En avant! Beginning French by Bruce Anderson and Annabelle Dolidon (review)

En avant!continues to offer instructors and students of French a solid, input-based approach to second language learning with an emphasis on authentic contemporary Francophone culture. At first, the 3 ^rdedition appears identical to the 2 ^nd(2016): it is divided into the same 16 chapters, each focusing on a theme or function (family, activities, past narration, etc.). Similarly, each chapter is divided into the same four sections found in the previous edition. An additional fifth section found at the end of the book, "Par la suite," provides information on additional grammatical structures that instructors may wish to cover (the pluperfect, future perfect, etc.). Following the clearly-stated communicative objectives at the beginning of each chapter, learners are exposed to the chapter's content and structures in the "Communication en direct" sections, through video segments, input-based activities, and opportunities for meaningful communicative practice. The "Vocabulaire interactif" and "Grammaire interactive" sections follow a similar progression, again with an emphasis on input and creative output in a target-culture context. In most cases, the content and structure of these sections is the same across editions, although there have been minor changes. In some cases, vocabulary has been added or updated ( téléphone portablechanged to smart-phone; tartelettereplaced with muffin) or moved from "vocabulaire supplémentaire" to the main treatments, although some items ( brocolis, crabe), while still in the glossaries, seem to have disappeared from the book itself. Similarly, some grammatical content has been moved, reduced or combined, as have some of the activities. The biggest changes to the 3 ^rdedition, however, are in the "Culture en direct" sections, which include "Le coin video" (cultural themes via video), "Le coin lecture" (authentic readings), "Le coin chanson" (popular and traditional song), and "Le coin conversation." In addition, every other chapter adds "Le coin beaux-arts," focusing on painting. The "Coin ciné" sections found in every other chapter of the 2 ^ndedition now figure in each chapter of the 3 ^rd(although absent from the table of contents), but have been reduced to a small section in the margins, with optional activities housed on the textbook platform. Users of previous editions will note that some readings (excerpts from Rousseau, Le petit Nicolas, and Le racisme expliqué à ma fille) have been replaced in this edition. Other additions to the 3 ^rdedition include "Sortez vot' portable" sections, in which students can do classroom activities using their smartphones, as well as carefully-structured student presentations ("Présentation multimédia") at the end of every chapter, providing interesting opportunities for presentational speaking. Ultimately, the strength of the En avant!approach lies in its extensive use of carefullystructured input activities and in a thoughtful balance between controlled and creative output activities. This, coupled with a strong and diverse emphasis on Francophone culture, makes the book a thoroughly usable and appealing text for use in elementarylevel French courses.