MSI Press Blog

  Learning a foreign language is often seen as a battle between natural talent and sheer determination. Some believe that those with an innate aptitude for languages will effortlessly soar to near-native proficiency, while others argue that persistence trumps talent. Research by Leaver, published in the Journal of Distinguished Language Studies   2003 ("Interviews with High-Level Speakers: Surprises in the Data") , weighs in on this debate, revealing that those who reached near-native fluency overwhelmingly credited tenacity as the key factor—more than any other kind of motivation . More Than Just Motivation Language learners often rely on different types of motivation to drive their progress: Instrumental motivation – learning a language for practical benefits like career advancement or academic success. Integrative motivation – learning to become part of a new culture, forming connections with native speakers. Intrinsic motivation – enjoying the learning process itsel...

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. Following up on previous posts, one of the motivational frameworks considered was tenacity. Contrary to the popular notion that learners who reach very high proficiency levels are highly talented students for whom language learning is easy, nearly every interviewee (94%) reported difficulties at some stage of learning the language. If it was not in early learning (“ tortoises ” ), then it was at a Level 3 plateau ( “ hares ” ). Nearly all also stated that if it were not for some form of tenacity, they would have given up and not attained native-like proficiency. Tenacity was reported by people with all forms of motiva...

It seems that sometimes I get tired --- less so from physical workouts (those are often pick-me-ups) but more as the day goes on and I am not continuing with the physical activity but having to do real work, as in, the kinds of things you do to earn a living. Since I am still trying to lose weight, sigh!, I figured there might be some foods I could pull into a diet that would up the energy level. Just in case, someone has an image of me hanging out in bed or developing a best-friend relationship with my pillow, I should explain that I usually outlast anyone who works with me, and I get called the energizer bunny a lot. Still, the energizer bunny's battery does eventually run down, as does mine. So, I am looking for a battery extender fueled by diet. Here is what I learned: Lemon water for breakfast. This is a good one for me because of my GERD. Yes, it sounds counterproductive to be adding acid to my diet rather than avoiding it, but everything I read and everything docto...

  We have a tenant downstairs in our house, and the tenant has a son. He is nine years old and treats us as his grandparents. We, in turn, treat him as a grandson. So, I was astonished that he could not pull himself up on the chin-up bar that my husband had installed in our bedroom doorway so that I could get to the point of being able to do pull-ups, lots of the them. He was very weak yet a very active boy -- we walk about a mile each night together, with him scootering (well, I guess that is really not walking) and me running along beside him. He found the light weights I lift to be very heavy. I mean, we are only talking about 20 pounds. Then, I was appalled to find out that gym is no longer part of elementary classrooms around here. Goodness, where do kids get their guidance in physical activities? So, I interested him in a competition, using the bar. Who could get to do pull-ups sooner. He pulled in a kid visiting a neighbor for two weeks and vowed to do better than t...