MSI Press Blog

  Once learners move beyond ILR 3, the landscape of useful resources changes dramatically. The mainstream language‑learning world—apps, textbooks, university courses—simply doesn’t operate at the level where nuance, inference, and cultural precision become the core curriculum. ILR 4 learners need materials created by people who understand what near‑native proficiency looks like, how it develops, and how to support it. These resources exist, but they’re scattered across government agencies, specialized journals, and niche academic communities. Here’s where the real ILR 4 knowledge lives. The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies This is the closest thing to a dedicated home for ILR 4 and ILR 5 scholarship. The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies publishes theory related to attaining ILR 4, research on the cognitive profiles of distinguished learners, pedagogical strategies for near‑native proficiency, and case studies from government and academic programs. It’s one ...

  From the editor - The story behind the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies is pretty much the story behind MSI Press. When the Coalition for Distinguished Language Centers , a nonprofit organization, began holding their first conferences in 2003, they realized that they needed a publisher to handle their conference proceedings and a planned journal dedicated to helping language learners reach near-native levels of foreign language proficiency. One of the co-founders of the CDLC was the owner of a private consulting business, Mind Solutions International and offered to establish a publishing house within that business. The publishing house took on a simplified version of the name, MSI, and became MSI Press and later MSI Press LLC. (Most MSI Press authors do not know what the initials stand for since, with the closing of both CDLC and MSI in 2010, only the press remained -- and its acronymic name.) --- We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles f...

                               Are you doing any work in the area of how to achieve (or get students to achieve) near-native proficiency? Send it to the  Journal for Distinguished Language Proficiency . JDLS is closing out acceptances for JDLS 9 (2023-2024) in June, with queries best sent now, and will start accepting submissions for JDLS 10 (which, possibly, may be published in mid-2025, rather than in 2026, per current schedule). Check out the call for papers for details at the link provided above. --- We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the journal 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 Languag...

  Book review from Issue 8 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies -- REVIEW   Dornyei, Zoltan; Mentzelopoulos, Katarina Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency: Motivation, Cognition and Identity Channel View Publications 2022   Series Editors: Sarah Mercer, Universitat Graz, Austria and Stephen Ryan, Waseda University, Japan Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching: 18 Bristol; Jackson: Multilingual Matters, (2022)   Natalia Lord, Learning Consultation Service, School of Language Studies, Foreign Service Institute (retired)   SUMMARY   This book analyzes the findings of a research project that Zoltan Dornyei, a prolific and esteemed contributor to the field of language learning, designed for his students at the University of Nottingham, when his course, the Psychology of Bilingualism and Language Learnin g , moved online. This is unfortunately a posthumous publication, for Zoltan Dornyei passed aw...

    The Call for Papers for Volume 9 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies has been recently updated. Check out the ways in which you can contribute to this 2023-2024 volume: From the website : To submit an article to the next issue, Volume 9, 2023-2024, download the current call for papers:  CALL FOR PAPERS . To submit a review of a book about near-native levels of language learning, please follow the  JDLS Book Review Guidelines_2021 , which reflect the Linguist List guidelines, and submit to the associate editor of the JDLS, Dr. Donna Butler, with a cc to the editor, Dr. Yalun Zhou, or to editor@msipress.com. If you have written or published a book on a topic related to the JDLS and would like to have it reviewed, please contact editor@msipress.com for guidance. Submissions should represent original work. They should not have been previously published elsewhere nor be currently submitted to another journal or collected volume.   ---- We now have a...

      Available for download, article from JDLS 8: " Protocol-Based Formative Assessment: Evolution and Revolution at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center" (Andrew R. Corin and Sergey Entis) . Abstract: Protocol-based formative assessment (PBFA) can be a powerful tool for enhancing learning and diagnosing learning challenges. Yet there is an inherent tension between effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of PBFA. This can be addressed through a variety of strategies: “rationing” PBFA to instances of individual learning difficulties; applying PBFA to all students but in fewer instances; or by engineering greater efficiency into the protocol. Regardless of the strategy adopted, it is taken for granted that PBFA should be maximally integrated with instruction-based formative assessment (IBFA) as an integral component of day-to-day classroom instruction. This article articulates the dilemma as it developed at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Lang...

      Available for download, article from JDLS 8: " Protocol-Based Formative Assessment: Evolution and Revolution at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center"  (Dr. Andrew R. Corin, DLIFLC, and Sergey Entis, DLIFLC) Abstract: Protocol-based formative assessment (PBFA) can be a powerful tool for enhancing learning and diagnosing learning challenges. Yet there is an inherent tension between effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of PBFA. This can be addressed through a variety of strategies: “rationing” PBFA to instances of individual learning difficulties, applying PBFA to all students but in fewer instances, or by engineering greater efficiency into the protocol. Regardless of the strategy adopted, it is taken for granted that PBFA should be maximally integrated with instruction-based formative assessment (IBFA) as an integral component of day-to-day classroom instruction. This article articulates the dilemma as it developed at the Defense Langua...

      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 . 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. Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publis...