| |
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.
|