Let's Chat! French

Reviewed by Peter Eubanks, Professor of French, James Madison University on 3/29/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

There is no index or glossary, though there is a table of contents. Text only covers passé composé, imparfait, and imperative-- no other verb tenses or moods-- although it has four different French "levels" and claims to cover novice and intermediate material. Perhaps this is because it is designed more for high school students than for college students? Because this text only provides in-class activities, it does not systematically teach anything-- it only provides activities that can be done in class (including both face-to-face and online). The Level 4 face-to-face activities are scant, since there are only four of them (and two of them are very similar: Social Media and Advertising are one category, while Advertising is another). This text is not designed for student use-- it is mostly a series of well-introduced and well-organized Google Slides with activities that will help instructors to find ways to help students practice what is already being taught from other materials (that are not this text).

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. I could not find any mistakes or errors and the links all seemed to be working.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content does not really delve into topics that are so timely that they can become outdated in a matter of years. Any updates can be easily made and individuated. The text provides helpful videos to explain how to adapt/alter materials according to the instructor's own needs and class dynamics.

Clarity rating: 4

The text is clear, though often in English. The prose is accessible and avoids jargon and technical terminology.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Concepts clearly build upon one another and materials become increasingly complex as the level advances. Concepts are reintroduced at higher levels which is pedagogically sound.

Modularity rating: 4

The text could be easier to navigate if it were more searchable. Instructors looking for a particular lesson, principle, or even word will have to look first through the table of contents and then through the Google Slides. It would be more user-friendly if even Control+F could just be used for more of the material. Instructors can use the activities for the different levels at will and in any order; sections and Google slides exist largely independent from one another.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The topics, grammar, and vocabulary in this text are mostly presented in a clear and logical fashion with principles building on each other in a coherent and usual way. The face-to-face Level 4 activities are not quite clear in how they build upon the previous three levels, however.

Interface rating: 5

I could not find any interface issues or navigation problems. The images/charts were mostly simple, designed for use in a Google Slides presentation.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not see any grammatical errors. As noted above, however, the grammar covered is not really very comprehensive as it leaves out many verb tenses and moods as well as vocabulary typical for an intermediate college course.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

There is little cultural context that is given in this textbook in general, but what cultural references do exist are focused entirely on the traditional French experience. There does not seem to be any effort to include the experience of immigrant communities in France or the experiences of French speakers throughout the Francophone world.

Comments

This is a resource for instructors, especially high school French teachers, and not a reference for students (either in high school or in college). It provides supplemental materials (mostly ideas for activities, presented through Google Slide presentations) to accompany whatever language teaching and textbook(s) serve(s) as the primary mode for teaching French grammar and vocabulary to students in the classroom. There is very little in this text (which consists mostly of Google Slide presentations) that actually teaches French-- the text consists mostly of activities to help reinforce concepts taught in class through other means. Instructors at both the early college and high school levels (but especially the latter) will find many interesting and fun ideas for activities to help reinforce what is being taught in class.