Contacts: Langue et culture françaises

by Jean-Paul Valette, Rebecca M. Valette

One of the most popular and trusted introductory French programs available, CONTACTS: LANGUE ET CULTURE FRANCAISES is renowned for its superior grammar sequencing, four-skills presentation and practice, vocabulary control, and supportive pedagogy. More learner friendly than ever, the new ninth edition features an all-new design while maintaining hallmark strengths like logical progression and clear organization, which have successfully served more than half a million CONTACTS users. The program reflects the realities of the contemporary French and Francophone worlds while effectively preparing readers for work, study, and travel abroad with its practical illustrations and activities.

Genres: France

608 pages, Loose Leaf

First published June 9, 2003

Reviews

[Cass · Rating 2 out of 5]

French textbook aimed at college students in America.
It is the prescribed text for my Australian university course... where I am an external adult learner. I am so sick of learning about the contents of a college dorm room.... How about teaching us about adult things... like the housework, and mowing the lawn.

[Meera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book for French classes in College. It will teach you French but it's not that great. Unfortunately I haven't found a great book for learning French yet. I will go over the positives first. The book has glossy pages, there are pretty pictures of everyday in Francophone countries, with the workbook there are tons of exercises and there is tons of information of ALL the Francophone countries and not just France. I enjoyed the cultural readings in French too. But now to the negatives. The book is SO slow. Very Very very slow. The vocabulary is thrown out randomly and is not very organized. The audio is also very very slow and grammar isn't really explained. It just throw things at you and example sentences without explaining how the it works. The book isn't horrid though and I would recommend for French, it might work better with a class though than learning on your own.

[Danielle. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short review for the Ninth Edition:

I've never read through an entire school textbook before, but I did for this. I took French's I, II, and III, in high school from freshman to junior; however, I never studied much at home except a day before a test--and it was in the textbook. I never did anything else to improve my level.

Senior year. Forgotten all about French; of course, I didn't remember a damn thing despite taking three French classes. All I remembered were the basics, and I mean the basics: "Bonjour" "Oui" "Comment allez-vous?" you get the picture. Couldn't hold a conversation; couldn't understand films, songs, articles, etc in French. Rien du tout.

Nevertheless, I still wanted to be fluent in French. In my freshman year of college in the spring (February 2014) I decided to start over--I took French I. This is where this books steps in. A great book for beginners; but attention, this will not make you become fluent. These are merely stepping stones and it's actually all up to you to find the time to study every single day, listen to authentic french, read in french, practice speaking, etc. Contacts merely gives you that push.

What this book has:
Activities
Dialogues in French (becomes a little more advanced within each lesson)
Short writings in French about different francophone countries, the food, drinks, the history, the cultures, etc. (the writing also becomes a little more advanced within each lesson)

It's really cute and informative stuff and I recommend actually reading through this whenever you have the time instead of just doing the assignments the professor gives you.

[Peter Patterson]

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