Interpreting My Score

There are three major publishers who make the books and blended learning materials that teachers and students use these days: Cambridge, Oxford, and Pearson. Each one of them offers a multitude of different tests. They have a Catch 22 to deal with in sales and marketing. There is already a standard that must be followed. It pretty much dictates that you have to use the Communicative Method of teaching English (CLT), and you have to measure progress and results using the Common European Framework (CEFR) as your yardstick. If you do not do this, you are out of compliance, illegitimate, and unqualified to offer an opinion or issue certificates and diplomas. In short, you are not real. That's a problem when you are in the sales or marketing department of a University Press, or large publishing house like Pearson. If that was what they based their sales pitch on it would sound like this: "we all follow the rules, which means we are all really the same. That's just never going to fly in a serious sales and marketing organization. If you are a pro in this world (and these guys are), you have to have a (DVP) Differentiating value Proposition: That's sales speak for "my product is better than yours, and here's why." If you have any interest in exploring this idea more, check out this Forbes article. You'll get the idea. The grandaddy of all DVP's is Perrier's. When I was a teenager, people would think you were crazy to pay for water. But along came Perrier, and somehow they convinced people that drinking water that came in a green bottle was about as cool as owning an iPhone today. We have been paying for water ever since.

These Marketing guys at the textbook publishers have a tough job; and here's the catch 22. They have to create a line of products that respect rigid guidelines and standards, and almost prohibit any kind of innovation or creativity to please the people at the CEFR, and they have to (at the same time) convince you and me that they have discovered the cure for cancer. Hence, product names like "Rosetta Stone".

What does this monster look like? It's pretty ugly!! But I am going to show you anyway.

Keep in mind that no matter what course or book, or institute you choose, there is an 85% chance you will never make it past the B1 level. The other 15% are the ones who integrate English into their daily lives and turn it from an academic pursuit into a lifestyle choice. So,in short, if you flip that formula, the publishers and the test makers, as well as the typical institutes only control about 15% of what the ESL community defines as Success/Fluency. The other 85% happens outside the classroom, or not at all.

But you have to succeed and take one of these tests anyway, if you want to get ahead. If that changes, I will be the first to tell you.

In the meantime, these guys are not going to let simplicity get in the way of the DVP or making a buck. Check it out!!!