MSI Press Blog

      excerpt from  Individualized Study Plans for Very Advanced Students of Foreign Languages  by Betty Lou Leaver Chapter Two The Need for an ISP at High Levels of Foreign Language Proficiency Achieving near-native competence generally does not come by serendipity, coincidence, accident, or “a fluke,” although occasionally (rarely) such things do happen. I know of several people who have said that high level proficiency just happened to them—but even so, it was only after many, many years of study and use of the foreign language in professional situations. Most high-level language users have reported spending much time in direct instruction, study abroad, and self-study (Leaver, 2003a). The average length of time taken by native-like speakers of nearly any foreign language, based on recent research, is 17 years (Leaver and Atwell, 2002). Some learners have been able to achieve this level, however, in much shorter periods of time. Most of these learners had a ...

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    Today's excerpt comes from Communicative Focus  by Boris Shekhtman and Dina Kupchanka -  Communication between Native Speakers and Non-native Speakers and the Essence of Speech We are interested in communication between native and non-native speakers for one very important reason: this is the kind of communication for which all teachers are essentially preparing students. Regardless of the level of our students, whether they are beginners or already near-native speakers, if they want to use their second language, they nolens-volens enter this type of communication. We need to help them to participate in this communication with dignity and power and to close the gap between their language skills and those of native speakers. In order for us to prepare our students in this way, we must be knowledgeable about the specific nuances of verbal communication between native and non-native speakers.     The most obvious difference between the language perfor...

    Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency  (Speaking) by Betty Lou Leaver is a research-based catalogue of factors that would seem to predict ability to reach the highest level of foreign language proficiency and is based on common characteristics shared by more than 200 near-native speakers, identified by self-report, survey, and interviews by master testers. One of those common characteristics turned out to be the importance of acquiring native-like pronunciation. That is not easy, especially for adult learners. It takes a lot of work in phonetics. Some have accomplished the goal with the help of a speech therapist (when they are living in the country where the "foreign" [second] is spoken). Most have accomplished it through repetitive work with a native speaker in a language lab or the equivalent, using exercises like tongue-twisters, which are remarkably effective at forcing the oral apparati into the correct positions, producing correct pronunciation. (We...

  Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency  (Speaking) by Betty Lou Leaver is a research-based catalogue of factors that would seem to predict ability to reach the highest level of foreign language proficiency and is based on common characteristics shared by more than 200 near-native speakers, identified by self-report, survey, and interviews by master testers. This study showed that there are multiple paths to native-like foreign language proficiency -- and subsequent studies have confirmed this. Even the same person who is trilingual or quadrilingual takes a different path to acquiring each of those languages. Age of language learning onset, location(s) of language learning, prior language learning experience, influence of teachers and educational approaches, and opportunities (or lack of them) for cross-cultural experience, including when in a professional career those opportunities appear all shape the path followed by an individual for acquisition of a particular...