MSI Press Blog

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from  My 20th Language  by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Code-Switching: When Languages Collide One of the curious side effects of speaking multiple languages is something called code-switching . In simple terms, code-switching is when you shift from one language to another in the middle of a conversation, sometimes without even noticing you’re doing it. Linguists have studied this phenomenon for years, mostly in bilingual or multilingual communities where people flip back and forth between languages as part of everyday life. For me, though, code-switching happens even when I’m speaking English, my first language. Sometimes, without meaning to, I’ll slip into another language for just one word—usually a noun—because that word captures something that English doesn’t quite express. It’s not about forgetting the English word. It’s about finding that the English version doesn’t bring with it the same cultural weight, emotional color, o...

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from  My 20th Language  by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Study Abroad Unlike many—if not most—of my foreign-language-learning peers, I never had the chance to study abroad during my university years. I attended college on a full scholarship, and that scholarship money could not be used for study abroad programs. If I wanted to go abroad, I would have had to pay my own way. As the eldest of eight children of a shoe-cutter and a part-time farmer, that was simply not possible. I was already working nearly half-time just to afford clothing and cover expenses not included in my scholarship. So, I learned my languages in the classroom. And I held my own—often outperforming those who had studied abroad. By the time I completed graduate studies in comparative literature and later enlisted in the U.S. Army, I had reached Level 4 proficiency in two languages and Level 3 in another two, as measured by the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT...

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from  My 20th Language  by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Language Aptitude As for my language aptitude, that is something impossible to accurately determine so late in my language learning journey. I’ve taken two major assessments of aptitude: the MLAT (Modern Language Aptitude Test), where I scored a 75 out of a possible 80, and the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery), where I received a 153—well above the 110 threshold that qualifies someone for training in “difficult” languages. On paper, those scores suggest I have a strong natural ability to learn languages. But that conclusion would be misleading. By the time I took either test, I had already earned a degree in linguistics and studied over a dozen languages. I understood the structure of the tests and could deconstruct their constructs with ease. My academic training and hands-on experience gave me significant advantages in interpreting patterns and anticipating answer...