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

  Today (October 24) is the anniversary of Madeline E. Ehrman' s death in 2015. It seems difficult to believe that seven years have passed since she was sitting with the MSI Press editor, talking about what would be her last (still unpublished, but posthumously planned publication) book, The E&L Construct -- an  instrument , copyrighted at the US Library of Congress in 2002,. The E&L instrumnt identifies neurodiversity preferences that she (the E) designed and validated with Betty Lou Leaver, MSI Press managing editor (the L), when they both worked for US government institutions. The E&L Cognitive Styles Construct is not the first posthumous book that MSI Press has published, nor is it likely to be the last. It is a tribute to Madeline, however, that interest in the instrument has grown and become such that a posthumous book is considered viable. Madeline worked her entire career at the Foreign Service Institute. After she died (from stomach cancer, likely resulting fr

  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 the desire to pass for a native speaker.  Some of the interviewees (13%) mentioned the goal of passing for a native speaker. This goal sometimes coincided with integrative motivation. In this case, the interviewee indicated the desire to blend in with and be part of the culture in order to be accepted and experience its nature the way native speakers do. However, far from all who expressed the native-speaker goal were integratively motivated and far from all who were integratively motivated had set a goal of passing for a native speaker.

    Peek into the future! Wait just a bit. Coming up some time this year is the publication of  The   E&L Cognitive Styles Construct . by  Dr. Betty Lou Leaver  and  Dr. Madeline Ehrman .  At last, a book devoted to the topic that has been bandied about in the literature since 2002. Watch for upcoming excerpts. For more posts about the E&L cognitive styles construct, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow  MSI Press  on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with  MSI Press LLC ? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25)

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Tactics and Strategies   E When you are struggling to learn on a foreign language, it may feel like you are on a battlefield. You are, in a way. You have an objective. You are out to conquer something: the language. But that is as far as one might be able to stretch the image. We teach language for peace, and some of the best cross-cultural bridge builders are foreign language students who have achieved the capacity to use the language for work and leisure. How most people reach that point is through good language learning tactics and strategies. Tactics refer to ways of accomplishing something in the short term; they are simple and have narrow objectives. They are actions. Strategies are how one goes about accomplishing a goal for the long term: they can have greater breadth and applicability. They are plans. In language learning, strategies and tactics play a role as well. Language learners need a plan, a

  Peek into the future! Wait just a bit. Coming up some time this year is the publication of  The   E&L Cognitive Styles Construct . by  Dr. Betty Lou Leaver  and  Dr. Madeline Ehrman .  At last, a book devoted to the topic that has been bandied about in the literature since 2002. Watch for upcoming excerpts. For more posts about the E&L cognitive styles construct, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow  MSI Press  on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with  MSI Press LLC ? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) a

  Today's book excerpt comes from  Working with Advanced Foreign Language Students  by Boris Shekhtman . Some Characteristics of Advanced Language Learners  SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVANCED STUDENTS   Student-Language Relations So, what does having an advanced student mean to a teacher? It means, of course, that the student already speaks the foreign language with finesse, that the student already knows the host country pretty well, along with its history and culture, that he or she has seen quite a few foreign language teachers before now. (Typically, the advanced student has studied, if not mastered, several foreign languages [Belcher and Connor, 2001; Leaver and Atwell, 2002] and has already developed his or her own ideas about how to learn a foreign language [Ehrman, 2002; Leaver and Shekhtman, 2002].)  Language Learning Motivation and Goals  The advanced student is extremely motivated; rarely do such students study a language simply, so to speak, for personal pleasure