Comprendre et se faire comprendre

Reviewed by Maria Vendetti, Associate Professor, St. Olaf College on 4/4/26

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

'Comprendre et se faire comprendre' covers all areas of French phonetics, the “spelling-to-sound system,” needed for students at a mid-intermediate level of French who want to improve both their communication skills (pronunciation, comprehension) and their cultural awareness of the French-speaking world. The text offers a short glossary of main terms and their definitions. All the main terms covered are thoroughly defined within the corresponding chapter, typically with videos and audio examples. There is no index, but the modules/units are short and the titles/headings self-explanatory.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The text is accurate and error-free throughout.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The authentic texts — music videos, videos of poems, short news articles, visual advertising, etc — are up-to-date, and are also carefully chosen to connect to and illustrate the phonetic point of the unit. The content covers many French-speaking spaces, taking examples and texts from those countries/regions, but uses these texts not (or not only) to point out linguistic or phonetic difference, but to introduce cultural information and talking points, meaning that the lessons are relevant to larger issues, and that students have bigger picture topics to discuss and to practice newly taught language skills.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is very clear, the level of language is appropriate for a fifth-semester (mid-intermediate) learner. For example, in the unit La poésie et la liaison, terms like “liaison,” “enchainement” are explained in simple, straightforward French. These explanations are followed by a recorded slideshow and lecture (embedded YouTube video) that expands and gives examples. This video is accompanied with a link to the printable slideshow for the instructor or students to take notes. Having both the written and audio format is very helpful, and means that new terms are seen and heard several times at the beginning of a unit.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is internally consistent with the format of units/lessons and the way that interactive activities are structured.

Modularity rating: 5

The modules progress from one to another, incorporating previously studied concepts, but could be used separately once students understand the format and where to find everything. The connection between units is clear and yet it would be easy to break them up into smaller lessons or activities as needed or as time allowed. The author links to a Canvas Commons site that makes this task even easier, especially for asynchronous or self-guided work. The author’s introduction says that 'Comprendre et se faire comprendre' is mostly designed for in-class work, which I can imagine working very well with an instructor present to answer questions and give additional examples, and I can also imagine assigning parts of each unit, from the online text or directly from Canvas, as pre- or post-class work: the format of the book makes this application look very simple.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text is very organized and the presentation of concepts makes sense both in terms of introducing phonetic terms for a student new to the study of linguistics and for a student of French wanting to improve their speaking and listening skills: beginning with phonemes, syllables, and intonation, and working towards more complicated concepts like minimal pairs and semi-vowels. The progression of the overarching themes — l’identité, les loisirs, l’art de la scène, les droits humains —means that students can initially use vocabulary they are familiar with to talk about language and identity (identifying linguistic differences; saying where French is spoken; talking about multilingualism) and gradually build up to more nuanced, specific language (talking about humor in translation; discussing historical events and their representation; linking back to identity and questions of immigration/belonging).

Interface rating: 4

The author notes that some interactive activities and subtitles only work in Chrome. In a few cases, images were not displaying or links to outside sites and videos did not work or showed error messages: these seem like issues that could be easily resolved. (I won’t list the broken link/error message issues here, but would be happy to share those that I identified.)

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors that I noticed!

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

'Comprendre et se faire comprendre' uses authentic texts and examples from a variety of Francophone spaces, traditions, registers, and sources, and does so in ways that puts them on equal footing with each other, rather than in opposition to or lesser than “hexagonal” French. By having a video about “Le français dans le monde” in the first chapter, as well as discussion of the idea of “le français international,” a “variété de français [qui] est une version simplifiée de la langue qui est comprise par une large partie des personnes francophones,” students are immediately presented with French as an international language. The texts present cultural aspects of places like Cameroon, Tahiti, Louisiana, Haiti, and Canada in a modern, relevant way, moving away from expected representations of these countries/regions.

The focus on teaching and learning the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in order to better understand pronunciation, and especially pronunciation challenges in French, was a new approach for me, and I can imagine it being very attractive for students who are committed to learning French and want to learn “rules” that will help them become more confident speakers without losing touch with the cultural and conversational aspects of the language classroom. The way that each unit explains “les règles générales” and “les exceptions les plus fréquentes” is also a very helpful and clear way of framing pronunciation issues. The self-testing aspect of the test makes feedback immediate and clear: students can relisten and retest as needed on their own time. Thank you for the chance to review this well-thought-out and engaging text!