French in Action: A Beginning Course in Language and Culture, Second Edition: Textbook

by Pierre J. Capretz

Book Overview

clean cover with minor wear to cover and text This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300058217
• ISBN13: 9780300058215
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 3.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 8.8" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

Perhaps a little dated, but still the best language system, period!

I won't rehash what many reviewers have already stated, but I feel I must inform anyone striving to improve their French to make the investment in this wonderful program. Hèlas! M. Cafritz is no longer with us, but he left us with a language system that is the closest thing to living in France. Immersion is the key here: immediately, you must pay attention to the language as a whole, just like when you were a kid learning English. I have invested in all the components of the program, so I can tell you it isn't inexpensive, but, since I have been learning French all my adult life (since I was a freshman at Princeton), it's quite affordable if you look at it as a means to perfect your French. Plus, I grab up good copies of the textbook when available, as I plan to teach low-income students this beautiful language, as it pays to be bilingual these days! If you can get over the little things that date the program (euros, not francs anymore!), you should conclude, as I have, that this is perhaps the finest French learning system there is!

an important piece of a wonderful course

Steven Sykes in a great review covered virtually everything I could hope to say about this textbook, so I'll just add a few comments. You should be aware that this is not a textbook that you can use without other materials either to learn French or to review the language; it is useful only when used with the other components of French in Action. The textbook consists solely of transcripts of the main scenes you'll encounter in the videos, with a few supplemental reading materials, and some cartoons and photos that illustrate the vocabulary introduced in the chapter. French in Action is a magnificent course, and you will, if you apply yourself diligently, learn to read, write, speak, and understand French with reasonable proficiency. The heart of the course is a series of 52 half hour video programs, available on DVD or (if you live in the US or Canada, free from the Annenberg website, just Google French in Action). Audio programs available on CD or cassette, written workbook exercises, and the textbook reinforce and build upon the grammar and vocabulary you first encounter in the videos. The reason to use all four components is that, by the end of each chapter, you will have seen (videos), heard (videos and audio programs), said (audio programs), read (textbook), and written (workbook) the words you are learning. By that time, the French you were meant to learn in that chapter has become a part of you. There is a study guide for the course that you can skip entirely unless you are in a formal course that uses the end-of-chapter quizzes. Watch the video for each chapter first, then listen to the first track on the audio program for the chapter, then complete the workbook assignments in order (the workbook will point you to the appropriate sections of the audio programs and the textbook). The genius behind French in Action is that you learn in a virtually 100% French environment from the very beginning, so you are not thinking in English, but in French, from the start. It can be a bit intimidating at first, but, if you stick with it, it will all start to make sense. I don't tend to gush over products, but this is the best course on any subject that I have ever followed. One final piece of advice if you choose to learn French using this course. You can skip chapter one (video, audio, and workbook), it's just an all-English introduction to the structure of the course. With one exception, you learn nothing in chapter one that you will not figure out on your own by the end of chapter two. The only unique insight you'll need to know from chapter one is to pay attention to the gestures that the French speakers make in the video programs.

C'est vraiment excellent! BEST language book!

Used in combination with the audio materials, this course promises so much more than the usual (colors, numbers, basic greetings, etc.), and places a strong emphasis on pronunciation and idioms. You finish with a useful knowledge of French--the kind people actually speak. Comprehension is difficult at first because the speakers talk at a normal pace without overemphasizing the words, but it is this technique that leaves one able to know what people are saying without having them slow down. As for the method of delivery--it's fun! The textbook follows a narrative structure, specifically a story about Robert, an American student in France, and Mireille, a young and witty student at the famed Sorbonne in Paris. There is love, mystery, and lots of important cultural information on the way, as well as an underlying humor that made our class laugh quite often. I recommend it highly for use in a class, and if you are willing to dish out the cash, for independent study as well. It has everything you need to gain a firm grounding in French language, culture, and idioms. You can buy the textbook with both parts together or separately, but either way, you will want to know what happens with the story, so be ready to order both parts, one way or another.

Le cours de langues français le plus complet

"French in Action" is a complete, college-level language course intended for students who have aspirations of fluency. The course consists of five components: video tapes (or DVDs), audio tapes (or CDs), textbook, workbook and study guide. All the components work together and are necessary for the course to be effective. The course utilizes an immersion method, meaning that after the first couple of lessons, everything except the study guide is in French. In spite of its high profile and ready access on public television, I don't think it's a good course for beginners. It moves quickly and would probably be best for someone with previous study in the language. The course would be nearly ideal for a college-level student with at least a year of high school French under their belt. It's a full meal. There are 52 lessons divided into two, 26 lesson parts. Each part can be purchased separately, but any way you slice it, the entire course is a considerable investment in both time and money. Working about an hour per day, it's paced to be handled at the rate of about a lesson a week. At full speed, you might be able to finish it in a year. Because most of the lessons involve some kind of conversational practice, the course is best taken with a partner or the help of a tutor. Self-study students might be tempted to eliminate the conversational and writing exercises, but doing so would be a mistake. Those exercises constitute at least half of the value of the course. One of the real strengths of "French in Action' is that it puts an emphasis on the French language the way the French actually speak it, which is quite a bit different from the way American phrase books tend to teach it. Right from the start, you're listening to the language at full speed in all its idiomatic glory. If you're anything like me, you'll have the sense of always struggling to catch up. But, I like the fact that the early emphasis is on listening and getting a sense of the rhythm of the language. Younger students will probably like the fact that after the first several lessons, they will have learned at least a dozen ways to insult their friends. One of the weaknesses of the course is that the audio tapes really need to be used along with the workbook. Hence, it's difficult (though not impossible) to use them in the car during long commutes. Don't expect a standard presentation, because the material isn't handled anything like standard French textbooks. Tenses, for example, are introduced so matter-of-factly that the very first words you utter are in the future tense. And there is no emphasis at all on word-for-word translation. In fact, quite often you're listening to idiomatic phrases in which the individual words when analyzed don't make much sense, but the meaning of the entire phrase when spoken in context is perfectly clear. "French in Action" is a real grown-up language course for students with mature study skills and sufficient interest to get

Best French course

I have tried several self teaching french course books, audio tapes, etc. None of them comes close to French in Action. My french language skills have jumped several levels after I started studying this course. After having finished about half of this course, I was able to get by quite well in French during a recent trip to France. This course teaches you French and France, its culture and its people like no other.Although all the video tapes, audio tapes, workbooks seems like a very expensive deal, there are ways to do it cheaply. The video section is broadcast year round on PBS channels, as well as available online at the learner website. I skipped the audio tapes since most of the excercises in the workbooks can be done without audio tapes and furthermore if you watch each video several times you have already understood the conversation. Then all that is needed is the textbook and the two workbooks. It can take a long time to complete the 52 lessons, but language learning is a long process. French in Action does make it very enjoyable.I don't think this is a beginner level course, though. Its probably useful to do some other basic course for a couple of months before starting on this one.

The best language course in the world

I've tried a number of different language course in a number of different languages over the years, but this is far and away the best. It's an immersion course, which means the videos and the audio-tapes are completely in French. It helps at the start if you've done a little French before, but even if you haven't, the extra effort in the early sections pays off handsomely. The videos are an essential part of the whole package, though they seem to be fairly widely available on public TV. (Here in Australia, ABC TV shows them nationwide, continuously, as part of the Open Learning programme). I strongly recommend buying them if you can, otherwise you are going to have to tape all 52 programmes off-air - you need to watch them over and over for maximum benefit. Each episode consists of 10 minutes of the story (a charming and quirky American boy meets French girl in Paris soap opera)and twenty minutes of explanation by Professor Capretz, an equally charming and quirky instructor. The whole is interlaced with hundreds of brief extracts from French film and TV. You watch the video several times, then work through the audio tapes to improve your own speaking, pronunciation and comprehension, read the text, then do the exercises. It might sound repetitive (all language learning is), but the story does hold your interest right to the end. I did it as a two year course with Open Learning in Australia, through the University of New England, and was sorry when it ended. This is a good way to do it, but it will work fine for a self-learning course. It's fairly costly, with textbook, workbooks, study guide and audiotapes, not to mention the videos, but you won't find a better course for learning to speak French or understand it from radio, film or TV. The reading side has been strengthened in the second edition, but to get to be a fluent reader you will need extra reading outside the course.One of my teachers ( a French national) criticised the course for cultural bias (a little upperclass and American) and he has a point, but for a rapid and enjoyable path to fluency, this course can't be beaten.