MSI Press Blog

  Language learning abroad is often described as immersion. But immersion is not just linguistic—it is existential. When learners spend six months or more in another culture, they do not simply acquire vocabulary and syntax. They absorb cadence, gesture, rhythm, and worldview. They begin to think in the new language, and with that, they begin to feel differently. And when they return home, they discover that fluency has a cost. The Hidden Transformation Extended study abroad changes more than speech—it changes perception. Learners internalize new social codes: what counts as polite, assertive, or warm. They recalibrate emotional expression: how much to reveal, how much to conceal. They adopt new metaphors, new humor, new silences. They learn to inhabit identity through language, not just translate it. This transformation is exhilarating abroad—but disorienting at home. Why Reintegration Hurts More Than Culture Shock Culture shock is external: the world feels strange. Reintegratio...

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from  My 20th Language  by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. -- Study Abroad Unlike many—if not most—of my foreign-language-learning peers, I never had the chance to study abroad during my university years. I attended college on a full scholarship, and that scholarship money could not be used for study abroad programs. If I wanted to go abroad, I would have had to pay my own way. As the eldest of eight children of a shoe-cutter and a part-time farmer, that was simply not possible. I was already working nearly half-time just to afford clothing and cover expenses not included in my scholarship. So, I learned my languages in the classroom. And I held my own—often outperforming those who had studied abroad. By the time I completed graduate studies in comparative literature and later enlisted in the U.S. Army, I had reached Level 4 proficiency in two languages and Level 3 in another two, as measured by the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT...

      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 ...