MSI Press Blog

  Precerpt (excerpt prior to publication) from My 20th Language by Betty Lou Leaver, Ph.D. --  Chapter 1 The Incredibly Important Role of University Studies By the time I graduated from Penn State University shortly after my twenty-first birthday, I was definitively fluent in five languages by any reasonable definition of fluency: English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish, listed in order of proficiency at that time (though today Russian would rank right after English). I had completed advanced courses in literature, stylistics, linguistics—including morphology, syntax, and advanced grammar—and composition in all of them. I had also taken teaching methods in Spanish under a professor widely considered the best in foreign language pedagogy. My proficiency extended well beyond basic communication. I could write essays, poetry, and fiction in all five languages, tailoring my language use to specific audiences. I could read virtually anything and grasp cultural implicatio...

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Cognitive Styles A few cognitive styles have bee referred to and defined earlier (or footnoted). There are many kinds and systems of understanding cognition that have been proposed over the past 3-4 decades. The one I use in this book is the E&L Cognitive Style Construct (Ehrman & Leaver, 2002; Leaver, 2019). I have chosen it principally because it encompasses many other systems—the reason it was designed: to simplify the proliferating models floating around academic programs. [1] For this book, it provides an easy overview of styles because the E&L subordinates ten subscales [2] to two overarching categories, which make it easier and simpler to use as a first-step instrument. Cognition refers to the way people process information. After perceiving new information (through one or another sensory preference), a learner must process it, encoding it for memory. The effectiveness of how tha...

We live in a world where understanding emotions is often prized—but  feeling  them is something else entirely. For many of us, especially those trained to analyze, explain, or manage emotions intellectually, there comes a moment when theory isn’t enough. That moment is where  Learning to Feel  begins. This powerful memoir follows one man’s awakening from emotional disconnection. A student of psychology and human behavior, the author found himself oddly detached from his own emotional life. What followed wasn’t a lesson in science—but in  humanness . In peeling back layers of analysis, he found his way toward vulnerability, presence, and healing. What makes  Learning to Feel  more than just a personal story is how openly it invites readers into the process. With chapter-end reflection questions and updated insights in this second edition, the book becomes a space for  shared learning —where your own journey can unfold alongside the author’s. It’s a...