Customer Reviews

Contacts: Langue et culture françaises 8th edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are purchasing this for a class, I highly recommend that you purchase the package from the schools bookstore. I tried to purchase all of the "parts" on amazon and because the discriptions are sketchy I ended up spending more trying to get all that I needed for the class than I would have. For instance they split the CD that normally comes with the book seperatly, and they split the SAM CDs from the student manual. When the SAM CDs arrived they had been opened and were missing half the CD's (ordered from Amazon), although Amazon is fixing it with no fuss, the shipping time means that I will not have the CD's in time for class, and I have to HOPE the next ones they send are complete!

When combined with the accompanying "quia" book key, this book can be a powerful tool for french learners. The recorded pronunciation and automatically graded exercises are valuable to the solo learner. Unfortunately, the actual book's organization is poor. For example, the vocabulary appears haphazardly throughout. Occasionally words are used in reading passages which will not be defined until later chapters; in many cases, words are not defined at all. Cognates are relied upon heavily, and sometimes pictures are supplied in place verbal definitions, presumably based on the assumption that language students are visual learners. Additionally, the future tense and subjunctive are not introduced until the last fifty pages. More practice with these common constructions would be beneficial.

But more frustrating than any of the above is the book's poor presentation of grammar. For example, the explanations of words like "en" and "y" are weak. The authors are either attempting to avoid advanced terminology, or do not know how to describe complex grammar. If you can guess what is meant by "a pronoun with adverbial force," then you don't need the authors' ponderous, inaccurate explanations or the pages of example sentences they employ in order to avoid the short, precise phrasing above. These problems are not insurmountable, but after months of working with this book, I found the accumulated frustration to be distracting. I wish a better textbook could be paired with the powerful "quia" online tool.

As a beginning French student, this book helped me a great deal. There were numerous exercises, and it was laid out in such a simple manner. The only thing I didn't like was that it saved some more important lessons for later chapeters(for example, the words to show ownership weren't introduced until chapter 9), but other than that, it was a great book. I definitely learned alot, and it made me want to continue with my French lessons.

For beginning levels "Contacts" by Valette/Valette and "French in Action" are excellent books. The "Contacts" 8th edition text does an EXCELLENT JOB in explaining the RULES. They should as they charge enough for the book. I rather pay more for a book that makes what you need to know easily available or at least somewhat easily available.

Right now I am in an intermediate French class and our current book barely explains important concepts nor provides a list of new words. In order to do the assignments listed in the book, one has to spend a great deal of time just looking up new words, verb conjugations, book is skimpy on those too, and referring to old textbooks, thank goodness I saved my Contact textbook, in order to proceed with the assignment. The book we are using for the intermediate class gives very long long assignments and is the student is more frustrated than helped. I purchased the best dictionary for French/English and get a sore neck for spending so much time with the dictionary.

The Contact book does NOT do this to students. You can proceed with assignment because what you need in order to do the work is provided in every chapter.

Bravo Vallete's for giving students a great, interesting text! Shame on the company for charging an outrageous price.

the book was what i was looking for. however it did not have the CD's that i was expecting it to come with, since i spent the extra money to purchased it new.

I bought this used and when it came, some most of the pages were written with ink. That bothered me a little but the writing was small so it didn't matter that much. Aside from that the book was almost new.

This is just a book for beginners and doesn't offer anything more than other French books that are written for the same purpose.
If you have a choice of buying a cheaper book, go for that. The price does not necessarily mean that the book is better. However, it might mean that your instructor has got "some incentives" to ask you buy this specific book and not a less expensive one.

My only concern when I bought this book was to get the access code it provides to its first owner. But it turned out a great purchase, it was brand new and arrived quickly enough.

The book arrived on time and in great condition. I'm very pleased with my purchase.