MSI Press Blog

      Perhaps the most extraordinary and unique feature of the JDLS is the personal story at the start of each journal. In the latest journal, Dr. Cornelius Kubler of Smith College (and great fame in the Chinese-teaching field) delves into all the things he did and experienced that led him to near-native proficiency. Like many highly proficient speakers of less commonly taught languages, he had experience as a child with commonly taught languages. He grew up in a German-speaking family in Daytona Beach, Florida, and studied Spanish, French, and Latin in high school and Esperanto and Italian at the Y. Yes, he writes, "never in the world would I have imagined that I would end up majoring in Chinese and linguistics, test twice in Chinese at the S-4/R-4 level in the civil and foreign service of the U.S. State Department and use Chinese as my primary professional language throughout my two careers as a State Department official and college professor."  You can read the full articl

As the title says, we are initiating a Thursday post for high-level language learning and teaching, defined as near-native or native-like language proficiency (ACTFL: distinguished level, ILR: Level 4 and higher). While the Thursday series of posts will be tied to the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies , which MSI Press publishes, guest posts on related topics are always welcome.  The latest JDLS volume (8) was released last week when the 2021-2022 issue finally saw the light of day. (The delay was due to the death of the typesetter, Carl Leaver , which caused some shuffling and reshuffling at the press, but now we are on track for timely biennial issues and are accepting proposed articles for the 2023-2024 issue (release: December 31, 2024), as described in the current Call for Papers, the latest version of which is always available on the JDLS webpage at the MSI Press website, along with submission requirements information for both articles and book reviews. The JDLS is shel

      Just out! Volume 8 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies . Take a look at the Table of Contents. See something you like? Explore more! The JDLS is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online sellers, the MSI Press webstore -- and, in some (we hope, many) cases your local academic library. (If you want it at your local public library -- just ask the librarian to order it, or better, subscribe to it.) Table of Contents   EDITORS’ NOTE       1   FRIEND OF DISTINGUISHED LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AWARD              3   PERSONAL EXPERIENCE      7   How I Attained “Near-Native” Proficiency in Chinese (Cornelius C. Kubler)     9   FEATURE ARTICLES          21   Beyond the Language: Debating as High-Intensity Cultural Engagement &  Leadership (Emilie Cleret)          23   Helping Learners Achieve the Distinguished Level of Proficiency  (James E. Bernhardt)        37   Roadmaps to Distinguished Speaking Proficiency (Jack Franke)       53   On the Cusp: Zone of Proxim

    The Call for Papers for Volume 9 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies has been recently updated. Check out the ways in which you can contribute to this 2023-2024 volume: From the website : To submit an article to the next issue, Volume 9, 2023-2024, download the current call for papers:  CALL FOR PAPERS . To submit a review of a book about near-native levels of language learning, please follow the  JDLS Book Review Guidelines_2021 , which reflect the Linguist List guidelines, and submit to the associate editor of the JDLS, Dr. Donna Butler, with a cc to the editor, Dr. Yalun Zhou, or to editor@msipress.com. If you have written or published a book on a topic related to the JDLS and would like to have it reviewed, please contact editor@msipress.com for guidance. Submissions should represent original work. They should not have been previously published elsewhere nor be currently submitted to another journal or collected volume.   ---- We now have available for individual

                               Are you doing any work in the area of how to achieve (or get students to achieve) near-native proficiency? Send it to the  Journal for Distinguished Language Proficiency . JDLS is closing out acceptances for JDLS 9 (2023-2024) in June, with queries best sent now, and will start accepting submissions for JDLS 10 (which, possibly, may be published in mid-2025, rather than in 2026, per current schedule). Check out the call for papers for details at the link provided above. --- We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the journal at a very accessible price and will make the feature articles available from other issues as time goes on. Check our  webstore  to see what we have at any given time. We will announce and link each of these individually in upcoming blog posts. The  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  is available by subscription. JDLS is a biennial journal, and it is easy for time to slip by and m

                               Are you doing any work in the area of how to achieve (or get students to achieve) near-native proficiency? Send it to the  Journal for Distinguished Language Proficiency . JDLS is closing out acceptances for JDLS 9 (2023-2024) in June, with queries best sent now, and will start accepting submissions for JDLS 10 (which, possibly, may be published in mid-2025, rather than in 2026, per current schedule). Check out the call for papers for details at the link provided above. --- We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from issue 8 of the journal at a very accessible price and will make the feature articles available from other issues as time goes on. Check our  webstore  to see what we have at any given time. We will announce and link each of these individually in upcoming blog posts. The  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  is available by subscription. JDLS is a biennial journal, and it is easy for time to slip by and m

           Just out! Volume 8 of the  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies . Read the abstracts. See something you like? Explore more! The JDLS is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online sellers, the MSI Press webstore -- and, in some (we hope, many) cases your local academic library. (If you want it at your local public library -- just ask the librarian to order it, or better,  subscribe  to it.) Volume 8 Abstracts Beyond the Language: Debating as High-Intensity Cultural Engagement & Leadership Emilie Cleret (French War College) This article discusses the use of debating in senior professional military education (PME) at the French War College in Paris to help officers reach native-like English language competence. In France, senior Professional Military Education (PME) is delivered by two schools – Ecole de Guerre (French War College) and Centre des hautes études militaires, (Centre for Higher Military Studies). The case this article explores is the use of d

  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. One of those common characteristics turned out to be tenacity in study. Some of these learners struggled in the bigger, but they never gave up. This motivation was mentioned more often than instrumental and integrative motivation, the widely recognized framework posed decades ago by Gardner and Lambert and still prevalent among language educators. Instrumental motivation was a high second. Sometimes, the instrumental motivation was for reasons of a job; other times it was to be able to communicate with newly acquired relatives. Integrative motivation was not strong at Level 4 though it was reported as strong among first

    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. One of those common characteristics turned out to be the importance of acquiring native-like pronunciation. That is not easy, especially for adult learners. It takes a lot of work in phonetics. Some have accomplished the goal with the help of a speech therapist (when they are living in the country where the "foreign" [second] is spoken). Most have accomplished it through repetitive work with a native speaker in a language lab or the equivalent, using exercises like tongue-twisters, which are remarkably effective at forcing the oral apparati into the correct positions, producing correct pronunciation. (We wil