Reexamining Our Approach to Conjunctions and Adverbs in the Beginning French Classroom

Abstract

While the importance of vocabulary for developing speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills is well known, our choice of which vocabulary to teach (and when) follows few pedagogically sound principles. This article compares the most frequent conjunctions and adverbs in French with those featured on vocabulary lists in six popular beginning-level college textbooks in the United States. It demonstrates that textbooks neglect to provide explicit coverage and practice of these crucial building blocks for organized speech and writing, and provides suggestions for ways to include them much earlier, paving the way for greater use as proficiency increases.