MSI Press Blog

    Die Alpen Johanna worked in Telfs, a mountain town 25 kilometers west of Innsbruck, nestled in the Tyrolean Alps on the Inn River. She taug ht German at the Bundesgymnasium (secondary school). That school made Telfs unusual compared to the smaller villages nearby, which only have primary or middle schools and send their older students into Innsbruck. Telfs was well connected by bus and train — daily commuting to Innsbruck was easy. Johanna would leave early, before I got up each morning, leaving Franz and me to put breakfast together for ourselves and giving me time to get to know Franza (and improve—and sometimes challenge—my German). She would return at 2:00, Austrian lunch time, and we would go into Altstadt for lunch. Franz, who left after breakfast to teach music classes at the university, would join us. My lectures were in the afternoon, so lunch was always a pleasant interlude, another piece of the easy-to-live Austrian lifestyle. One day school had vacation, ...

    Today's publisher's pride is not a book we published, since it is not among the lines we publish and is targeted to an academic audience that we do not service in particular (coincidentally, yes, but not by plan or purpose). However, a couple of MSI Press authors appear among the editors, so, in support, we assist in promoting the book as an affiliate book. (See information about our  affiliate program .) And the book is? The recently released tome,  Open Architecture Curricular Design  (Corin, Leaver, and Campbell, eds.), published by Georgetown University Press. Currently, #94 in foreign language education books, it started out at #1 when it was released in July and has appeared in the Amazon top 100 list on multiple occasions. book description A guide to a textbook-free approach to world languages curriculums that will improve learning outcomes Open architecture curricular design (OACD) is a textbook-free curricular design framework for teaching and learn...

  Transformative language learning and teaching goes beyond skill acquisition—it reshapes learners’ perspectives, identities, and agency, while typical proficiency-focused teaching emphasizes measurable outcomes like grammar, vocabulary, and fluency.rs explore new cultural identities, challenge assumptions, and develop empathy across differences. Key Characteristics Seeks deep personal change—learners experience cognitive dissonance , resolve it, and emerge with altered perspectives, identities, or ways of being. Learners are agents of their own transformation, engaging in reflection, dissonance, and resolution. Teacher is a mentor in the Carl Rogers sense—creating conditions for growth, trust, and self-discovery. Evidence of changed perspectives, reflective writing , portfolios , or projects that show growth in identity and worldview . Transformative approaches recognize that language learning is not just about communication—it’s about  becoming . Learners explore ...

    Today's publisher's pride is not a book we published, since it is not among the lines we publish and is targeted to an academic audience that we do not service in particular (coincidentally, yes, but not by plan or purpose). However, a couple of MSI Press authors appear among the editors, so, in support, we assist in promoting the book as an affiliate book. (See information about our  affiliate program .) And the book is? The recently released tome,  Open Architecture Curricular Design  (Corin, Leaver, and Campbell, eds.), published by Georgetown University Press. Currently, #94 in foreign language education books, it started out at #1 when it was released in July and has appeared in the Amazon top 100 list on multiple occasions. book description A guide to a textbook-free approach to world languages curriculums that will improve learning outcomes Open architecture curricular design (OACD) is a textbook-free curricular design framework for teaching and learn...

  When I think about English as my first language, I don’t just think of grammar lessons or vocabulary lists. I think of the way we actually spoke. Every family, every region, every community has its own idiolect—the personal flavor of speech—and its own dialect, shaped by geography and culture. Growing up in New England, I learned early that the way we spoke wasn’t always the way we were expected to write. In school, teachers corrected our spelling and word order, guiding us toward Standard English. But at home and in the community, we kept our own rhythms and sounds. We didn’t “park our car in Harvard Yard.” We “pahked owah cah in Hahvid Yahd.” That distinction mattered. In writing, dialects and idiolects were often erased, replaced by the standard language that carried authority in textbooks, exams, and professional life. Yet in speech, they remained alive, carrying identity, humor, and belonging. My dialect was a reminder that language is not just rules—it is culture, heritag...