MSI Press Blog

  Today's blog post is the next in the series of book back stories and is the story behind Content-Based Instruction in Foreign Language Education by Stephen Stryker and Betty Lou Leaver. This book is an affiliated (recommended) book by MSI Press and can be purchased through Georgetown University Press or Amazon. From a co-editor: This book was quite a few years in the making. First, CBI was a rare course design back in the 1980s, when Steve brought it into the Spanish classes at the Foreign Service Institute and Betty Lou introduced it into the Russian program there. Rather than write a book about CBI, we wanted to amplify the theory with practical examples of successful CBI in language classes. We never thought it would take from 1989 until 1997 for enough teachers to adopt CBI in their classrooms to have enough examples (roughly a dozen) to comprise a book, but it did.  During the eight years we worked on the book, we sought a publisher. It would be a first-time book for both e

  The story behind Dia de Muertos is pretty simpe, really. Sula, the parish cat at Old Mission San Juan Bautist a, already had published five books about the Mission and about Catholic customs and beliefs, all of them in English. The parish, however, was pretty equally divided between English speakers and Spanish speakers with two Masses each Sunday in each language and holiday and holy day Masses bilingual. (The community of San Juan Bautista is a pretty evenly divided bilingual community, as well.) Sula, the parish cat, was present at all Masses. She was beloved by all parishioners. The "Sula books" were written to help raise funds for a very expensive retrofit requirement. (The church sits atop the intersection of three major fault lines and has twice fallen from earthquakes high on the Richter scale). Although most Spanish speakers in the parish could understand English, they felt left out of the Sula project. They wanted a book that spoke to their community in their lan

This Sunday, we begin a new Sunday feature: the story behind our books. We will take these one at a time, on Sundays. So, if you like knowing the unknown and little known, come on by on Sundays. This Sunday the book chosen to kick off our series is Task-Based Instruction by Leaver and Willis. This book was published by Georgetown University Press and appears among the affiliated books of MSI Press by virtue of having been co-authored by an MSI Press author (me - Leaver). At the time of the writing of this book, much was available about task-based instruction (TBI) in the English as a Second Language (ESL) field, of which the greatest amount appeared to have been written by Jane Willis of the UK, often together with her husband. For Foreign Language Education/Second Language Acquisition (L2), however, only a small generically oriented spiral-bound sample of essentially one task was available, written by Michael Long, then at the University of Hawaii.  In consulting and in administerin

Today's story Literary Titan Book Awards Gold Award Today's story behind the book tells the tale behind   Surviving Cancer, Healing People  by Sula.  From the author --  The book content started from a story that I (Elizabeth Mahlou, amanuensis for Sula, wrote for a Christmas issue of the well-known mag, Guideposts . That story became a local favorite. At the same time, the Mission was under state scrutiny for safety and needed retrofitting that cost much, more than was in Mission coffers. It seemed that a Sula story might bring some attention -- and financial support -- to the Mission (and it has). Told from the viewpoint and in the voice of Sula, the book shared the story of Sula and her struggle with cancer (a slightly different topic from the Guideposts story, but typical in the same spiritually supportive-to-readers way). Sula went on to "write" five more books, one in Spanish (about the Day of the Dead), chronicling her life along with the life of the Church. S

  Back Story of 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas From the author: The Story Behind the Book: How Self-Care Helped Me Achieve My Dream of Writing My First Book Julie M. Gentile It started between an inhale and an exhale on my yoga mat. My idea to write a book for other busy moms like me trying to live well was planted in the pause between both parts of the breath. I had just had my second child and had become more aware of the options busy moms had to manage their full plates. One word about being a busy mom immediately came to mind: Overwhelmed. I knew I couldn’t manage my own busy life without self-care by my side. Since becoming a yoga teacher in 2011, I was already practicing a variety of nourishing practices to feed my mind, body and soul: getting quality sleep, staying hydrated, practicing yoga, meditating, exercising, journaling, eating more plant-based foods and reading uplifting content. These practices helped me pause enough to get glimpses of how I co