MSI Press Blog

    The Call for Papers for Volume 9 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies has been recently updated. Check out the ways in which you can contribute to this 2023-2024 volume: From the website : To submit an article to the next issue, Volume 9, 2023-2024, download the current call for papers:  CALL FOR PAPERS . To submit a review of a book about near-native levels of language learning, please follow the  JDLS Book Review Guidelines_2021 , which reflect the Linguist List guidelines, and submit to the associate editor of the JDLS, Dr. Donna Butler, with a cc to the editor, Dr. Yalun Zhou, or to editor@msipress.com. If you have written or published a book on a topic related to the JDLS and would like to have it reviewed, please contact editor@msipress.com for guidance. Submissions should represent original work. They should not have been previously published elsewhere nor be currently submitted to another journal or collected volume.   ---- We now have available for individual

    CALL FOR PAPERS Journal for Distinguished Language Studies Volume 9, 2023-2024 A refereed journal Overview The Journal for Distinguished Language Studies (JDLS), founded by the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers under the direction of Dr. Betty Lou Leaver and Boris Shekhtman in 2002 is a refereed volume and the only journal to focus exclusively on the highest levels of language achievement, that is, native-like or near-native. This level is labeled Distinguished by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Level 4/Advanced Professional Proficiency by the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), and also Level 4 as part of the Standardized Agreement (STANAG) 6001 of NATO’s Bureau of International Language Co-ordination (BILC). Descriptions can be found at the ACTFL, ILR, and BILC websites. The purpose of this journal is to create a robust international movement to promote and support language learning to the near-native level of profici

      Just out! Volume 8 of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies . Take a look at the Table of Contents. See something you like? Explore more! The JDLS is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online sellers, the MSI Press webstore -- and, in some (we hope, many) cases your local academic library. (If you want it at your local public library -- just ask the librarian to order it, or better, subscribe to it.) Table of Contents   EDITORS’ NOTE       1   FRIEND OF DISTINGUISHED LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AWARD              3   PERSONAL EXPERIENCE      7   How I Attained “Near-Native” Proficiency in Chinese (Cornelius C. Kubler)     9   FEATURE ARTICLES          21   Beyond the Language: Debating as High-Intensity Cultural Engagement &  Leadership (Emilie Cleret)          23   Helping Learners Achieve the Distinguished Level of Proficiency  (James E. Bernhardt)        37   Roadmaps to Distinguished Speaking Proficiency (Jack Franke)       53   On the Cusp: Zone of Proxim

  Today's story behind the book tells the tale behind a 4-volume series of books: Teaching and Learning to Near-Native Levels of Language Proficiency ,  edited by: Volume 1. Betty Lou Leaver & Boris Shekhtman Volume 2. Richard Robin & Inna Dubinsky Volume 3. Inna Dubinsky & Donna Bain Butler Volume 4. Donna Bain Butler & Yalun Zhoua   From the publisher --  In the early years of the Coalition of Distinguished Language Centers , little was known about how to achieve near-native levels of foreign language proficiency. In fact, that was the reason the CDLC was founded -- to research and promulgate ways to help learners achieve these very high levels of proficiency. The CDLC began with annual conferences, which attained a certain level of popularity. Word of mouth was working; grants were acquired; information was coming. But it was not being codified. A decision was made to look into publishing some of the work of the CDLC, which is actually how MSI Press LLC was esta