Promenades: à travers le monde francophone by Cherie Mitschke, Cheryl Tano (review)

la consultation d’Honni soit qui mal y pense: l’incroyable histoire d’amour entre le français et l’anglais d’Henriette Walter permettrait de pallier le défaut de ce manuel, par ailleurs, attrayant et original. Kutztown University (PA) S. Pascale Dewey MITSCHKE, CHERIE, and CHERYL TANO. Promenades: à travers le monde francophone. Boston: Vista, 2010. ISBN 978-1-60007-927-6. Pp. 488. $186. One of the strengths of this program is that it was fashioned from theorybased second language acquisition research. Instructors whose classes are characterized by abundant comprehensible input of known language, incremental input of small amounts of unknown language (Krashen’s i+1), and maximum language production will find an abundance of ready-made materials designed to input, increase, review, and recycle language. Significant input is provided by the included roman-photo video whose stills are reproduced in the text with abbreviated versions of the dialog. The video is closely connected to the lexical, cultural, thematic , and grammatical contexts of each lesson, which enables it to be used flexibly as advance orientation to a lesson, during a lesson, or as a recap. Speaking and communication practice is facilitated via activities keyed to listening sections on the program’s supersite. Practice exercises are structure-based, while communication activities are designed to be done in dyads or small groups. Most are driven by visual input: clip art, photos, tables, ads, etc. A particular strength is the layout of these activities, which facilitates their coordination with the sentence structures they illustrate. They occupy the two center columns across the gutter of a self-contained, four-column, two-page spread. The exterior two columns contain the structure presentation replete with examples and selected stills from the video, thus ensuring that there is no need to page beyond the current spread of the open book. This is a truly innovative and useful design. Visual content aids the presentation of new vocabulary at the beginning of each lesson. Vocabulary is then reinforced by a targeted practice exercise in a sidebar followed by communication activities. Throughout the program, exercises and activities progress from focused to open-ended. French is used for contextual directions in the exercises beginning with lesson seven of the 26-lesson book. There is a recap of vocabulary in list form at the end of each lesson. Students are exposed to cultural content in several ways. First, a lecture culturelle is connected to the lexical theme of the lesson. Second, panorama at the end of each unit, not keyed to the theme of any lesson but organized according to the geography of the Francophone world, brings art, history, and customs to life. The incroyable mais vrai! informational box in this section is a welcome motivational strategy. Lastly, the flash culture video is coordinated with one lesson from each unit in original footage that brings into the classroom the sights and sounds of the Francophone world and its speakers. All cultural components are supported by sur Internet activities that refer students to the program ’s supersite where all multimedia content of the program is contained and which students access by using the supplied passcode. Synthèse provides a cumulative review of each lesson with engaging communication activities, most of the information gap variety. Finally, le zapping features commercials and short films, and écriture helps students learn writing skills by progressing from list making to (ambitiously) composing a persuasive article. The program is complemented by a 1016 FRENCH REVIEW 86.5 workbook/video manual which provides additional written practice exercises, mostly of the single-word, fill-in-the-blank type. Instructors who use the roman-photo and flash culture videos extensively will find the video section of the manual indispensable for pre-, during, and post- viewing comprehension checks. One important feature of the program is that it adheres to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. In fact, the instructor’s edition contains icons indicating where each of the five standards is applied. Students will be sure to appreciate the multiple opportunities for meaningful language production and instructors will be happy to find more innovative and engaging material than they could possibly use. La Salle University (PA) Leonard Marsh Film edited by Michèle...