Intrigue: langue, culture et mystère dans le monde francophone

by Blood, Elizabeth A.; Mobarek, Yasmina

• ISBN13: 9780130618580
• ISBN10: 0130618586
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

"Intrigue" offers a new approach to French by combining the format of an instructional grammar with a mystery-story context. The story unfolds through chapter dialogues, listening selections, and reader activities, providing a rich environment to engage those who wish to read, write, listen to and speak French, as well as to learn about the culture of the French-speaking world. Each chapter presents interesting and provocative material in an organized and structured manner. Its mystery story-based theme keeps readers interested and excited, while its explanation of the cultures and histories of the French-speaking world entertain as well as inform. For those employees in companies where a working knowledge of the French language and culture is necessary.

Table of Contents

Un seacute;jour en Louisiane

Une recette creacute;ole

Un incident agrave; Paris

Une famille francophone

Les conseils d'un Franccedil;ais

Interlude

Une meacute;saventure martiniquaise

Agrave; la maison au Seacute;neacute;gal

Un tableau suisse

Une affaire provenccedil;ale

De retour au Queacute;bec

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Overview intrigue n. 1. The quality or power of arousing curiosity or interest. 2. The events and situations that complicate the plot of a story. 3. A plotting or scheming by secret or underhand means. 4. A secret or illicit love affair. (Funk & Wagnall's Standard College Dictionary) intrigue n.f. 1. Menees secretes pour faire reussir ou echouer une affaire. 2. Liaison secrete. 3. Combinaison des differents incidents qui forment le sujet dune piece, d'un roman, d'un film. (Dictionnaire Hachette) Intrigue is essentially a mystery story. It is the story of a Frenchman named Jean-Louis and a Quebecoise graduate student named Claire who meet, seemingly coincidentally, in New Orleans. One in search of a rare original manuscript written by a famous eighteenth-century author, and the other with hidden motives, the two become entangled in a web of adventures that take them from Louisiana to the Caribbean, West Africa, Europe, and Canada. The protagonists discover, in the course of these travels, that their meeting was not entirely coincidental and that they themselves are part of a larger international scheme of intrigue and deception. This mystery story, however, is not written in a traditional narrative format. Rather, it evolves through the chapter dialogues, listening comprehension selections, communicative activities, and even grammar exercises of the textbook. With each activity in each chapter, the story progresses, and the students learn more about the characters' motives as they pick up clues related to the twists and turns of the story line. As they become interested in the evolving mystery story, they become engaged in learning French language and in discovering French-speaking cultures around the globe. As the title indicates, Intrigue aims to arouse the student's curiosity by offering a complex mystery plot in which characters use underhand means to accomplish their objectives. By offering continuity between readings, student listening recordings, classroom activities, and homework exercises, Intrigue draws students into using the French-language in meaningful situations and understanding the cultures of the French-speaking world. In Intrigue, readings and activities are contextualized and relevant to the story line. Intrigue is a comprehensive and flexible intermediate-level textbook that develops the four basic communicative skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Its proficiency-oriented methodology focuses on communication, linguistic functions, and interactive exchanges. Rather than split the contents between a grammar-intensive workbook and communication-focused classroom text, thereby isolating grammar review from communicative activities, Intrigue incorporates it all into one comprehensive textbook. The plot of the mystery story ties together the numerous objectives of an intermediate-level French textbook and provides a meaningful context for the presentation of language functions, vocabulary, grammar explanations, authentic literary excerpts, and cultural information. Students are introduced first to episodes of the story and then to the vocabulary, grammatical tools, and cultural information needed to fully comprehend what they are reading and to imagine themselves functioning in similar linguistic situations. Student learning is natural, as the text builds skills and recycles grammar points and functions in order to reinforce learning. Interspersed throughout the chapters are "Centre d'information" blocks that provide grammatical tips, explain idiomatic expressions, or present vocabulary or cultural / historical information. In each chapter, personal opinion questions help the students to relate to the information presented, allow them to express ideas, encourage them to adapt vocabulary to their own c