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Interactions, dialogues, conversations: l’oral en français langue étrangère par Elisa Ravazzolo, et al. (review)
- The French Review
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 91, Number 2, December 2017
- pp. 283-284
- 10.1353/tfr.2017.0071
- Review
- Additional Information
Reviews 283 comprehension), a lexical index, and a web version of the book. The answer key is available as a separate publication (ISBN 978-2-09-038115-9). Fulbright Specialist (NY) Eileen M. Angelini Ravazzolo, Elisa, Véronique Traverso, Émilie Jouin, et Gérard Vigner. Interactions, dialogues, conversations: l’oral en français langue étrangère. Vanves: Hachette, 2015. ISBN 978-2-01-401601-7. Pp. 224. Balancing theory of discursive practice, conversational analysis, and interactional linguistics with short reflections on actual usage within the teaching of oral Français langue étrangère, this volume defines its intended audience as present and future teachers and all those who“s’intéressent au français langue étrangère”(8). Some of the intended audience (and readers of this journal) may be less drawn by the authors’ efforts at “éclairage et non application” (8), as they seek concrete practical tools and applications adaptable to their own classrooms. Others will be rightfully intrigued by the efforts to separate the often unbreakable pairing of the written with the oral, as well as the deepening of oral practices far beyond standard student- or instructor-generated dialogues. In fact, this work’s strengths are simultaneously its weaknesses. Emphasizing a linguistic analysis of the various aspects of oral exchange—nicely summarized in the Annex (219)—the authors consider the construction of meaning through prosody, gestures, posture and other expressions, participants in the oral exchanges, the settings, duration, goals, and organization of such exchanges as well as the many forms they might take. They include numerous transcriptions of dialogues that can appear dated (negotiations using Francs appear in more than one chapter), and the short sections on dialogues in bandes dessinées focus on the mimetic-gestual dimension and paraverbal aspects, which, while interesting, do not serve the budding teacher eager to use multiple forms of text and media in his or her classroom. The compelling sixth chapter focuses on the situational variations that interactions can occupy, however. This wellconstructed chapter helps the instructor focus on and increase student sensitivity to types of interactions in relation to context. The suggested activities drawn from J. Courtillon’s work (145) and that of co-author Vigner are particularly helpful. Other chapters fall short. Given the timely nature of the satiric sketch or use of contemporary film clips in a conversation class, for instance, this reader would have preferred more recent examples, as opposed to that from 2003 (191) or another from 1997 (193). The “application” sections maintain a theoretical approach. For instance, the first recommends that one use “les supports disponibles,” such as the “image imprimée sur le manuel, voire support vidéo” in order to “exploiter de façon plus délibérée les indices situationnels”(52), without providing them. Further discussion focuses on analyzing the elements that are characteristic of each exchange. In sum, while the volume will prove useful to many, especially those interested in theoretical approaches to interactive dialogue, others might prefer a different balance emphasizing more engaging application accompanied by some of the aforementioned invaluable “support vidéo” along with supplementary materials on an accompanying CD-Rom. Augusta University (GA) E. Nicole Meyer Traverso, Véronique. Décrire le français parlé en interaction. Paris: Ophrys, 2016. ISBN 978-2-7080-1460-2. Pp. 195. Décrire le français parlé en interaction (FPI) is a concise and affordable introduction to the characteristics of spoken French in interactions, which is accessible to students of French as a second language and their instructors, regardless of their level of knowledge of the field of linguistics. This text responds to a lack of resources for the linguistic study of French, given the limited number of works that consider the language from a holistic, conversation analysis perspective. In following with this mission of accessibility and its primary focus on conversation analysis, rather than on phonetics and phonology, FPI uses a unique set of transcription conventions that are presented before the book’s introduction, as opposed to using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Though this may be perceived as a disadvantage to those wishing to adopt the text for a general course in French linguistics, any loss of...