D’accord 1: langue et culture du monde francophone par José Blanco

Abstract

glosses in the vocabulary section at the end of the chapter and the learning objectives in English at the beginning of the chapter. University of South Dakota Kris Aric Knisely Blanco, José. D’accord 1: langue et culture du monde francophone. Boston:Vista, 2015. ISBN 978-1-61857-866-2. Pp. 352. $105.60. This textbook is attractive, well-organized, and comes with a wide variety of supplemental materials to meet the needs of any classroom. There are eight units although unit 8 is repeated as unit 1 in the level-two text. The units are divided into two parts related to a theme. The “A” and “B” sections each have a Contexte (vocabulary ), Roman-Photo, Culture, Structure, and Synthèse, followed by a single Savoir-Faire section. The vocabulary and concepts are illustrated with a mix of photographs and drawings. One point of confusion for some students is the fact that not all words are in the word list on the side of the page; some are included in text boxes, or as labels in the illustrations. There is a complete list at the end of each unit, but students will need to be directed to find that. The vocabulary lists are on the lengthy side, but teachers can choose to limit the number of words. The culture readings start off in English, and transition to French in chapter 3. This choice seems good as it gives students some information about France right away, and allows them to learn the necessary vocabulary to benefit from a text in French. The roman-photo, a story-board taken from the video program, is entirely in French, but students have the benefit of visuals to understand the plot and characters right away. The textbook has many activities that students can complete either during class time, or as homework. There are practice exercises that require the use of new vocabulary to structures, as well as short-answer questions, listening activities, and speaking prompts. Beyond that, teachers and students have access to the online ‘supersite’. This web-based program allows students to access additional exercises, grammar tutorials, streaming videos and textbook audio files, and even programs to record themselves for submission. In addition, teachers have their own version of the supersite, and a testing program, answer key and activity pack. All of these can be used as presented, or modified to meet the needs of individual classrooms or students.An amazing amount of support materials is offered, especially useful for a new teacher. My student teacher was overwhelmed with the options and variety of activities and resources available and aligned to the themes. Teachers will need to select the materials that work best for their students. All in all, D’accord 1 is well-designed and will appeal to both teachers and students. My freshmen were challenged by it, and there are materials to adapt for use in middle schools that may also be beneficial at the freshman level. Carl Schurz High School (IL) Samantha Godden-Chmielowicz 186 FRENCH REVIEW 89.3 ...