MSI Press Blog

  When Boris Shekhtman and Betty Lou Leaver were searching for a publisher for their book on reaching ILR 4, Developing Professional Level Foreign Langauge Proficiency , a reviewer for one of the traditional American publishers suggested not taking on the book because "no one needs near-native proficiency." She then pointed to herself as a teacher of French whose proficiency was ILR 2, and she was considered a brilliant and successful teacher. She did not need anything higher than that, and neither did anyone else. Well, she was wrong, and fortunately Cambridge University Press had the foresight to realize that the topic was important, known to few (which is why that French teacher had such low proficiency) and would someday be sought-after information. They wanted the seminal work; they got it. And it has been the go-to work for more than two decades now. The reviewer’s comment reflected a long‑standing and deeply limiting assumption in American language education: that “goo...

  Study abroad programs promise immersion, but immersion alone doesn’t guarantee transformation. Many students return home with vivid memories yet limited linguistic or cognitive growth. The difference lies not in the destination but in the design. Open Architecture Curricular Design (OACD) provides the framework that turns cultural exposure into deep learning. 1. OACD transforms experience into structured learning Traditional study abroad curricula often rely on passive exposure—students live in the target culture and hope learning will happen organically. OACD replaces this hope with intentional design. It structures experiences around adaptive tasks that connect classroom learning with lived reality: Language modules that evolve based on local interactions. Reflective tasks that link cultural observation to cognitive development. Flexible pacing that adjusts to the learner’s evolving proficiency. Instead of treating immersion as an uncontrolled variable, OACD makes it the curri...

  Repetition has a branding problem in language learning. It’s often dismissed as “drill work,” something associated with beginners, rote memorization, or old‑school pedagogy. But anyone who has lived inside a language—really lived in it—knows that rehearsal and repetition are not relics of the past. They are the quiet engines of fluency, running in the background long after the learner has left the beginner stage. Repetition is not a stage. It’s a strategy. And it evolves as the learner evolves. Repetition at the Beginning: Building the Neural Pathway Early in acquisition, repetition is about establishing form . The learner is building the basic neural circuitry for sounds, structures, and lexical items. Rehearsal here is mechanical by necessity: repeating phonemes until they stop feeling foreign practicing high‑frequency phrases until they become automatic drilling verb paradigms to reduce cognitive load This is the “laying track” phase. Without it, nothing moves forward. But thi...