Newbury House TOEFL Preparation Kit: Preparing for the TOEFL by Daniel B, Kennedy, Dorry Mann Kenyon, and Steven J. Matthiesen and Newbury House TOEFL Preparation Kit: Preparing for the Test of Written English by Liz Hamp-Lyons

Abstract

Issues in Applied Linguistics Vol.1 No. 2 Newbury House TOEFL Preparation Kit: Preparing for the TOEFL by Daniel B. Kennedy, Dorry Mann Kenyon, and Steven J. Matthiesen. New York: Newbury House, 1989. 262 pp. Newbury House TOEFL Preparation Newbury House, Preparing for the Test of Written English by Liz Hamp-Lyons. New York: Kit: 134 pp. Reviewed by Sara T. Gushing University of California, Los Angeles Recent research on the Educational Testing Service's Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) suggests that, while the TOEFL is a valid test of language proficiency, it tests only a limited range of communication skills and ignores many skills required by students in American university settings (Duran et al., 1985). There is also no clear evidence of any relationship between high TOEFL scores and academic achievement (Graham, 1987). Such findings raise questions about the appropriacy of using TOEFL preparation books in courses for university-bound ESL students, especially given the current orientation in academic-purpose language teaching to promote communicative competence rather than the sort of discrete language knowledge which is tested in many sections of the TOEFL. Indeed, conscientious teachers may wonder whether they are doing their students a disservice by spending class time on exercises specifically designed to raise TOEFL scores, at the expense of activities which promote the general academic skills needed at the university. At the same time, those language testing researchers concerned with the TOEFL's limitations might ask whether TOEFL preparation books do more harm than good since they perpetuate the status quo rather than encourage improvement of the TOEFL along the lines that some experts have suggested (Savignon, 1986; Larsen- Freeman, 1986) so as to increase its ability to measure communicative skills. The Newbury House TOEFL Preparation Kit is by no means radical in its attitude towards the TOEFL, but it does attempt to provide a partial answer to the first of these dilemmas. While the authors take a pragmatic approach toward the discrete-point sections of the TOEFL, they also emphasize those areas of the TOEFL which