MSI Press Blog

Excerpt from Practices That Work by Thomas Jesus Garza.  Be Sensitive to Learning Styles   Betty Lou Leaver (Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center) Madeline Ehrman (Foreign Service Institute) Teachers working with language learners at all levels have for some decades now recognized that learners have specific sensory and cognitive preferences when it comes to learning and specific ways of interacting with classmates. These individual differences can be very important both in positive and negative ways in the language process, the significance of which may change as one progresses up the ladder of proficiency. One phenomenon that has been observed by language teachers and their learners over time is the “tortoise and hare” syndrome. Learners who are painfully accurate—and therefore slow— in the beginning of language study often outdistance their faster peers who can plateau at the Advanced/Superior threshold because they have become comfortable with being

  1948-2021 It is with great sadness that MSI Press notes the death of Carl Leaver, CEO of the Press and typesetter and graphic designer par excellence . Many authors have expressed not only condolences but also a sense of legacy from covers he designed that they love.  Here is his obituary: On August 16, 2021, Carl Don Leaver of San Juan Bautista passed into eternal rest. A forester with the US Forest Service in Idaho and Montana, he turned to nature photography while working in the Bitterroot National Forest. His photographs graced national magazine covers and on a weekly basis the local paper of Hamilton, MT, the Ravalli Republican. He later worked on photography projects for the US Army (AFEES) and taught photography at the New York Institute of Technology in Amman, Jordan. His final career change led him to computer graphics and publishing as co-owner of MSI Press LLC; his many typeset books and book covers have helped MSI Press authors win a large number of awards over the years,

  Dr, Betty Lou Leaver, MSI Press author , was interviewed on TeachRussian podcas t a while ago (better late than never to share the podcast) -  From  http://www.teachrussian.org/Podcasts#/ Teach Russian has started publishing a monthly Foreign Language Teaching Podcast which will bring you interviews with experienced teachers, SLA and bilingualism experts, textbook authors, and scholars who will share their thoughts on teaching foreign languages. The podcast host is Natasha McCauley, a visiting assistant professor of Russian studies at the University of Richmond.  In their first episode you can listen to an interview with Betty Lou Leaver (PhD, Pushkin Institute), former provost of the Defense Language Institute who is currently editing a book with Dr. Dan Davidson on Transformative Approaches to language learning and teaching. She defines transformation in language learning using terms such as “bilingualism,” “biculturalism,” and “reaching outside the classroom.”  To listen to the po

Excerpt from Intrepid: Fearless Immigrant from Jordan to America (Leaver & Leaver): A Tenuous Beginning We do not know just how Intrepid got his start. We met him as a squalling, bird-legged, rough-furred, unkempt, insatiably hungry kitten of just a few weeks, being delivered to us by the hands of Ahmed, a professor of history at New York Institute of Technology in Amman when we were living and working in Jordan. Since our landlord hardly delighted in our adopting additional cats (we already had several that we had rescued from the streets), we typically brought them upstairs to our third- floor apartment, past his first-floor door, in cages, quietly. There was and would be nothing quiet about Intrepid, though. As Ahmed mounted one stair after another the squalls radiated in ever-increasing intensity. Clearly, Intrepid had had a difficult start. A kitten so little (perhaps 4-5 weeks—a guess) could not have been weaned from its mother. Very likely, the mother had died

  Book description: The delicate bitterroot flower brings color and warmth to all who see it. By surviving freezing winters, it attests to the great enduring strength of gentleness. Metaphorically, in this book, the bitterroot is a "warm fuzzy" that can be shared with friends and strangers alike. Let the pages of this book bring warmth and color and the strength of gentleness to your world. Learn how to get what you want and need and make others and yourself happy as you do so. Book Review from Louis Slovinsky, founder of People Magazine :' Until I read the manuscript of Betty Lou Leaver's "Bouquets of Bitterroots," I thought Bitterroots was just an odd name pinned to a mountain range in Montana. The conflagration that scorched those mountains a few years ago raised my consciousness about their stunning, irreplaceable beauty, just as Ms. Leaver's pithy book elevates the eponymous flower to a superb metaphor for learning from adversity and cultivating emp

  Betty Lou Leaver's book, Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (see affiliate books), published by Cambridge University Press, recently received the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages book prize for Best Book in Pedagogy 2022. Leaver, Davidson, and Campbell’s  Transformative Language Learning and Teaching  is a groundbreaking volume on the theory and practice of transformative teaching in the language learning context. The world language education field has experienced many methodological upheavals corresponding to theoretical or practical paradigms over the past century. The editors of this volume distill these changes into three large patterns whose practices are based on educational philosophies the primary paradigm of which encompasses three elements: transmission, in which information flows unidirectionally from teacher to learner, resulting in rote memory, reproduction, and accuracy; (2) transaction, in which information flows bi

  Dr. Betty Lou Leaver, MSI Press author and managing editor of MSI Press, recently co-edited a book, Open Architecture Curricular Design in World Language Education , with Andrew Corin and Christine Campbell, to be published by Georgetown University Press in July 2025. The book is currently on pre-order. Reviews "This groundbreaking volume productively combines theory and practice. Through engaging examples, author-practitioners demonstrate that open architecture curricular design is both effective and feasible. They show how OACD principles—learner agency, instructor mentorship, flexibility, and focus on authentic materials—can be implemented at all levels of language instruction and program design."—Karen Evans-Romaine, professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison "Corin, Leaver, and Campbell's volume provides readers with an extraordinary introduction to open architecture curricular design (OACD). The volume is extremely helpful for language instructors, program di

Betty Lou Leaver (Ph.D., Pushkin Institute, Moscow) is Director of The Literary Center of San Juan Bautista and previously served as provost, associate provost, and dean at the Defense Language Institute. She established an international language program at NASA for cosmonauts and astronauts assigned to the International Space Station; served as a language training supervisor at the Foreign Service Institute, curriculum developer for the Federal Foreign Language Training Lab, dean and chief academic officer at the New York Institute of Technology in Jordan, president of the American Global Studies Institute, co-director of the Center for the Advancement of Distinguished Language Proficiency at San Diego State University, and founding director of the Center for the Languages of the Central Asian Region at Indiana University; and provided consultation to educational programs in 24 countries. She has published 21 books, more than 100 articles, and is currently co-editing a book,  Tran

  Today's back story is about the book, Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest  by Shenan (CB) Leaver with Betty Lou Leaver. From the co-author: CB Leaver , the author, is a mentally challenged CHARGE Syndrome adult who never learned to read or write. His mother, Betty Lou Leaver, a highly published author, who wanted her son to understand the purpose of the written word: sharing thoughts and/or information with others. It took a full year of working together to put CB's remembered stories on paper, to check that they had been accurately transcribed. CB learned a lot about the written word both in the process of writing and in getting feedback from pre-publication readers of the manuscript. CB subsequently did a book signing at the Los Angeles Book Fair. He had a great time learning about reader reactions to his book. He was also adept at using his people skills and humor to draw readers to his booth.  Book available at 25% discount with code FF25 at msipress.com/shop. Read excerpts a

  Betty Lou Leaver's book, Think Yourself into a Language Learning Superstar , is featured in January Magazine . For more posts about Betty Lou Leaver and her books, click HERE .