French Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs)

by Gaëlle Graham

Bestselling language courses! From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly. Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication,

Genres: France, Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Linguistics

Paperback

First published June 1, 1984

About the author

Gaelle Graham studied at La Sorbonne where she obtained a licence-es-lettres. She also has an MA in linguistics from the University of Kent. She has over 25 years of experience teaching French in secondary schools and as a teacher trainer.

Reviews

[Liam Porter]

This book has excellent audio material and would make a good supplement to any French learning regime. I say supplement because it has a major weakness: the minimal amount of translation in the book. Not only are the reading/listening texts untranslated, but when translations are provided they are scattered about in unpredictable places: sometimes directly below, sometimes in a grammar section, sometimes in a cultural notes type section, and sometimes scrambled in some kind of matching activity.

Perhaps this is a reflection of the predominant wisdom that translation ought to be avoided and one's own initiative should be used to provide the likeliest contextually-fitting meaning?

In my experience, this sort of inferential learning is something I can only do at an advanced stage of learning; not at that of the ground-floor reader which this book addresses itself to. Even though I am more intermediate than beginner, I still had to waste time working with external sources and getting frustrated, when really the book should be expected to clarify things immediately. If I were a complete beginner I would have gotten very frustrated with it.

For example, I found no answers in the text for these tricky phrases:

"en fait de déprime..."
"comme cela je resterais..."
"dès toute petite..."
"c'est bien cela"

...and so I simply wasted time in finding the answer elsewhere. In the worst cases I just had to guess based on context, which is unsatisfying with no teacher there to confirm your hunch.

There are scores and scores of books which are written entirely in the target language and are meant to be used in conjunction with a teacher in a classroom. For autodidacts there are no teachers to ask when things get confusing. I think Teach Yourself should bear this in mind. Until they change this, Assimil will always be this language learner's first port of call.

[John Campbell]

I actually got complimented for my French. By a French man! In France! Okay, so I practiced the same sentence over and over before I said it.

[Will]

I’m a big fan of the physical Teach Yourself books because of the nostalgia and the old yellow and blue style covers. My brother and I used to ride our bicycles to our local bookshop and endlessly look at the row of Teach Yourself books with longing. Eventually, he and I built up quite a collection of them. I still use them.
Gäelle Graham’s book was a hard slog for me. It’s quite detailed and covers every element of grammar that I’ve ever come across. I quite liked it and just for fun I’d go back and review some of the tricky bits. Her exercises I recall, were very difficult for me.

[Avesta]

I should declare that I'm already pretty fluent in French - just needed a refresher as whilst I can easily read and listen and understand everything, I just have very little confidence in the speaking element.

It's a pretty solid book for getting into the language and immerses you in basic to intermediate French and teaches you substantial information about the culture and niche/subtle things you'd only notice once you're actually in France/Paris.

My issues were that it's heavily oriented towards visitors of Paris - I myself have a love for Lyon (which is where I was hoping to pursue an intership last year) and it would've been nice to have some emphasis on the other regions.

The other big issue - and perhaps the most important one - is the lack of emphasis on speaking, lack of incentive to practice, and lack of information/tricks for mastering French and being able to speak properly. None of the characters in this book are actually speaking the common Metropolitan French you'll hear across France and there's no indication that this is the case.

Quand même, faut que j'me leve a six heures demain - mais chépa si la boulangerie sera ouverte. TKT.

[Gina]

So good. i needed help reviewing for French before the school year started and this was the perfect tool. Extremely clear and helpful exercises. Totally recommend for people who want to refreash their memories. I don't recommend this for people who are just starting French and don't speak it at all, though.