Annie Heminway - Practice Makes Perfect French Reading and Comprehension

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Most people would probably agree that immersion is the best way to learn a language.

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Most people would probably agree that immersion is the best way to learn a language.

After all, that is how we learn our first language as children, surrounded by people speaking it. As we grow up, our language and communications skills develop further in the cultural environment in which our language is spoken. Current events, history, cinema, television, music, food, sports, and culture at large all play important roles. For those wishing to learn another language, however, this type of total immersion is not always practical. While it may not always be possible to surround ourselves with native speakers, we can immerse ourselves in the cultural context of the new language as we learn. That is the goal of this book: to teach French to learners of all ages, using authentic material drawn from the culture(s) in which it is spoken.

The real-life readings are taken from a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites and cover a broad range of subjects. Literature is also represented by five original short stories written by contemporary French-speaking authors from China, Cuba, France, Haiti, and Quebec. How does the reader work? Each chapter presents a text on a specific subject, divided into one to three sections depending on the length of the original text. Each section is preceded by a list of words, giving their meaning as they are actually used in the text. The exercises immediately following the text focus on understanding its content and vocabulary. A grammar section focuses on some specific points of grammar as they appear in the text, with exercises to help understand them.

All but the literary chapters conclude with a cultural note, in English, that relates the reading to a larger cultural context. Its the next best thing to actually being there! The literary chapters (chapters biographical notes, in French, on the writers. Finally, interspersed throughout the book are vignettes that focus on some idiomatic uses of a particular word or phrasesometimes surprising and always entertaining. To get the most out of this book, the best approach is to work on one chapter at a time. Read the text first without looking at the translated vocabulary, and try to get a general sense of what it means. Scan the vocabulary and read the text again.

Review the grammar and do the exercises and translations. Finally, read the text again without looking at the vocabulary. The result? By following these steps you will improve your reading skills, perfect your grammar, and widen your knowledge of French and Francophone culturesall while having fun along the way. Bonne lecture!

I want to thank Mathilde Lauliac, Ellen Sowchek, and Zoran Minderovicmy lynx-eyed readers, spot-checkers, and punctiliously erudite French scholars. Thank you to Aliette Armel, Dany Laferrire, Jeanne Sguin-Laflamme, Eduardo Manet, and Wei Wei for their beautiful prose contributions that make this book so special. La Tour EiffelDbats et polmiquesPremire partieLectureDbats et polmiques lpoque de la construction Avant mme la fin de sa construction, la Tour tait dj au cur des dbats. La Tour EiffelDbats et polmiquesPremire partieNext page