Français interactif
The book covers all of the French grammatical structures and vocabulary themes that one would expect from a beginning textbook. It is designed with in-class components plus preparation, video clips, and online grammar intended for students to complete outside of class as homework.
In addition, it contains vocabulary and phonetics sections. The vocabulary is presented not only with lists and English translations, but also short videos filmed in France that show people speaking the words in context, which gives students an opportunity to hear the pronunciation and visually associate the word and its meaning.
In short, the book is similarly comprehensive to commercial textbooks. Although it does not contain the course management platform that textbook publishers offer, it does have a self-checking grammar exercise to accompany each structure, as well as many online listening and video activities.
The website includes a chapter by chapter “competencies checklist” of “can-do” statements and a useful index.
All of the information presented in the book appears accurate. The website and pdf downloads have been updated for the 2017 edition.
The current (third) edition was updated in 2017.
The book is based on “the lives of real students from the University of Texas who have participated in the UT Summer Program in Lyon, France," as well interviews with native speakers. It is written with a sense of humor that many will find appealing even if they do not relate to the UT-Austin focus of the text’s examples.
Instructions in Français Interactif are clearly presented, as are the explanations on Tex’s French Grammar pages. The sample lesson plans and syllabi that are available through the website also make it easy even for novice instructors to figure out how to implement the materials.
Everything is internally coherent throughout, including helpful icons to identify each type of activity.
The site map for the textbook as well as the accompanying grammar website make it very adaptable for use in different contexts. With each chapter available as a pdf, it would be easy for instructors to pick and choose the elements they want to use.
Français Interactif is organized similarly to a commercial textbook in terms of the order in which grammatical structures are presented. In fact, it is rather dense in terms of the number of chapters and amount of grammar presented in each chapter, making it an appropriate choice not only for classic two-semester programs but also for those preferring to stretch their beginning sequence over three semesters. Thanks to the modularity (see above), it would also be easy for instructors to pick and choose the elements to include in a particular class.
Once teachers and students get the hang of it, the website is very easy to navigate. Everything needed is accessible through multiple locations or points of entry, making it easier for all to land on the correct portion of the website.
The textbook (which can be printed out as a pdf on a chapter by chapter basis) does not contain detailed grammar explanations (but does include helpful, brief recalls in the margins). Instead, it refers students to the appropriate online grammar explanations.
All of the grammar activities are found on the accompanying website, “Tex’s French Grammar.” Each item is presented with an easy to understand description in English and includes short dialogues that show the structures in context, including a sound icon one can click to hear them read out loud. Finally, each item contains a self-checking fill-in-the-blank exercise for students to practice the structure. I have been referring my students to Tex’s grammar to review for years, even before I learned that it was part of a comprehensive textbook.
Because all of the authentic materials in the book come from videos and topics related to UT-Austin’s study abroad program in Lyon, those looking for a broad francophone perspective will be disappointed. However, the book does a good job of presenting French culture, and the “note culturelle” sections in the book’s margins provide short reading comprehension opportunities throughout each chapter.
The textbook promotes a lexical approach, with an emphasis on vocabulary. Its use of processing instruction is grounded in Second Language Acquisition research: students get exposed to extensive input of grammatical forms before being asked to produce language themselves.
I have corresponded with faculty at a number of institutions around the U.S. using Français Interactif for their primary instructional materials and all reported being quite pleased with it.