Grammaire française by Jacqueline Ollivier, Martin Beaudoin (review)

Reviews 235 by the “portfolio” described above; third some “Repères professionnels” (for instance “comment bien rédiger une note d’information ou de service”); and finally “Repères (inter)culturels,”to increase students’awareness of different cultural practices. Having attended business dinners in French-speaking areas and watched American business professionals unknowingly insult their hosts, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share these sections with our students. An appendix includes the valuable ten-page “memento des actes de parole” summarizing valuable expressions for a large variety of situations including written correspondence. The Cahier d’activités, including an accompanying audio CD, provides many diverse exercises which solidify acquisition of comprehension, communication, grammar and even phonetics. Students can selfcorrect their exercises and check their comprehension by comparing the transcriptions with their notes. In short, this new edition provides an inviting, clearly presented, uniquely varied and useful text which will permit students to acquire professional, cultural and linguistic skills that will help them succeed in authentic French-speaking professional contexts. Augusta University (GA) E. Nicole Meyer Ollivier, Jacqueline, and Martin Beaudoin. Grammaire française. 6e éd. Toronto: Nelson, 2016. ISBN 0-1765-7003-9. Pp. 454. This book is both an excellent textbook for a grammar course and a must-have reference for any instructor of French. As a textbook, it would be particularly useful in the third or fourth year of study. While the authors provide a range of activities, thoughtfully designated as A, B, or C level activities, the explanations and concepts are perhaps too sophisticated for beginning students. It is a thorough review of the grammar which any student or scholar might need. The authors divided the grammatical concepts into four parts, “Le groupe nominal,” “Les invariables et les mots indéfinis,”“Le groupe verbal,” and “Les transformations syntaxiques.” This organizational system is useful for both teaching and as a quick reference guide. It allows instructors to move from concrete to more abstract concepts, beginning with naming and describing people, things, and ideas; then joining ideas, describing actions, and then changing from description to inquisition and negation. The variety of activities is another positive aspect of the text. There are the abovementioned A, B, and C level activities, which is practical for adapting the book to different courses, but also valuable for classes where the learners are at different levels of proficiency. Instructors can assign the A-level activities for those students challenged by a particular concept, even in an advanced class. Beyond the level-specific activities, the authors provide activities suitable for partner work, group work, and written work, all explicitly labeled. Each chapter begins with literary excerpts as“Les activités de brise-glace,”introducing its themes. This functions as both a communicative, real-world task of reading a short passage, and as a means to introduce more reading or culture to the course. It is crucial to keep the reason for mastering grammar in mind: successful communication in French, both oral and written, both productive and receptive. “Les activités de brise-glace” allow students to interact with excerpts from literature in French while concentrating on the grammar. In summary, this text is well organized, thorough, and of use to learners, instructors, and scholars of French at all levels. It is an appropriate text for advanced grammar studies or as a reference text for other courses or to simply be on the shelf for anyone using the French language. Purdue University (IN) Jessica L. Sturm Oukada, Larbi, Didier Bertrand, and Janet L. Solberg. Controverses. 3rd ed. Boston: Cengage, 2016. ISBN 978-1-305-39098-0. Pp. 293. This intermediate-level text can be summarized as offering relevant, compelling, and contextualized content built on a pedagogically sound, communicative framework that is aligned with the National Standards. Controverses provides a foundation for improving written and oral expression as well as for an introduction into contemporary cultural debates. The text’s approach offers opportunities for self-expression, exploration of French cultural perspectives, consideration of the structure of the French language, as well as for extension of the material to other disciplines.Although the text could be adapted to other contexts,its content is most appropriate for universitylevel and...