Sons & Lettres: A pronunciation method for intermediate-level French
Stephen Walton
Copyright Year:
Publisher: Portland State University Library
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
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CC BY-NC
Reviews
The text offers a good overview of the pronunciation of French words and sounds. As another reviewer notes, it lacks a glossary or index which might help students locate material more quickly, but otherwise is fairly complete. read more
The text offers a good overview of the pronunciation of French words and sounds. As another reviewer notes, it lacks a glossary or index which might help students locate material more quickly, but otherwise is fairly complete.
I didn't notice any problems with accuracy.
Pronunciation is always one of the most critical areas in which students need work, and it's one of the areas of French learning that does not go out of date quickly. This book will remain relevant for many years to come.
The content is very clear, the explanations are thorough, and there are adequate visualizations and comparisons.
The layout of each section is consistent, and the terminology and methods of explanation are generally consistent, as well. There is nothing that would throw off a student's understanding of the material or how to use the book.
When I think of modularity, I think first of adaptability, and this book makes it very easy to use in different levels, lessons, and contexts. I foresee using this text at the beginning and intermediate levels, with lessons and parts thereof tailored to each.
Straightforward and easy to follow.
I experienced no technical issues or confusion.
No grammar problems.
There really isn't a cultural aspect to the book, although if one were to nitpick, the geographical references could be updated to include Francophone areas outside of France.
As a phonetics aid, Sons & Lettres is really quite good and should be very easy to merge with existing course content to supplement whatever other resources or lessons a teacher is using.
The textbook Sons et Lettres and the accompanying web exercises provide an excellent explanation of the pronunciation of French words with practice to hone one’s listening and speaking skills. It is very easy to use thanks to a clear layout and a... read more
The textbook Sons et Lettres and the accompanying web exercises provide an excellent explanation of the pronunciation of French words with practice to hone one’s listening and speaking skills. It is very easy to use thanks to a clear layout and a detailed table of contents.
All content is accurate. On p. 32, the author could have specified that nouns and adjectives ending in -ier are also exceptions where the final « r » is not pronounced.
Like grammatical rules, the rules for pronunciation do not change and the content of this book will be relevant for a very long time.
The explanations given are clear and simple. The oral vowels, the nasal vowels and the nasal consonants are always presented in a binary setting which makes it easier to identify and contrast sounds. I really appreciate the visual aspect of the textbook, where the rules, notes and charts really stand out and accentuate the clarity of the content.
The text is consistent in terms of terminology and reduces the use of jargon to a minimum. When it does, it gives an excellent definition and repeats the definition of that concept several times in the book and web exercises.
It is also fairly consistent in the format of its activities.
The subject matter, the structure of Sons et Lettres and the fairly short lessons give the user total freedom as to how to use this textbook or any part of it. It could easily be used at any level and/or for corrective phonetics.
The textbook is well organized. However I would not consider some of the information given in the appendices as supplementary (consistency of French vowels, diphtongs, consonant release the non-pronunciation of the letter « h » at the beginning of a word for example) and it would have been preferable had it been included in the introduction in the section « Differences between French and English ».
There were no issues.
I found no errors.
This criterium does not apply here.
I really enjoyed the layout, the explanations and the activities of this textbook because it provides the basics of French pronunciation with clarity and simplicity. I think it can easily be used at the beginning and intermediate levels because it focuses on the pronunciation of words and the connection between graphemes and sounds. It could also be adapted to a higher level : after reviewing and practicing the pronunciation of words in French with Sons et Lettres, one could easily take it to the next level and start focusing on
• speech (instead of words only)
• context, level of language (the difference between familiar and formal French)
The text provides a solid and comprehensive introduction to the basics of French pronunciation. There is no index or glossary, but the appendices at the end of the book are very helpful. read more
The text provides a solid and comprehensive introduction to the basics of French pronunciation. There is no index or glossary, but the appendices at the end of the book are very helpful.
Content is error-free, as far as I can tell. There is no problematic bias of any kind, though the few examples used are France-centered and not reflective of the wider Francosphere (i.e. place names come exclusively from metropolitan France).
Since the content is largely context-free, providing mostly only words and sounds, it will not become irrelevant or obsolete any time soon. The helpful website with accompanying, interactive audio exercises may need to be upgraded to fit with various platforms or other digital configurations in the future, but the content itself will not require updating. Adding new content or lessons would be seamless and would not disrupt the flow of the current text.
The text is written clearly and cohesively, with terminology explained in such a way that an intermediate (or even beginning) French language student should not have undue difficulty grasping the material.
The text is mostly consistent, though some different terminology is sometimes used interchangeably. The formatting, arrangement, and structure of each lesson is straightforward and predictable.
The text’s flexibility is one of its strengths. It can easily be studied as a supplement to an intermediate-level French language course—which seems to be its primary purpose or function—but could also be judiciously used even in a beginner’s language course. I can even envision this text, or parts thereof, as being useful in a slightly more advanced French phonetics course as well. It is a very adaptable text in a variety of French-class contexts.
The organization is clear and logical, and simple to use or adapt in a variety of pedagogical circumstances. The structure of the text is very user-friendly and does not have the effect of intimidating an intermediate or even a beginning student at all.
There are no interface issues in the textbook, although the accompanying web page has an error in the very last lesson exercise (there is a faulty link).
There are no grammatical errors or typos that I could find.
The text is largely context- and culture-free, so there is no real cultural relevance to speak of here. What few geographical references there are in the text are to French place names; the addition of a few non-metropolitan place names might be welcome. There are no images in the text; pictures representing a variety of French-language contexts might add a diverse and cultural element to the text, but its primary purpose is not to communicate culture but to advance French pronunciation ability.
Some images or videos might make the text even more appealing to undergraduate students, especially any images or videos that might speak to the broader Francophone (i.e. non-metropolitan France) context, though this latter addition may create some complications with accents or other phonetic variations if not done carefully. Overall, the textbook appears to be a very useful phonetic supplement that can be used primarily at the intermediate level, though it is flexible enough to have some relevance at the beginner's and even advanced levels as well.
Professor Walton does an exemplary job of explaining how students could greatly improve their pronunciation of French spoken in France by showing how to interpret spellings and pronunciations together. He includes descriptions of basic building... read more
Professor Walton does an exemplary job of explaining how students could greatly improve their pronunciation of French spoken in France by showing how to interpret spellings and pronunciations together. He includes descriptions of basic building blocks such as graphemes and forward slashes to indicate IPA symbols. Charts are used throughout the 96-page text to show how accents change the meaning or the pronunciation of a word, to highlight regular pronunciation (or lack of pronunciation) rules and their exceptions, as well as to explain the rules of vowel pronunciation.
I would have liked to see a section addressing liaison rules. There are two brief mentions. The first is in reference to pronouncing a final -s as a /z/ in front of a following vowel sound. The second is to succinctly state that the rule to liaison modifying the pronunciation of final consonants happens with articles, subject pronouns, adjectives that precede nouns, and with prepositions. This is true, of course. With so many examples and explanations given in the book for all other aspects of French sounds, I thought more would have been stated.
I’d like to have seen more explanations with examples and especially exceptions to the rules. For example “aux Etats-Unis” doesn’t follow the rules listed in the book. The plural noun “états” is liaised with the following adjective “uni” (oh zay tah zoo nee) or /ozetazuni/ and nouns are not listed as words whose endings are pronounced in a liaison.
The index is comprehensive. A glossary could be helpful for students who haven’t previously taken phonetics classes.
I found no inaccuracies in reviewing the text. I would say that this book is aimed at teaching English-as-a-first-language students a “standard” Parisian French. Regional varieties of pronunciation are first mentioned on page 91 when explaining the concept of diphthongs, though there aren’t mentions of rolled or trilled r sounds in other varieties of French spoken throughout the francophone world.
The content of the book is up to date, though there are areas where the author states that the professor will pronounce some words or sounds. For example, on page 12, he states: “your instructor will model how to produce the sounds that are foreign to English”. Because he provides access to listening material online, it seems that these recordings could already be embedded within the text--a hyperlink that takes the reader directly to the audio files. This does seem to be a relatively easy and straightforward update to implement.
Yes, this text is written lucidly with adequate context for the technical terms that are necessary to comprehend when learning about some intricacies of pronunciation. Describing a grapheme, what the IPA is, about how we learn to speak and read English (as a first language) all helped to make the text accessible.
I encountered no inconsistencies throughout the text’s terminology or framework.
The text is divided into 4 main sections: the preface, an introduction, exercises, and appendices. The third exercise section, “Fiches D’exercices” is done logically. At the top is a rule explained in a blue graph and then there are exercises for all 18 lessons. That will be helpful for students. Adding direct links to the audio files might be a good way to update the book.
I think some information in the appendices could have been included in the main text.
I found that while the focus is on the “sounds and letters”, the appendix could have been in the main part of the book. The appendix covers topics like diphthongs and an explanation of the concept of “consonant release”. This could have been included in the introduction under “Differences between French and English”. Finally, I was left wanting a closing remark, a glossary, or something more at the end of the book rather than a mention of “Rhythm and accentuation” as the last topic.
I found no interface issues while reviewing the text.
I found no grammatical errors in reviewing the text.
I found no insensitivities or anything directly offensive in reviewing the text. As mentioned, this book is aimed at teaching a “standard” Parisian French. Regional varieties of pronunciation are first mentioned on page 91 when explaining the concept of diphthongs, though there aren’t mentions of rolled or trilled r sounds in other varieties of French spoken throughout the francophone world, among other differing sounds like the nasal sounds in some Canadian French varieties.
I am very much looking forward to implementing activities from this text starting earlier on in my French 101-202 courses.
This textbook purposefully and carefully selected components of French pronunciation that are accessible and useful to an audience of intermediate learners. With the very specific goal of recognizing and eventually producing the most common... read more
This textbook purposefully and carefully selected components of French pronunciation that are accessible and useful to an audience of intermediate learners. With the very specific goal of recognizing and eventually producing the most common spelling/pronunciation patterns, it succeeds. The Table of Contents along with the Introduction make the program easy to navigate.
Linguists who are accustomed to teaching more nuanced courses on phonetics may find some of the simplifications—while justified—difficult to accept. For example, what about the open-mid, rounded, front vowel which is not treated separately from its close-mid variant? Why is the difference dismissed in a note on p 51 whereas the other mid-vowels are presented separately?
The introduction could also benefit from a clearer distinction among the concepts of accuracy, intelligibility and “good pronunciation” as presented on p 11.
The preface of the book makes an excellent argument for its relevance describing the differences between French and English and how learning sound-spelling-word combinations is different as an adult second language learner. Students need guidance to understand (and potentially appreciate!) the regularity of the correspondence between French spelling and pronunciation.
The Preface and the Introduction are extremely coherent and potentially enlightening for intermediate students or instructors who are frustrated by their students’ pronunciation problems. The rules in the lessons are straightforward and the instructions for the exercises are clear. The program also does not require mastery of IPA. In slight contrast, the prose explaining the rules for unpronounced final consonants and the additional information presented in Appendix B may be potentially difficult to parse.
The materials are generally very uniform with the same layout and often, the types of exercises available for each lesson. The web exercises are particularly consistent which is advantageous since this is the work students are expected to complete outside of class. There is some inconsistency in the number of Jeux et activités associated with each lesson in the worksheets. The program is in both English and French; English is used in the introduction, preliminary section, and appendix while French is used on the website and the worksheets.
The 18 lessons, while numbered, could be done in any order since each lesson focuses on pairs of contrasting graphemes/sounds. These modules are easy to find in both the pdf/e-text and the website. They could be readily paired with any textbook or program.
The 18 lessons, divided into 3 sections, Voyelles orales (1-8), Voyelles nasales (9-12) Consonnes (13-18) don’t necessitate being done in order. This permits users to employ the lessons in orders complementary to their primary textbooks. Nevertheless, it is a bit surprising to find “unpronounced final consonants” presented as “review” in the introduction. Additionally, the placement of Leçon 9 as the opening lesson in Section 2 on nasal vowels (“Consonnes nasales et voyelles nasales”) seems potentially problematic since it involves all the nasal vowels which students may not yet be able to differentiate.
The website is simple and generally straightforward. Each lesson has 4 exercise types which are repeated throughout the program.
A potentially confusing constraint is the instruction “il faut cliquer dans le bon ordre” that appears on the Ecoute II exercises for each lesson. The three recorded sounds are labeled as “mot A,” “mot B” or “mot C” and these correspond to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd sounds heard respectively. If B and C rhyme, you must click B before clicking C; if you click C before clicking B, it will be considered wrong.
The last exercise type of each lesson is called “Parlez” and once you are in “Parlez” there is no way to easily navigate back to the main menu.
The book has been well-edited for grammar and spelling. Formatting (e.g. spacing) is not always consistent.
This textbook is designed for intermediate language students for whom mastery of variation of the accents of the francophone world would be beyond the scope of the task at hand. However, it could be fruitful to briefly contextualize the standard chosen or discuss the possibility of pronunciation variation in the introduction. For example, in the Preliminary Exercises section (Exercise 1, p 37), students may come up with different answers consistent with their idiolects. In fact, it wasn’t clear to me if in the example on the same page, the word “egg” was supposed to be demonstrating the same or different vowel as found “met.”
This program is a very valuable resource for instructors wanting to offer active discrimination and pronunciation activities to intermediate students. It also provides an excellent tool for French students to feel more confident when looking at a word and are wanting to figure out how to pronounce it.
The explanations in the text are very detailed and clear, and several useful comparisons are made between English and French pronunciation. There is a website link provided in the introduction that includes computer-graded activities for... read more
The explanations in the text are very detailed and clear, and several useful comparisons are made between English and French pronunciation. There is a website link provided in the introduction that includes computer-graded activities for additional practice (mostly listening comprehension activities to distinguish differences between sounds), which is an added bonus. Very practical worksheets and activities designed for classroom use can be found at the end of each lesson. I would recommend that more comprehensive/detailed worksheets and activities be incorporated at the end of each section to promote a broader understanding of the concepts. It would also be helpful to have an answer key for the textbook activities. The glossary is comprehensive.
All content was relevant, accurate, and error-free.
The textbook will not be obsolete within a short period of time because of the type of material covered. However, the accompanying website will probably need to be reviewed and/or updated on a regular basis to ensure that students can access the audio files and complete recordings on all web-based platforms.
All concepts are explained thoroughly and are clearly defined for an anglophone student audience (more thorough coverage compared to most textbooks). The introduction also helps orient the reader about the intended course design.
The book is consistent in terms of content-related terminology; however, the framework is somewhat inconsistent because of different terms used for activities/exercises.
This textbook is divided effectively into different sections and short lessons.
Overall, the text is presented in a logical and clear fashion. There are a few boxes with interesting etymological facts scattered in different sections of the textbook. More similar facts could be incorporated more consistently to improve the organization of the text and better engage students.
The textbook is laid out in a clear but very basic way; it could use more visual aspects to break up all of the textual explanations.
The textbook is well written, and I did not notice and grammar or spelling errors.
The textbook is lacking cultural contexts and could include more references to variation within pronunciation. For example, a section about the variation between written and spoken French could be very helpful as students often struggle with this concept.
I plan an incorporating this textbook in my college-level French conversation course. The book is divided into sections and lessons that would allow me to focus on student-specific pronunciation issues as they arise.
Sons et lettres provides a thorough overview of French pronunciation and clear presentation of the relationship between graphemes and phonemes. The introductory section synthesizes key differences between French and English and reviews the main... read more
Sons et lettres provides a thorough overview of French pronunciation and clear presentation of the relationship between graphemes and phonemes. The introductory section synthesizes key differences between French and English and reviews the main rules governing final consonants in French. Each lesson includes a variety of classroom activities in the book alongside aural and oral exercises on the easy-to-use companion website. Most lessons focus on a distinction between two sounds, which is an effective approach. The appendices are much appreciated. An expansion of the web component to include practice of the topics covered in “Beyond Individual Sounds: Prosodic Features of French” would be a welcome additional resource.
All of the information in the textbook and on the website appears accurate.
The content is relevant. The book downplays context to focus on the sounds themselves (mostly in series of isolated words, some of which aren’t well known). Therefore, it has a timeless quality, but also lacks cultural specificity.
In general, the text is clear and approachable—thoughtful and exacting without being overly academic.
The text is consistent in its terminology and framework. It provides definitions, references, and background as needed.
The book’s structure makes it especially adaptable to multiple types of courses and purposes. The relatively short (two-page), digestible lessons can be easily integrated as comprehensive pronunciation study and/or on an individual, as-needed basis.
The book has a clear and logical flow. I am curious about why certain pronunciation points are in the appendices instead of in lessons with accompanying activities on the website.
I did not notice any issues. The visual layout is clean and legible.
I have not found grammatical errors.
As mentioned above, the text lacks cultural specificity. I think it achieves what it aims to do, but it could do this and still take some intentional steps towards increased inclusivity. I would love to see an appendix that addresses some of the particularities of colloquial French pronunciation – notably elision. Students are often exposed to dropped syllables through music and contemporary texts, and they should be prepared to recognize and understand such deviations from traditional phonetics. A lesson on verlan could also be included, etc.
Overall, the combined textbook and web exercises make Sons et lettres a wonderful resource, and I am grateful the author published through a Creative Commons License. I plan to integrate the lessons into my intermediate-level courses as well as into conversation workshops and poetry units at the advanced level. I am concerned that parts of the introduction might prove too dense for intermediate-level students and/or that they will feel apprehensive about being exposed to many decontextualized words that they have yet to encounter. Nevertheless, I appreciate the book’s emphasis on learning and practicing the rules both for improved everyday pronunciation and for more accurate sight-reading, and I am hopeful this approach will help build my students’ confidence.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Fiches d'exercies
- Section 1: Voyelles orales
- Section 2: Voyelles nasales
- Section 3: Consonnes
Ancillary Material
About the Book
Sons et lettres provides a set of classroom materials to train students to hear and produce the sounds of French and to recognize the regular spellings used to represent those sounds in print. The materials are inspired by a desire to help students feel more confident about their French pronunciation and more at home saying the many French words, familiar and unfamiliar, which they encounter in their studies, in French media and in their travels. In our experience, students are not given sufficient preparation to successfully decipher and pronounce French words. These materials are intended to fill that gap and to clear away the confusion that English speakers often feel when they see French words with seemingly mysterious combinations of letters.
About the Contributors
Author
Stephen Walton, PhD, is an assistant professor of French at Portland State University in Oregon, where he teaches courses in French language, literature and phonetics. He supervises the 2nd-year French curriculum, for which this book was developed, and trains 2nd-yearteaching assistants. His research and teaching interests include Francophone literature of West Africa and the Caribbean, French poetry, 19th-century French literature, and language pedagogy. His publications include articles on Paul Eluard and on Baudelaire and Aimé Césaire. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the US Department of Education for the incorporation of technology in the language curriculum at PSU.