When I tell people (fellow professors, students, publishers, book sellers, rock stars) I am writing a complete TOEFL iBT text, they all say: "Great. How is it different?"
Let me explain.
Put all the TOEFL iBT texts on a table—Kaplan, Barrons, Longman, Delta, Cambridge, Princeton, Thompson, ETS's Official Guide—and open them up. What do you see? They all teach to the test. That means their teaching methods (pedagogies) follow the structure of TOEFL iBT. Because reading is the first test section, these texts all teach reading strategies first. Next, they teach listening strategies then speaking with writing strategies last. In other words, the structure of the TOEFL iBT dictates their pedagogy. Not my new text. The structure of the TOEFL iBT does not control my pedagogy. I control my pedagogy. And my pedagogy breaks the cookie-cutter mold.
What is my pedagogy? And how is it different? Simple. My new TOEFL text does not teach to the test. It teaches to the test-taker. That means you, the test-taker, are my first concern. What is your first concern? Getting the highest TOEFL iBT score possible. My job is to help you reach that goal by showing you the steps. What is the first step? Learning how to write American-style, fact-based and opinion-based arguments. Why? Because classroom experience proves that test-takers: 1) can't write/or are not familiar with American-style essays, and; 2) don't realize that the TOEFL iBT is all arguments. That's right: all arguments. How does all this affect scoring? If you don't understand basic argument development, you will not get a high score. It's that simple.
The fastest way to learn argument development is by learning how to write essays. What is an essay? An essay is an argument. Because all test-takers need to learn how to write essays first, my new text starts with the writing section. Test-takers then recycle (another unique feature of my text) the argument strategies learned in the writing section to the speaking and listening sections with the reading section last. In other words, I have reversed the test section order (I did this with Speaking and Writing Strategies).
Instead of teaching reading, listening, speaking, writing (like all other TOEFL texts), my new text teaches writing, speaking, listening, reading. Why teach reading last? Because the first three sections (writing, speaking, listening) will give you all the strategies (and confidence) you need to conquer what for many is the hardest section: reading.
Why do all those other texts start with the reading section? Because they all teach to the test. Because they teach to the test, each test section is taught separately with no rhetorical (or scoring!) connection between each. It's like saying, "Okay, this is the pineapple section (reading), the orange section (listening), the banana section (speaking), and the mango section (reading)." What they don't teach you is that the TOEFL iBT is all fruit! Not my new text. I teach you that the TOEFL iBT is all recycled fruit (recycled arguments). And to get the highest possible score, you must first learn argument development. That begins with the writing section.
That is one way my new TOEFL iBT text is a new approach to preparing for the TOEFL iBT.
Update: The strategies in my new text, as in all my TOEFL texts, are real-world TOEFL strategies tested and developed in American university TOEFL classrooms and test-proven for over five years on the official TOEFL iBT. That means the strategies you use I use every day in a real TOEFL classroom at a real American university. In other words, buy my books and enter my TOEFL classroom.
Update: As of this writing, I am on page 655 of my new TOEFL text. Publication date: March 2011.
The Pro
