Intrigue: langue, culture et mystère dans le monde francophone (3e)

Intrigue is a comprehensive and flexible intermediate-level French 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. This innovative mystery-story textbook arouses student curiosity and encourages students to participate actively in understanding the story and related authentic documents, to discuss the content of chapter readings, to write about their opinions and reactions, and even to complete grammar review activities–all of which advance the plot and offer clues to solving the mystery. 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 into learning about the cultures of the French-speaking world.

• Updated storyline
  • The timeline for the main events in the story has been updated so that the events take place in 2010, keeping the story fresh and making it more relevant to the current generation of college students.

• Updated cultural content
  • The cultural content of the text has also been updated. References to recent events in the Francophone world, such as the Haitian earthquake, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the youth riots and elections in France have been included.

• New Literary Texts
  • Some of the literary excerpts have been replaced with texts that better meet the cultural and communicative goals of the chapters. Look for new texts by Dany Laferrière (Ch. 2), Paul Verlaine (Ch. 5), Benjamin Constant (Ch. 8), and Philippe Aubert de Gaspé (Ch. 10). Literary excerpts and pre-reading/post-reading activities for Proust (À la recherche du temps perdu), Molière (L'Avare), and de Staël (Corinne ou l'Italie) are still available for classroom use and can be found in MyFrenchLab.

• Updated “Pour aller plus loin” Activities
  • There are new "Pour aller plus loin" activities, including the additional literary excerpts mentioned above, and others, such as an excerpt from Le Petit prince. In addition, new cultural activities related to recent events in the Francophone world have been added and links have been updated.

• Addition of MyFrenchLab for Intrigue
  • Instructors may now opt to use MyFrenchLab, an online version of the Student Activities Manual that fully integrates audio and video into the e-text. MyFrenchLab will also host all of the content-based “Pour aller plus loin” and “Pour agir” expansion activities.

• Full-color design
  • This new design creates an appealing page layout with more photos, allowing students more visual support for learning.

• Intrigue is designed to meet the “five C’s” of the standards for foreign language learning
• Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities.

• Vocabulary-building activities in the first episode of each chapter encourage students to draw on their knowledge of basic vocabulary, expand upon it, and add new vocabulary
  • Includes regional variations, terms for literary analysis, and an introduction to business French. 

• Process-writing activities in each chapter guide students through the writing process.
  • The “À l’écrit” activities successively target vocabulary development, practical language, and writing connected paragraphs. These first three activities in the three “Épisodes” of each chapter lead to a more formal essay or letter-writing assignment in the “Dénouement” final section of each chapter.  

• Original readings that expose the plot of the mystery story are accompanied by realia and other authentic texts such as songs, poems, or literary excerpts.
  • Readings become progressively more complex in each subsequent chapter and include examples of the grammatical structures or language functions learned in the chapter. Pre-reading and post-reading activities assist students in developing strategies for understanding meaning from context. 

• Grammar review and language function activities are designed to address the needs of students with varying levels of language preparation and diverse learning styles.
  • Grammar explanations in English ensure that students will have a clear understanding of the structures, but students are also exposed to grammatical terminology in French to facilitate in-class discussions of grammar in the target language. 

• Students are drawn into the vibrancy and diversity of cultures in the French-speaking world through the characters presented in the context of the mystery story.
  • “Information” boxes offer historical and cultural background information about Francophone cultures or useful tips about French language usage. 

• The “Points de vue” video to accompany Intrigue offers interviews with French speakers from each of the textbook’s ten target cultures.
  • Interview questions are related to each chapter’s vocabulary and grammar structures, as well as to the cultural theme. A wealth of related activities are found in the Student Activities Manual or fully integrated into MyFrenchLab.

• Companion Website for Intrigue: langue, culture et mystére dans le monde francophone
  http://www.pearsonhighered.com/intrigue