MSI Press Blog

  I don’t need a gym membership to prove my strength. I’ve got laundry baskets that weigh more than kettlebells, a staircase that doubles as my cardio machine, and a vacuum cleaner that fights back harder than any sparring partner. My house is my dojo, and every chore is a stealth workout. But let me be honest: When I step into a gym, I’m sharpening my sword in a controlled environment. I know exactly how many reps I’ve done, how much weight I’ve lifted, and how fast my heart is racing. It’s measurable, progressive, and efficient. When I tackle my daily chores, I’m sparring with life itself. Carrying groceries becomes a farmer’s carry. Scrubbing floors works my core. Running up and down 17 stairs with laundry is interval training. The catch? It’s unpredictable. The laundry basket doesn’t weigh the same every week, and the stairs don’t count my steps for me. Here’s the trade-off I live with: Gym time gives me control and progression. Life activity gives me resilience and rea...

    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...

    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, ...

  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 ...