign language in a culturally relevant manner. The new candidate must realize the importance of simultaneously learning the new culture and the new language. This paper discusses the involvement of missionary language learners in the target community culture as a means of learning that culture. Although a good deal is known about how to train a person to perform the duties that may be expected of him abroad, there has been little systematic information about methods by which he could be prepared to cope with the extraordinary demands of a new culture. The suggestions in this paper which are intended to help meet this need, have been presented in terms of group activities in a language school. Most of the ideas could be readily used by the motivated individual as well.