MSI Press Blog

  Fluency isn’t always a ladder—it can be a treadmill. For many language learners operating at Level 3 (Professional Proficiency), the ability to navigate meaning through paraphrase becomes both a blessing and a barricade. Especially for multilinguals with strong cognitive agility, paraphrastic comprehension allows us to move fluidly through meaning even when we miss precise lexical cues. But at some point, that agility starts to mask the need for refinement—keeping us from reaching Level 4 (Near-Native Proficiency), where nuance, idiomatic precision, and socio-cultural context take center stage. 🎭 When “Good Enough” Gets You into Trouble I once made that mistake in Borjomi, Georgia, during a conference on innovations in pre-college education, i.e. what would be the equivalent of US elementary and high schools. The moderator of our panel on innovations in language testing knew me well both professionally and personally and in introducing me asked me to share "how many [unfamil...

  In the journey of language learning, reaching Level 3—often labeled “Professional Working Proficiency”—feels like crossing a major threshold. You can spleak (speak + explain) with ease, navigate meetings, write reports, and even joke around a bit. You’re accepted. You’re functioning. You’re doing professional work in the target language. And that’s exactly where the danger lies. 🚧 The Illusion of Arrival Level 3 is seductive. It offers comfort, validation, and a sense of linguistic arrival. But it’s not the summit—it’s base camp. The real climb to Level 4, where nuance, precision, and cultural depth reside, demands a different kind of effort. And overconfidence is the silent saboteur that keeps learners stuck. Overconfidence at Level 3 manifests in subtle but powerful ways: You assume you're being understood. You spleak, and people nod. But are they truly grasping your intent, or just interpreting your words through generous context clues? You assume you're right. Yo...

  In earlier posts, we’ve talked about hares and tortoises in language learning—those classic learner types who approach fluency either in a burst of brilliance or with deliberate, measured steps. Today, let’s revisit the hares, particularly those who have found a comfortable resting place at Level 3, or “Professional Proficiency,” and seem quite happy to stay there. Hares, often synoptic, right-brain dominant learners , shoot ahead in language acquisition. They become impressively fluent very quickly. They can talk around vocabulary gaps with creative circumlocutions. They can paraphrase on the fly, improvise idioms, and charm listeners with their expressive energy. But what happens when the hare, having outpaced the tortoise in reaching Level 3, falls asleep just shy of the finish line ? This, as Ehrman points out in Developing Professional-Level Foreign Language Proficiency (Leaver & Shekhtman), is the phenomenon of level  fossilization . (There are other forms o...