Grammaire Progressive Du Français A2/B1 by Maïa Grégoire (review)

An increasing amount of evidence points to the advantages of content-based foreign language instruction, and this is my favorite textbook to use in the content-based classroom. I realize the choice may not seem intuitive at first. Grammaire progressive du français A2/B1contains no authentic texts, a staple of content-based instruction, and the book's table of contents reads like a catalogue of discrete, disconnected grammar points. But for the same reasons, this textbook should not be disregarded. The stripped-down grammar book provides an excellent scaffolding for a content-based class, which otherwise privileges more implicit approaches to language learning. For example, in Unit Two of an Intermediate French content-based class, to help give students the language necessary to grapple with essential questions on the relationship between one's environment and self, I assigned chapter 52 on expressing logical relationships and the uses of " parce que", " puisque", " à cause de", and " grâce à". All chapters in the Grammaire progressiveseries begin with a concise grammar explanation followed by examples and four to five sets of exercises, from fill-in-the-blanks to exercises requiring spontaneous production. Grammatical explanations and examples are clear, and the exercises use high frequency vocabulary. There are 300 additional exercises in the online component for those who want or need more practice. The clarity of explanations and the use of high-frequency vocabulary ensure that students will not spend undue time and energy negotiating the meaning of the language used in the numerous exercises. The bulk of their efforts may instead be devoted to course content, alongside which Grammaire progressive du français A2/B1should be used. Moreover, as the textbook contains no authentic texts, it is not easily dated, a fate that other language textbooks fall into, despite all good intentions, when they include more current-day material. Because Grammaire progressive du français A2/B1requires supplementation and is not, precisely, a curriculum in itself, its chapters can be studied out of order, which gives quite a lot of flexibility to the teacher. If a certain language form is particularly salient in a given article or video, the chapter addressing this form can be assigned as a complement to the content, no matter where this chapter falls in the textbook's original sequencing. In sum, besides providing copious amounts of user-friendly language practice, what this textbook does best is lend a flexible and explicit grammatical scaffolding to instructional settings that favor more implicit, contextualized, and communicative approaches to language learning, such as the content-based French language classroom.