Histoires d'Avenirs: Science-fiction pour le cours de français niveaux intermédiaire et avancé

Reviewed by Elizabeth B. Hall, Assistant Professor, General Faculty, University of Virginia on 12/14/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook provides good coverage of the subject, including an overview of science fiction in France, thematic vocabulary and grammar in context, many prompts for written and oral production. The only downside is that there is no index or glossary.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Many of the texts and films are referenced but not included in the text, which means that instructors will be able to use different versions or formats or provide the texts to students as an ancillary reader. This allows the possibility of updating the texts and questions easily. The arrangement of chapters is well-structured such that units could be updated or even exchanged for revised sections easily. However, there are many links to online sources that are broken including some that are critical to the chapters. These should be updated.

Clarity rating: 4

The text is mainly clear and accessible. Chapters 1-9 are all clear and targeted to intermediate to advanced students of French,. The Introduction parts II-IV do not fit the tone of the textbook; they read more like dissertation chapters. They may provide some context of the topic for instructor but they do not fit the rest of the textbook.

Consistency rating: 4

Relatively consistent overall, but the style of the chapters vary a bit, as if they were written by different people. Some are clear and easy to move through (chapter 1), while others use terminology that is inconsistent with the level of the rest of the textbook (for example ch. 4). All chapters use the same titles for sections except the "chapitre préliminaire" which has a completely different format. The terminology varies a bit from chapter to chapter, some chapters asking "Questions de compréhension" and others just listing comprehension questions under the header "histoire."

Modularity rating: 5

The text could easily be taught in smaller units or in a different order. It could be used as a supplement or main text for a variety of courses, including conversation, composition or any bridge course leading students from language courses to advanced classes in literature and cultural studies.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Some chapters that appear later in the textbook seem to review more elemental grammatical structures, such as pronouns, possessive adjectives and past tenses in ch. 6. This might be better earlier in the textbook, although the authors point out that the chapters can be taught in any order. Chapter 8 also contains a prompt comparing the text in ch. 8 to one in chapter 9, which students would not have read yet if they are progressing chronologically through the textbook as it is laid out.

Interface rating: 3

There are multiple issues here. The lettering and numbering systems vary from chapter to chapter. Often there are no numbers or letters at all for the questions, which is not ideal for a class or for assigning homework. The numbering sets change from chapter to chapter, sometimes 1.a. b. etc. and sometimes 1. i. ii. etc. Some questions are listed in bullet points (which vary in symbol from chapter to chapter), and often there is just a list of questions without indentation. The lack of numbering or lettering is problematic when teaching from a textbook - it is important to be able to indicated exactly which question is being discussed or is assigned for work. The other main problem in the interface is that many of the links are broken, making it difficult to navigate and to do activities depending on those links. As stated earlier, the chapitre préliminaire does not fit with the format of the other chapters, and also has some problems with its numbering system, including for example a part IV preceding a text (although the questions posed need to be answered during or after reading), followed by parts I, II, and III that are sections of the text itself, and finally a IV that includes reading comprehension questions.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is well written with no grammatical errors that I found. There are a few typographical errors including capitalization of the section header "L'existentialisme est un humanisme de..."

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Histoires d'avenirs provides an excellent range of short stories by men and women from around the Francophone world as well as contextualization of some lesser-known science fiction stories with more canonical texts from various centuries such as those by Rousseau, Verne, and Sartre.

Comments

Histoires d'Avenir: Science-fiction pour le cours de français niveaux intermédiaire et avancé is an interesting textbook that would be fun to use in a conversation, composition or another bridge course between language and literature/culture classes. Students will love reading the francophone science-fiction stories, working with chapter themes and engaging in the creative and analytical activities. Each chapter introduces new vocabulary, grammar in context, thematic activities, and gives a range of oral, written, and creative prompts for students to develop interpretive, presentational, and interpersonal skills. The visual images are well-chosen, and the science-fiction short stories are a novel way to get students interested in relevant and contemporary topics. The textbook includes some imaginative activities that students will really enjoy such as creating a new robot, debating nuclear energy, and writing about the possibility of the end of mortality.