MSI Press Blog

  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. Some surprises in the data arose when the researchers compared how successful learners approached one language differently from another. This was the case not only with different learners but also the same learner studying different languages. The brought into question the one-size-fits-all teaching methodology that tends to be bandied about today, particularly at low levels of proficiency. Taking Russian for example, the data provided by the Level 4 language users showed that students studying Russian differed in very specific ways from those studying English or Romance languages, i.e. as Russian professors of...

  Army French I may never have taken another French class at Penn State, but it was not my last French instruction. In my early 20s, when my oldest daughter was still a toddler, I joined the US Army. How that happened is a bit of a long—and somewhat ironic—story, having to do with being recruited by SFC Robin Hood (seriously) while providing moral support for my husband, but it is an important one, since the Army and the Defense Language Institute played a significant role in my language-learning life. Ultimately, I was sent to the Defense Language Institute for Russian language training. Since I had already studied Russian, I found the course unchallenging. Enjoyable, fun, but not demanding. During the final 2-3 months, a fellow student, Maurice, who was also not feeling challenged by the Russian course, took advantage of the opportunity to study French in the afternoon, while continuing with Russian in the morning. The French course was also not challenging, but it was refreshing...

  excerpt from How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately by Boris Shekhtman -  TOOL #5: BREAKAWAY There is a second tool which can enable us to say what we really want to say. To understand the functioning of this tool, we have to understand the dynamics of knowing two languages. There is a very interesting relationship between these two languages, determined by the extent of the foreigner’s knowledge of the second language. In fact, if the foreigner knows the second language as well as he or she knows the first, it is possible there will not be any dependency at all between the two languages. These languages can exist independently of one another. Our foreigner can turn on the first language, or the second one, at will. But the relationship between these two languages can become complicated very quickly if our foreigner does not know second language as well as the first. In this case, the foreigner, as he or she encounters deficiencies in speaking the second language,...

  On June 6, we celebrate Russian Language Day, choosing this year to honor Aleksandr Pushkin, the literary giant who shaped modern Russian. Yet, Pushkin’s linguistic journey is filled with irony and legend—some true, some perhaps embellished over time. Truth: Pushkin’s First Language Was French Pushkin was born into Russian aristocracy, where French was the language of the educated elite. He spoke French before Russian, a fact that adds poetic irony to his role as the father of modern Russian literature. Despite his fluency in French, Pushkin’s deep engagement with Russian folklore and his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, nurtured his love for the Russian language. Eventually, he pioneered a writing style that blended classical and vernacular Russian, making literature more accessible to the people. Legend: Pushkin Mistakenly Used Feminine Verb Endings A persistent legend among some linguists (and students at the University of Moscow/MGU when I was a student there eons ago, it now se...

  After a party in Tashkent, I found myself riding home in a car with five people. Among us, we knew eleven languages—but not one that united us all. I spoke Russian, French, and English. Another knew Turkish and Uzbek. A third had Finnish (not helpful) and Russian. A fourth spoke French and Uzbek. The fifth, Uzbek and English. Any two of us could communicate, but all five of us could not. So, we bantered in a joyful melee—five people translating for each other as topics shifted and languages rotated. More absurdly, non-linguists—or at least non-language learners—often don’t understand how languages work, and absurdities arise. Once, I traveled from Prague beside a woman who spoke only Czech. I helped her fill out her landing paperwork but worried she’d struggle at passport control. I asked an airport employee if I could assist. “No,” he said. “She’s a visitor, you’re a resident—separate lines.” Then, he reassured me: “Don’t worry. All the passport agents speak Spanish.” What? ...