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Department Mission

Our mission as a department is to help make BYU an acknowledged language capital in the world by...

• Supporting the mission of Brigham Young University, (a) providing students with intensive learning in a stimulating instructional setting that helps them realize their full potential, (b) expecting and demonstrating a commitment to excellence, and (c) assisting students in their quest for perfection and eternal life while helping them develop language skills that enable them to go forth to serve in a variety of ways. In sum, we aim to educate students who will have language skills that will help them accomplish the overall mission of the Church. To this end, we are committed to developing our students and enriching our curricula.
• Pursuing and sharing truth-especially in the fields in which our department offers programs of study (Linguistics, TESOL, English Language, Editing, and computing technologies) and in specialty areas where we feel scholarly and pedagogical passion. We do this through scholarly research, which includes conducting original investigations, carefully reading the scholarly work of others, and involving our students. We share the truths we discover in this way by means of first-rate presentations and publications.
• Dedicating our efforts to the understanding of linguistic questions and to practical applications. In this way, we achieve a healthy balance in our scholarly activities and contributions.
• Making our scholarship and expertise available to leaders and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to further its work worldwide by judiciously offering our language-related intellectual resources to the Church, its members, and others who will be blessed by them.
• Respecting and encouraging disciplinary diversity in a wide range of valid, language-related specializations, viewpoints, and interests. This respect allows us to (a) enjoy both unity and diversity; (b) provide students with a broad, useful education; (c) respond to a wide variety of needs and be of greater service; and (d) engage in healthy, collegial, scholarly collaborations in which we interact and interweave our expertise in new, productive ways.
• Demonstrating faith, devout love of God, allegiance to the Church and its leaders, and genuine loving concern for the welfare of others in all our relationships. This attitude leads to an atmosphere that allows us to work together as colleagues, students, and dedicated professionals in harmony, unity, and camaraderie--helping and emotionally supporting each other in appropriate, Christlike ways.