Contact Information

Office: 1163E JFSB

Phone: 422-6529

E-mail: jerry_larson@byu.edu

Born and raised on a little farm in Garland, Utah, Professor Larson grew up loving animals--particularly horses--and the outdoors. He graduated from Bear River High School and then attended Utah State University in Logan, Utah. After his freshman year, he left school to serve a mission in the Central American Mission, which at the time included all of the Central American countries. After his mission, he returned to USU and graduated in Spanish and English. During his senior year there he met and married Jan Mitchell. They now have eight children. Upon graduation from USU his services were needed--demanded--by Uncle Sam, so he joined the Army Security Agency. While in the Agency he studied Korean at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and then had an "all-expenses-paid" year's stay in Korea!

When his military obligation was completed, Professor Larson enrolled in the Spanish Pedagogy program at BYU, receiving his M.A. in August 1974. He and his family then left for Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he began his doctoral studies in Foreign Language Education, which he finished in 1977. The Larson clan then relocated in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Professor Larson worked in the Modern Language Department at Northern Arizona University until 1980 when he was invited to come to BYU to plan and put into operation a learning resource center for the College of Humanities.

Professor Larson currently serves as Director of the Humanities Research Center and the BYU Foreign Language Testing Program. He is also Professor of Spanish Pedagogy and teaches Spanish and language methodology courses in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. His current research interests include computer-adaptive testing and interactive language-learning technologies.

Degrees