The French Review, October 2008, Volume 82, No. 1
Course Materials and Methodology, edited by Carolyn Gascoigne
Reviewer: Andrzej Dziedzic, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Program: MITSCHKE, CHERIE. Imaginez: le français sans frontiers (2008) Vista Higher Learning, Boston, MA, ISBN 1-60007-176-7, 501 pp, Text with Supersite Code $69.00

This intermediate French text builds on the skills acquired in the elementary text, Espaces. Both books are very comprehensive, with cultural information and biographies of singers and artists from the Francophone world and both have features especially appealing to the visually-oriented college student: a magazine-style layout and the inclusion of many photos and short films or video clips.

An activities manual, a lab audio program in MP3 files, and a film collection on DVD are available for students. Instructors have a CD-ROM containing answer keys and a testing program. Additionally, a Supersite has most of the above ancillaries. Currently the entire second lesson—an excellent preview of the entire book for interested educators—can be accessed here. Both instructors and students should spend some time with the helpful seventeen-page orientation at the beginning of the book, which is important given the variety of features and activities and the need for selectivity in classroom use.

The proficiency-based program emphasizes the ACTFL-formulated Standards for Language Learning (Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities) and each lesson has 14 to 16 activities (indicated by icons) related to these standards. The annotated teacher’s edition is extremely well executed: answers for all exercises and quizzes are overprinted in small blue font. Additionally, synonyms, comments on vocabulary, suggested questions for further discussion or expansion of grammar, activities for groups or pairs, additional grammar examples, and cultural contexts are found in the margins.

Each of the ten lessons follows the same pattern: sommaire; pour commencer (vocabulary and communicative activities); court métrage (an authentic film, 4 ½ to 34 minutes long, with pre and post viewing activities); imaginez (a two-page geographically-focused reading, a page on a musician and lyrics, and a quiz); Galérie de Créateurs (artists, poets, chefs, and so forth from the targeted country or region); structures (three grammar points, each one reinforced by two pages of exercises); synthèse (review of all three grammar points with pair and group activities); culture and literature (a short story or poem) bracketed by Préparation and Analyse and culminating in a composition. The last page of each lesson contains another vocabulary list.

A unique feature is Fiches de grammaire, supplementary grammar coverage preceding the appendices, with two pages of grammar points from each lesson and additional mise en pratique for enrichment and further practice. Appendices include film transcripts, tables de conjugaison, and vocabulary. The geographical range is highly inclusive: Québec, l’Afrique de l’Ouest, l’Afrique du Nord et le Liban, La Belgique, la Suisse, le Luxembourg, l’Océan Indien, l’Afrique Centrale, la Polynésie Française, and les Antilles. The geographic components and vocabulary are well integrated into all the readings, the exercises, and the grammar examples.

The order for receiving grammar is sometimes unconventional. The parlitif, comparative and superlative, irregular oir verbs, and prepositions with geographical names, introduced early in most books, are found more than half way through this text. Given the average length of chapters (35 pages) and the amount of material in each chapter, including an extensive vocabulary list (from 106 to 117 items), the suggestions under course planning are not always helpful and the distribution of chapters for two or three semesters is the only information given. Although the vocabulary includes numerous cognates and already-familiar words, and although the author differentiates between active and recognition-only vocabulary, the sheer number of items might discourage some students.

All in all, the book is recommended for its sweeping range of activities, readings, culture, and exercises with a caveat: careful planning is important given the unlikelihood of covering all of the material and the necessity of choosing carefully what should be covered in class and what should be assigned for out-of class work.