Paroles [With CD]

The activities in this book are varied and serve to reinforce and improve basic French skills, I would not recommend this book unless you had some prior knowledge of French, any will do really. It also has grammar sections in each chapter and has nice vocabulary and culture sections. However, there are areas that aren't fully explained and if your teacher/professor is a French native then they should quickly be able to point out the books cultural mistakes and explain the little details (but very important) that the book leaves out. A willing student and a good teacher can really make this book work.

I was very favorably impressed with the organization and variety of this book, as well as the fact that it accommodates the different styles of learning among students. French is my sixth language (counting English).This text follows several parallel learning approaches. In each chapter, there is a section emphasizing conversation, there are notes directing the student to "discover" grammatical themes and irregularities, the usual snippets of history and culture, comments on usage, a brief vocabulary, an English discussion of the language lesson (like a plain-language discussion of what's going on from one English speaker to another). Each chapter closes with a condensed technical grammar for later reference and review.Besides the diversity of learning approaches it supports, I especially like the fact that this book includes reading that is an uncomfortable stretch. These excerpts require deduction of the message from context. I'm sure students will complain loudly about the "unfairness" of having to guess the meaning of words that aren't formally defined anywhere, but face it -- intelligent guessing is the skill most required by someone who tries to use a language in real life. Why shouldn't it be taught?As I say, I'm a bit of a language nut, and have several shelves of texts in various languages (Russian, German, Latin, Attic Greek). This is one of very few that actually teaches the skills needed for ordinary conversation, listening to the radio, and reading Le Monde.

I have taken many language classes, and they usually go something like this: teacher pulls out a puppet, the puppet says a few words, the students repeat them, and then at home we fill in a wroksheet for 10 minutes adn go back to whatever else we were doing, no more knowledgeable then before. This book is very refreshing- it is challenging but expalins the grammar step by step and directly so the students don't miss anything and can really understand. Also, the grammar pages make it easy to pre-read and review. The culture lessons make learning more exciting and make us use the French- which was my point for taking the class. To be able to use it in real situations! With this book I can learn French at a college level, the same way I learn math or econ or anything else. French doesn't have to be slow, easy and filled with puppet shows that leave you confused. I learned so much using Paroles (more than I did with HS Spanish) and I'm really glad that my university uses it. Merci!