Au boulot: savoir lire, écrire, compter en français pour travailler—Livre 1 par Valérie Vermurie (review)

In Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) pedagogy, literacy teaching is often overlooked. Au boulot 1 is a "cahier d'activités" created in part for migrant adults who need to develop not only the usual four skills in language learning, but also basic writing and reading skills in order to find a job in France. The book is visually pleasant, colorful, and with a large font showing the three scripts learners need to master: uppercase, lowercase, and cursive. Unlike most LSP textbooks, Au boulot 1 is not divided in chapters built around a common theme, even though all the objectives of the exercises and tasks are centered around social and professional life. The first 30 pages are devoted to five introductory themes of varying lengths: read and write the alphabet and fill in forms with a personal profile; find and learn vocabulary related to some jobs; write and read addresses on envelopes; and compose messages in professional situations. The rest of the book is dedicated to the study of 30 graphemes, with activities based on the communicative and action-oriented approaches. Each grapheme includes reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities. Additional exercises are available online and a second book is planned for more graphemes. The purpose of the book, inasmuch as it aims at developing literacy skills for migrant adults, is worthwhile. However, in the introduction, the author includes two more profiles as the book's target audience: the usual French as a Foreign Language learners at the A1/A2 level here, and native French speakers with literacy difficulties. The range of learners explains the somewhat unusual format of the book and represents its major weakness. For a regular A1/A2 French as a Foreign Language target audience, the book may serve as a supplement for vocabulary exercises to a more general textbook, since intercultural competence, an afterthought in the introduction, is left to the discretion of the teacher. This is potentially problematic for such learners, as they are not necessarily in France. Moreover, most of the vocabulary dealing with the workplace, except for the list of jobs, is not required at the A1/A2 level for exams like the DELF, which such learners may be interested in taking. For a native audience with literacy difficulties, the reading and writing activities on the professional world are relevant, but the speaking and listening ones are less useful, since the vocabulary would be known. This book seems most relevant for the near-illiterate migrant learners described in the introduction as the first target audience.