MSI Press Blog

  Joining our other volumes of this journal -- as well as our other respected foreign language books -- is Volume 8 of the   Journal for Distinguished Language Studies . Volume 8 covers 2021-2022. The purpose of the  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  (ISSN 1547-7819) is to provide a forum for exchanging information about teaching to and reaching near-native foreign language proficiency for teachers, learners, and professional language users. Areas of interest include research, theory, and practical application. The  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  has been published annually since 2003. In the early years, the  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  was published by the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers, which closed in 2010. The current issues are published by MSI Press LLC in Hollister, California. JDLS is available on Amazon . It can also be purchased at 25% discount from the MSI Press webstore , using coupon code FF25.  From more posts about thi

  Joining our other volumes of this journal -- as well as our other respected foreign language books -- is Volume 7 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies . Volume 7 represents a gap year, as the Journal picks up issuance with a new publisher, MSI Press LLC. The purpose of the  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  (ISSN 1547-7819) is to provide a forum for exchanging information about teaching to and reaching near-native foreign language proficiency for teachers, learners, and professional language users. Areas of interest include research, theory, and practical application. The  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  has been published annually since 2003. Issue 7 is an exception to the publication schedule and is intended as a bridge issue between the early years, 2003-2010, and the current years, 2020 and later. In the early years, the  Journal for Distinguished Language Studies  was published by the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers, which closed in

  From the editor - The story behind the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies is pretty much the story behind MSI Press. When the Coalition for Distinguished Language Centers , a nonprofit organization, began holding their first conferences in 2003, they realized that they needed a publisher to handle their conference proceedings and a planned journal dedicated to helping language learners reach near-native levels of foreign language proficiency. One of the co-founders of the CDLC was the owner of a private consulting business, Mind Solutions International and offered to establish a publishing house within that business. The publishing house took on a simplified version of the name, MSI, and became MSI Press and later MSI Press LLC. (Most MSI Press authors do not know what the initials stand for since, with the closing of both CDLC and MSI in 2010, only the press remained -- and its acronymic name.) --- We have available for individual purchase each of the feature articles from

    CALL FOR PAPERS Journal for Distinguished Language Studies Volume 9, 2023-2024 A refereed journal Overview The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies (JDLS), founded by the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers under the direction of Dr. Betty Lou Leaver and Boris Shekhtman in 2002 is a refereed volume and the only journal to focus exclusively on the highest levels of language achievement, that is, native-like or near-native. This level is labeled Distinguished by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Level 4/Advanced Professional Proficiency by the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), and also Level 4 as part of the Standardized Agreement (STANAG) 6001 of NATO’s Bureau of International Language Co-ordination (BILC). Descriptions can be found at the ACTFL, ILR, and BILC websites. The purpose of this journal is to create a robust international movement to promote and support language learning to the near-native level of profici

      Available for download, article from JDLS 8: "Helping Learners Achieve the Distinguished Level of Proficiency" (Dr. James Bernhardt, Foreign Service Institute): Abstract: This article proposes that a task all learners who have attained superior levels of proficiency and who wish to achieve the distinguished level have in common is the need to double the size of their vocabulary. The article suggests that instructional designs for distinguished level training should include massive amounts of input: reading, listening, and watching. It also proposes a number of ways, all vocabulary based, to evaluate whether materials are at-level for learners and advocates for materials that are appropriate to the individual learners’ needs, objectives and interests.  The article takes a close look at the goals of higher-level programs and notes that not all learners working towards distinguished levels of proficiency have the same end goals in mind. Their objectives, at this level, di

                               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

    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

      Available for download, article from JDLS 8: " Road Maps to Distinguished Speaking Proficiency"  (Dr. Jack Franke, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center) Abstract: Although study abroad is viewed in the United States as sine qua non , the study abroad experience is not a panacea to achieve distinguished foreign language speaking proficiency.  This study attempts to uncover how persistence, study abroad, motivation, and learner autonomy play into the pursuit of distinguished speaking proficiency.  Using the theoretical framework of complexity theory and phenomenological design, the study utilizes interviews of four educators at an institute in the western United States as the primary instrument of data collection.  This study investigates the roadmaps which successful foreign language educators have utilized to achieve distinguished speaking proficiency through interviews and documentary research. Data analysis of interviews with the participants reveals dis

  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.