En bonne forme by Simone Renaud, Dominique van Hooff

Abstract

succès) are generally entertaining and informative, although interference from background street noise will challenge comprehension for many students. Most students will find some segments too difficult to follow. Chapter 1 contains a list of fifteen questions based on a film trailer for L’auberge espagnole, in which very few of the questions actually correspond to any of the scenes shown in the clip. In chapter 2 a ninety-second film trailer for Ressources humaines does not correspond to the questions, which appear to be based on a twelve-minute scene from the movie. Chapter 6 contains a video activity for which no video could be found. Although many of the links included in the book’s Web site are useful resources for further research, a few are inactive, one links to Amazon.fr, another to Yahoo! France, and one takes students to a Web site that charges a fee to provide model letters. As the title indicates, one of the primary objectives of this book is to prepare students to find a job in the French-speaking business world. While some instructors may embrace this objective, others may find it overly limited and pragmatic, preferring a more comprehensive and in-depth overview of the French financial system including banking, the stock market, insurance, international trade, etc. and will thus feel more comfortable with another text. At least the number of viable textbooks for business French has now been increased, providing a wider range of choice. University of North Carolina, Greensboro David A. Fein RENAUD, SIMONE, and DOMINIQUE VAN HOOFF. En bonne forme 8th ed. Somerset, NJ: Wiley, 2007. ISBN 978-0-618-65644-8. Pp. 544. $122.95. This fully integrated intermediate French program is designed for students who have completed two to three years of French at the secondary level or an introductory French course at the post-secondary level. “Based on the conviction that a solid knowledge of French grammar is essential for solid acquisition of the language,” (back cover) En bonne forme, which is comprised of 22 chapters, opens with a Chapitre Préliminaire written in English that provides a review of introductory-level material and introduces French grammatical terminology used in the book. The rest of the chapters, written entirely in French to encourage greater acquisition of the target language, introduce grammar topics with thematic connotations by way of excerpts from contemporary French and Francophone literature representing a spectrum of authors from France, Canada, West and North Africa, and the Caribbean. Each chapter has the following structure: Vocabulaire, Français en Couleurs (introduces colloquial French pertinent to the chapter theme with an illustration, a cartoon, or a map related to the topic), Lecture, Grammaire, Suppléments de Grammaire (presents idiomatic expressions that appear in the readings or are related to the grammar topic), and Synthèse (contains contextualized and communicative activities and topics for written composition, reinforcing the use of the grammatical structures presented in the chapter through: applications, activités, and rédactions). Cross-references appear throughout the book to enable students to view the interrelationships between different grammatical structures. While a comprehensive French-English dictionary at the end of the book is useful , it would have been even more helpful to also include the English-French version of it, especially since the program is designed for a range of intermediate-level students whose language proficiency is still developing and would be reinforced by 416 FRENCH REVIEW 85.2 consistent and meaningful first language (English) support. In addition to the text, the program also includes resources for instructors, such as a Class Prep CD and companion Web site, and for students, such as an Activities Manual with audio and companion Web site. The Activities Manual expands upon the knowledge acquired in each chapter, helping students to become more fluent and more confident by providing opportunities for hearing, speaking, and writing in French. After reviewing the text and accompanying materials, I find them to be developmentally and language proficiency level appropriate for college/university French language learners at the levels ranging from Intermediate-Low through Intermediate-High, as identified by the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines for Speaking and Writing. I agree with the authors that “with...