MSI Press Blog

  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 tenacity in study. Some of these learners struggled in the bigger, but they never gave up. This motivation was mentioned more often than instrumental and integrative motivation, the widely recognized framework posed decades ago by Gardner and Lambert and still prevalent among language educators. Instrumental motivation was a high second. Sometimes, the instrumental motivation was for reasons of a job; other times it was to be able to communicate with newly acquired relatives. Integrative motivation was not strong at Level 4 though it was reported as strong am...

      Available for download, article from JDLS 8: " Road Maps to Distinguished Speaking Proficiency"  (Dr. Jack Franke, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center) Abstract: Although study abroad is viewed in the United States as sine qua non , the study abroad experience is not a panacea to achieve distinguished foreign language speaking proficiency.  This study attempts to uncover how persistence, study abroad, motivation, and learner autonomy play into the pursuit of distinguished speaking proficiency.  Using the theoretical framework of complexity theory and phenomenological design, the study utilizes interviews of four educators at an institute in the western United States as the primary instrument of data collection.  This study investigates the roadmaps which successful foreign language educators have utilized to achieve distinguished speaking proficiency through interviews and documentary research. Data analysis of interviews with the ...

  Recently, Julie Gentile's article "Journal Your Way to Wellness," was the featured article in the December 31  YOGA + Life®  newsletter, and it was published in the print version of the Winter + Spring 2021-22 issue of  CO YOGA + Life® Magazine .   Also, Julie just launched a series of YouTube video #shorts,  A Second for Yourself . Every Self-Care Sunday for the next 52 weeks, she will be highlighting one relatable, motivational mantra in video format. These mantras are little seeds of affirmations that can help listeners achieve their goals and dreams this year. Readers can subscribe to her  Stand Up for Your Self-Care YouTube Channel   to view the videos as soon as they are published. Read more posts about Julie and her books HERE . Read more posts about authors in the news HERE . Julie's book, 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas , is on sale at the MSI Press webstore for $5 while inventory lasts. A 25% discount w...

  Congratulations to Betty Shaw and Dave Brown on her book, One Simple Text... , being selected as the  Kops-Fetherling International Book Awards  legacy award in the category of inspiration/motivation.   “ In One Simple Text , Betty Shaw recounts her daughter’s frightening and arduous but ultimately uplifting and inspirational journey. Betty chronicles Liz’s ordeal from the day of the accident and provides a glimpse of their life on the speaking and television circuit. This is a poignant memoir about a young woman who triumphed over tragedy; a mother and daughter’s love; and the indomitable power of the human spirit .” Read more posts about Betty and Dave and this book  HERE .

5. Motivational energy is something that is unique in the human condition. What is it, you may ask? One example: When you need to accomplish a task you really don’t want to do, you need to reach up and bring into your being a feeling, such as determination, which is a quality of the will, to help you do the task without procrastination. Even if the task is one that you really want to do, sometimes that energy has to be kindled in order to accomplish it. Reviewing why the task is important to do, and re-choosing it, can be helpful. The energy comes directly from your will. Will energy, used correctly, motivates a person to carry through with a project and finish it. It also helps someone to look at all the possibilities that a project may have, in order to begin and finish it.  It is an energy that needs to be learned through good, practical skills. Sometimes a person knows how to complete a project, but simply gets stuck and can’t move forward. That’s when she needs to focus ...

Maintaining motivation long-term can be quite challenging. One would like to think that one week of hard work would show up somewhere somehow in something, right? Alas, no. And age, equally alas, plays a role, even if we try to get around it or deny it. There is some evidence--factual, medicaal--that recovery time for muscles that have been worked hard increases with age. Personally, I have found that it takes 2-3 days, typically three days, to recover whereas the young ninjas need only a day, as I did during my Army time.  So, I do with myself what my trainer does with me: one day concentrate on upper body, the second day on abs, the third day on lower body, and most days also on cardio. Cardio is another challenge for me; it seems that I do run out of breath too quckly. Not energy. Just breath. But breathing is rather important. So, all of this can be disouraging. It is like reading one page of a book a day, It takes many days to finish the book, and a sense of the story wit...

Slugging though a 5-year period of preparation has moments of high motivation and moments of wondering if the bridge is just too far. I was wondering that today after gaining (not losing) two pounds (still beating around the overweight-obese divide) and thinking maybe commonsense is the better part of valor when I saw this quote from Thomas Merton: "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little," OK - rock climbing, yoga, it's still on! Judo in January!! And back to more sit-ups, more push-ups, trying to really do a pull up. Strong Fitness challenges -- I'm all in!

The long slog through five years of preparing to be able to take on a set of ninja obstacles can get discouraging. Little improvements are not exciting. Moreover, little improvements are rarely seen. It is like climbing a mountain. You climb and climb or hike and hike, and the top still seems pretty far away. But, if you stop and look down, you can often rejuvenate your enthusiasm not because the top of the mountain is close but because the bottom of the mountain is now visibly farther away. Small progress...great injection of motivation. So, too, this week I passed a goal I did not even know I had. After all, who has a goal that the bottom of the mountain will be X amount of distance away? It was a goal that became a goal only after it was achieved. As I was going my homework--and adding repetitions to it--I realized that I had surpassed the number of push-ups, sit-ups, and planks that I was able to do when I was in the Army years ago. Yes, finally, something!! And to mark th...

4-minute cardio from Strong Fitness Magazine For the past several months, slogging best describes my physical training efforts. Yes, my trainer kept pointing out ways in which I had made progress, and I kept at my " homework " that she gave me. Still, it did not FEEL like I had made progress. FEELING engages motivation. Motivation can keep you going, but will power fuels it during the blah-nothing times. Sometimes, you just need to FEEL  progress. And that happened this week! In two ways!! I was able to do 100 iterations of abs and laterals exercises, nonstop, with raised legs and 8-pound kettle ball. Not all that long ago 25 iterations were almost impossible; then 50 iterations were onerous. Now, 100, with the energy to do another 100 right away. Yes, FELT progress. Thne, Strong Fitness Magazine (great online magazine for women who want to be fit) published an article about a 4-minute cardio exercise that builds cardio quickly. Right--if you can do the fo...