MSI Press Blog

Excerpt from Working with Advanced Foreign Language Students (Boris Shekhtman) -  Preface  This little booklet is far weightier than many tomes four times its size. The nuggets of wisdom distilled in it come from more than two decades of extraordinarily successful experience in working with students at the highest levels of foreign-language proficiency. The quality of Boris Shekhtman’s instruction and his insight into advanced students’ learning needs is a subject with which I have had first-hand knowledge year after year.  Many years ago, in 1984, Boris, and a colleague, Natalia Lord, approached me, as their supervisor at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), with a request to develop a course for advanced students. Any student who had already reached Superior-level proficiency at that time and was returning to FSI for a refresher or enhancement course, was treated as a tutorial. However, Boris and Natalia saw the possibilities in grouping these students into small classes

   Excerpt from Thoughts without a Title (Henderson, editor) --  The Tale of Fuzz  Betty Lou Leaver Once upon a time in the wooded mountains of California, not all that far from the ocean but far enough not to know that it existed, there was born a little kitten. He had beautiful markings but never knew because he had no family to admire him. His hair was long and curly, and he had a very bushy tail. He looked like a ball of fuzz, but he did not know because he had no family to tell him.  One day, when he was only a few weeks old and alone except for the remains of his mother, who had become a meal for a hungry coyote, he ventured forth in search of safer lands and in search of food and water for he was, indeed, hungry and thirsty.  Before very long, he reached a river in the woods, a deep, cool river, and he drank from it thirstily. Near the river, he saw a quaint little cabin, and through the window he saw two children looking at a box that showed stories. The girl was

  From the author: The content of this book was the outcome of work and research conducted under the auspices of the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers, the US Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, the Defense Language Institute, and the National Foreign Language. Some of the results of that research was included in the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies and in Developing Professional Foreign Language Prodiciency (Leaver & Shekhtman, Cambridge University Press). The decision to write this book, in particular, came about as the result of a grant by the CCC of the National Association of Teachers of English to the author and colleagues at the University of Jordan and the New York Institute of Technology's campus in Amman to determine the variables that led to the acquisition of near-native skills in writing . The results of that particular research was shared in a series of talks across the USA and Jordan and in the Journal for Distinguished Lan

  Betty Lou Leaver's book, Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (see affiliate books), published by Cambridge University Press, recently received the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages book prize for Best Book in Pedagogy 2022. Leaver, Davidson, and Campbell’s  Transformative Language Learning and Teaching  is a groundbreaking volume on the theory and practice of transformative teaching in the language learning context. The world language education field has experienced many methodological upheavals corresponding to theoretical or practical paradigms over the past century. The editors of this volume distill these changes into three large patterns whose practices are based on educational philosophies the primary paradigm of which encompasses three elements: transmission, in which information flows unidirectionally from teacher to learner, resulting in rote memory, reproduction, and accuracy; (2) transaction, in which information flows bi

Just added as an affiliated book. Published by Cambridge University Press . Available through CUP or Amazon (and other online stores). Transformative learning has been widely used in the field of adult education for over twenty years, but until recently has received little attention in the field of world languages. Drawing on best practices and the research of distinguished international world language experts, this volume provides theoretical and classroom-tested models of transformative education in world languages at major university, state and governmental programs. Chapters outline theoretical frameworks and detail successful models from cutting-edge programs in a wide range of languages, with plenty of examples included to make the theory accessible to readers not yet familiar with the concepts. Classroom teachers, program administrators and faculty developers at every level of instruction will find support for their courses. With its innovative approach to the teaching and lear

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Avoid Emotional Reasoning If you are an emotional reasoner, you may get completely derailed on your journey to good language proficiency because you let your emotions rule your reason. Emotional reasoning, often lumped in with cognitive distortions (Beck, 1979), lets your emotional state, which can be a result of your academic experiences or a result of the events in your life or both, color your attitude, whether that is toward your course, your studying, your homework, your teacher, your textbook, your assignments, your classmates, or any other aspect of your academic life.   Definition of emotional reasoning Emotional reasoning feels like you are riding a roller coaster. Your performance chugs upward, then speeds downward, over and over. Under these conditions, your performance is tracking with these emotional peaks and valleys, ups and downs, and not with your study. Here are some examples: •   

  excerpt from The Invisible Foreign Language Classroom (Dabbs & Leaver),  from Chapter 1 Defining and Recognizing the Invisible Classroom: Guardians Guardians General Orientation SJ personality types, more especially as adults, feel compelled to pass on the values of their society. As such, the Guardians in every society are essential to the continuation of that society. As Learners As learners, Guardians work to belong in the group, whether that is a social group of their place in the class. For this reason, they possess a strong work ethic. They crave rules, accept and support tradition and traditional approaches, and want to know exactly what is expected of them.   Because many teachers are themselves SJs, the SJ learner fits right in.   The student understands and feels comfortable with the teacher’s methods because that is how they learn.   The SJ likes the structure, likes knowing what is expected, and since the SJ teacher will generally lay things out in a logica

  MSI Press has added to its collection of affiliated books a book coedited by Dr. Stephen Stryker (California State University at Stanislaus) and MSI Press author, Dr. Betty Lou Leaver: Content-Based Instruction in Foreign Language Education. Published by Georgetown University Press "a while back," so to speak, it was an immediate classic and remains so. To purchase this book on Amazon. click  HERE . For more posts about Betty Lou Leaver and her books, click HERE . For more posts on language learning, click  HERE . To see more affiliated books and learn about affiliated status, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Mental Management   What is a goal without a plan? A dream? Mental management techniques work at turning dreams into reality by requiring the setting of goals and establishing a clear and comprehensive (and do-able) plan. In his book, With Winning in Mind (2011, The Mentashowinl Management System), Lanny Bassham discusses the importance of setting goals and tracking progress. The right—and positive—mental attitude can definitely assist a person in accomplishing his or her goals.   Defining mental management Mental management is the process of being able to improve your progress or show your prowess  while under stress. Have you ever been under stress in a language course? Of course, you have! If any of these following circumstances apply, you could benefit from training in mental management: ·         You draw a blank on a test even though you know the material well; ·         You have trouble sleeping the nigh

  (Princess Muna in white, middle; Me in black, far right; Dr. Alexa, NYIT/NY, in blue, far right; others - members of the American Psychological Association) I knew who she was. She knew who I was. But I had never personally met Princess Muna until the American Psychological Association came to Jordan on the quest of setting up a degree in psychology at one of the universities there. Until then, psychology was not a topic of study at any of the several universities in the country. At the time, I was working as the chief academic officer at New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. We also had a very small branch, computer science studies only, in Irbid, Jordan on the campus of the Jordan University of Science and Technology, which oversaw the in-country activities of NYIT. Princess Muna (nee Tony Gardner) was/is the mother of King Abdullah. A Brit by origin, she wed King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, a much-beloved (for obvious reasons, it seemed to me) royal, one whos