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 wi...

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,  ...

  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.”...

Every few days this year (2025), we plan to sift through our author pages and find the hidden video and audio gems because, let's face it, though they often contain fascinating videos and audio gems, often those reading the pages don't have time to listen at the moment and may not find their way back easily. There is often something special about hearing an author's voice. We plan to bring that "special" to you every few days this coming year. The first gem was recorded by the International Transformative Learning Association after a conference at Columbia University and features MSI Press author, Emilie Cleret ( Journal for Distinguished Language Studies ) and MSI Press managing editor, Betty Lou Leaver (author of Achieving Nativelike Second Language Competence  and Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star and co-author of The Invisible Classroom ). Emilie also wrote a book chapter for the book, Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (...

  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 informatio...

  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 .

  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...