Dr. James Taylor grew up in a multi-cultural environment where many of his friends and classmates spoke a language other than English in their home. In high school he began is language career by taking French and Spanish. His fluency in Spanish came when he served a mission in the Uruguay-Paraguay mission from 1950 to 1953.

Upon returning home in March 1953, he was inducted in to the US Army and trained as a cryptographer. He was stationed at the intelligence section of US Army Headquarters in Heidelberg. Along with this assignment, he was able to take classes at the University of Heidelberg and become fluent in German.

In 1955 Dr. Taylor enrolled at Brigham Young University where he majored in Spanish and German. As an undergraduate he had the opportunity to teach Spanish and German. He also had the opportunity to study abroad at "Universidad de San Carlos" in Guatemala and "Université Laval" in Quebec, Canada. In the summer of 1959 he met Deanna Kay Hoen, and they married later that year.

Upon completing his Master's in Spanish and German, he and Deanna moved to the San Fernando Valley in Southern California to teach in the Los Angeles City School System where Dr. Taylor taught Spanish, German and French. During the summer of 1962 he had the opportunity to participate with the NDEA Institute for language teachers at UCLA, and studied with Spanish Linguist, William E. Bull. Dr. Taylor also assisted in the development of Dr. Bull's Visual Spanish Grammar.

Dr. Taylor was invited to return to BYU in the fall of 1962 to organize a training program for foreign language teachers, which has been his primary responsibility for the past 40 years while teaching at BYU. In 1965, Dr. Taylor interrupted his teaching to attend Ohio State University to complete his Ph.D. in Foreign Language Teaching.

As a Utah educator, Dr. Taylor has worked to improve foreign language study in the state. One of Dr. Taylor's greatest contributions has been the Language Fair at BYU, which hosts over 5,000 secondary school foreign language students from all over the state of Utah, as well as from Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado. Dr. Taylor has been with programs teaching foreign languages to children. In 1985 and 1986, he and his wife taught a Spanish enrichment program at Orchard Elementary in Orem, Utah, in which they wrote the program "Me gusta hablar español". This program has become a model for other schools that continue to use their materials.

In 1968, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made the decision to make a permanent language training program for their missionaries, Dr. Taylor was called to work full-time in the Language Training Mission (which is now called the Missionary Training Center), to direct the development of textbook materials and teacher training.

In the early 1980's, he was then appointed as director of the BYU Language and Intercultural Research Center. While directing the Center, a series of cultural information sheets were developed and have now become know as "Culturegrams," continue to be enormously popular and are used all over the world.

Dr. Taylor has always encouraged students to seek cultural experiences in foreign cultures. In 1973, he established the BYU Center in Madrid, Spain and has subsequently directed several other study abroad programs. Dr. Taylor also initiated the BYU Summer Institute for Teachers. Teachers are invited to the BYU campus to improve their linguistic skills, renew their methods of teaching languages, and participate in a foreign residence component, which may take them on a visit to Spain or Mexico.

Dr. Taylor says, “If someone were to ask me which of all the activities I am involved in I enjoy the most, I would immediately name my evening classes which teach older adults Spanish. I started teaching these classes over 35 years ago at North Hollywood High School, and have continued here at BYU where I have watched scores of senior citizens go all over the world, confident in their use of Spanish.”

As a member of professional organizations, such as the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) and the president of the Utah Foreign Language Association (UFLA), Dr. Taylor regularly attends and presents at conferences. For the last seven years Dr. Taylor has served as a member of the executive committee. In April 1996, the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching (SWCOLT), an organization that he also helped assemble, gave him the award for Excellence in Teaching.