MSI Press Blog

  Last Tuesday's (and a few earlier ones have focused on using islands for improving foreign language reading (and writing) very quickly. Here is a set of slides thar can be used by teachers for developing learners' skill in using islands, but they have been primarily used with teachers.  USING ISLAND S (Scroll to the bottom of the page to reach the slides. If you like, there are videos and more there also that include the topic of islands, as well as other tools for language improvement. See more posts about  language learning . See more  Tuesday tips . To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount, use code FF25 at  MSI Press webstore . Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to buy for it? (1) Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it. (2) Ask us for a review copy; we love to have our books reviewed. VISIT OUR  WEBSITE  TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES. Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter (recent rele...

  If you've ever found yourself struggling mid-conversation in another language, desperately searching for words, translating in your head, and praying for a merciful topic change… you’re not alone. We've all been there. But today’s tip might just change the way you approach language learning — and save your dignity at the next international gathering. Let’s talk about language islands . What Are Language Islands? Back in the mid-1980s, Boris Shekhtman, a brilliant and wildly successful instructor at the Foreign Service Institute (and later the Specialized Language Training Center), coined the term “language islands.” His students — diplomats, international journalists, and world travelers — swore by his methods. And no wonder. A language island is a memorized chunk of speech — a little monologue, a practiced story, a polished opinion — that you know so well, you can say it without thinking. No mental translation. No stuttering. No panicked flailing for vocabulary. Just smooth...

Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Memory, Forgetting, and Lapses   Just to reinforce the matter—or in case you are skipping around in this book and did not see the earlier memory discussion; there are three stages to memory: awareness/attention, encoding/storing, and recall/retrieval. In this section, we are focused on what happens after you have learned something and need to use it. When you want to remember, you will need to recall the information you have learned. One of three things he can happen, and we have all experienced all three: we remember it perfectly (yippee—hope that happens always, but it does not), we remember it imperfectly (oh, too typical), or do not remember it all (even if we remember having spent time studying it). Knowing what has happened in each case, brings us to a point of orienting our study and actions for better recall, as well as teaching us not to beat ourselves up when we have a glitch or lapse. Reme...

  From  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Exercise advantages the language learner in a number of ways: ·        releases feel-good endorphins ·        boosts brain activity ·        retention of new skills in memory S Read excerpt on exercise from this book. See more posts on this book . See more posts about language learning.                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  From Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Bodies that are hungry, trying to digest food at the same time that a learner sits down to study, or full of junk food that does nourish the brain do not allow the language learner to process new language information efficiently. See more posts on  this book . See more posts about   language learning.                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Affective Dissonance: Taming Emotions That Get in the Way of Learning Affective dissonances parallel cognitive distortions. Just as cognitive distortions create chaos in your studying because of wrong thinking, affective dissonance can tear down your confidence in language learning so that your performance becomes less than it could possibly be, because of wrong feeling. Affective dissonance refers to when you respond emotionally and either incorrectly or inappropriately to language learning situations. Maybe you are using reasoning that is emotional in nature. Maybe you are talking to yourself in negative ways. Perhaps you are not giving yourself enough credit, mislabeling yourself, or feeling high levels of anxiety. You can train yourself to put aside debilitating emotions. See more posts about/from  this book . See more posts about  language learning . See more  Tuesday tips . ...