What do we know about individuals who reach near-native levels in a foreign language?

  


Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency (Speaking) by Betty Lou Leaver is a research-based catalogue of factors that would seem to predict ability to reach the highest level of foreign language proficiency and is based on common characteristics shared by more than 200 near-native speakers, identified by self-report, survey, and interviews by master testers.

While there were a lot of surprises in the data, some results fell in line with expectations. For example, students shared many strategies. These included the desire to use and the ability to exploit authentic context and authentic materials. They preferred to check their work or otherwise turn to a native speaker or to use a native-produced publication as a guide, rather than to work with reference aids, once they had reached. This was a strategy that changed from strategies that lower-level students used and then these very same learners had used at lower levels. Further, in keeping with observations of teachers of advanced programs, an increase in the use of metacognitive strategies, with an accompanying decrease in the use of compensation strategies, was reported as learners reached the highest levels.

(We will report on other characteristics in future Thursday blog posts.)

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MSI Press publishes the only journal dedicated to the topic of teaching and learning to near-native levels of foreign language proficiency: the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies (JDLS). 

We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the JDLS at a very accessible price and will make the feature articles available from other issues as time goes on. Check our webstore to see what we have at any given time. We will announce and link each of these individually in upcoming blog posts.

The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies is available by subscription. JDLS is a biennial journal, and it is easy for time to slip by and miss the next issue. Subscription will take care of that. Subscribe HERE and never miss a copy. (Publishes typically in December of even-numbered years.)

Also, don't believe Amazon's listing of previous issues of The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies as out of print. It is very much in print and available at the MSI Press webstore. Subscription service available as noted above, and issues 1-6 are on sale for $5 each!


Amazon is selling issues 7 and 8.

For more posts about the JDLS, click HERE.

For more posts about near-native language acquisition, click HERE.

If you have a post to contribute to the Thursday high-level-language-proficiency topic, we would love to see it. Please send it to editor@msipress.com.


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