MSI Press Blog

  excerpt from Individualized Study Plans for Very Advanced Students of Foreign Languages by Betty Lou Leaver Preface Individualized Study Plans (ISPs) have been used in a number of venues for at least two decades, if not more, particularly in US government foreign-language training institutions. Sometimes these instruments have been called ISPs; other times they have been called learning plans. Whatever they have been called, the purpose has generally been the same: to assist students in organizing their short-term and long-term learning goals and activities. (In this volume, examples of ISPs and the concepts associated with them refer, for the most part, to the planning of long-term, even lifelong, foreign-language learning activities). The Foreign Service Institute has long used ISPs for its diplomats and attaches in foreign-language training during the training period itself, which could be considered an intermediate-term type of plan since the amount of time spent in languag

  Factor 1: Childhood Experiences         One somewhat surprising statistic that emerged from the interviews was that all of those learners who had reached level 4 had become acquainted with foreign languages very early in their life. That does not necessarily mean that they began studying those languages. In many cases, languages other than their first language were used in the family or community, and while the language learners themselves may not have picked up any of those languages well enough to speak them, they did gain one very important understanding that stood them in good stead throughout their days of subsequent language study: Languages are not exotica but rather everyday tools for communication. The venues in which multiculturalism was met by the interviewees in this study included home, community, school, and work. Any one of these venues seemed to be sufficient to trigger the concept of “language as a tool” or “language as communication” that created the facility ultim

      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. This study showed that there are multiple paths to native-like foreign language proficiency -- and subsequent studies have confirmed this. Even the same person who is trilingual or quadrilingual takes a different path to acquiring each of those languages. Age of language learning onset, location(s) of language learning, prior language learning experience, influence of teachers and educational approaches, and opportunities (or lack of them) for cross-cultural experience, including when in a professional career those opportunities appear all shape the path followed by an individual for acquisition of a particular language

      Available for download, article from JDLS 8: " Protocol-Based Formative Assessment: Evolution and Revolution at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center" (Andrew R. Corin and Sergey Entis) . Abstract: Protocol-based formative assessment (PBFA) can be a powerful tool for enhancing learning and diagnosing learning challenges. Yet there is an inherent tension between effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of PBFA. This can be addressed through a variety of strategies: “rationing” PBFA to instances of individual learning difficulties; applying PBFA to all students but in fewer instances; or by engineering greater efficiency into the protocol. Regardless of the strategy adopted, it is taken for granted that PBFA should be maximally integrated with instruction-based formative assessment (IBFA) as an integral component of day-to-day classroom instruction. This article articulates the dilemma as it developed at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language

  To the Reader from the Author The book which you, dear reader, have picked up was written approximately twenty years ago. However, the reasons that brought it to the light of day then remain as important today as ever. The first of these reasons is the survival of foreigners who are living entirely surrounded by native speakers of the foreign language. I came to the United States with a decent level of English, but, naturally, I did not feel myself to be on a par with Americans. I am certain that a great many people are suffering and have suffered from this feeling of “linguistic inferiority.” Some people come to accept this feeling. Others try to improve their foreign language. Still others--and I belong to this group--try to find a set of strategies to help them to use the language that they have acquired more effectively. Back then I had already begun to realize the strategic significance of simplifying thoughts in order to be understood; after all, it is better to expr

Released today! An in-depth guide for teachers seeking to understand dysfunctional classrooms and create a mathemagenic experience. A unique resource, based on experience with thousands of language learners. Based on Jungian psychology, using MBTI categories (with a passing reference to equivalents in Socionics), this book presents an explanation behind dysfunctional language classrooms (though much could apply to any K-16 classroom) and provides a heuristic for managing the classroom successfully. For each MBTI type, there is a section posing a teacher of that type and a classroom of randomly gathered types (as in real life). A discussion follows as to the source of any dysfunction, the way to accommodate all learners, an exploration of the probable comfort level of that teacher, and a posed question as to what would be the case if the class were the same but the teacher the polar opposite. Meant for application by teachers and for use in faculty development, it is a book that t

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star The Brain Scape in Language Learning There are some psychological phenomena that exist that are not exactly cognitive distortions but have a similar effect on learning capacity and performance. They might be called cognitive distractions, except that they also have a strong emotional component. Three representative “cognitive distractions” include tolerance of ambiguity, ego boundaries, and mental management. The uniqueness of this trio is that they are continua with strong poles and weak poles. The strong poles—ability to tolerate ambiguity, thin ego boundaries that allow you to approach the native speaker with comfort, and mental management that puts you in charge of your own performance. Tolerance of Ambiguity Do you feel lost if you cannot understand 100% of everything going on around you in your classroom, including every single word you hear? Do you need to know every work in a reading text, broadcast, o

Summary of a review by Luca Lampariello, foreign language learning guru and tutor, of How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately by Boris Shekhtman: In a field where most books deal are colorful, well-produced, and full of information on one specific language, Boris Shekhtman’s  How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately  stands out for being almost the complete opposite—short, unassuming, and devoted to teaching the skills of language, rather than one language in itself. This unusual combination of factors leads to a book that is greater than the sum of its parts; a book that I believe every serious language learner should buy, read, and reread regularly. The book’s communicative tools shine as intuitive guidelines for improving language fluency  right now . With the advice in the book, you have everything you need to communicate your “current” level, navigate difficult conversations with natives, and  speak in a more fluid, natural way . Given the book’s short, compact f