Great information, not so great layout

books:


	• La Grammaire a l'oeuvre: Media Edition (with Quia) John Barson Heinle, 2003 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Review of La Grammaire a l'oeuvre

La Grammaire is by far the best French textbook that I have ever used in my studies. It is not for the beginner or for the early intermediate student. But if you are an advanced intermediate or later student, this may almost become a bible for your studies. I am in my seventh year of adult studies assisted my a native French teacher. La Grammaire has examples after examples of grammer to help you understand key points. The book is split into 12 chapters, such as pronouns, negation, the subjunctive, etc. The exercises at the end of each chapter are split first into two groups. There are questions or exercises followed by their answers. Next are sets of exercises that will require a teacher to correct. Note that the book is intense. There is little excess white space. There are no pictures. It is all business! It has advanced my understanding of French over the past year that I have studied from it. My native Frech teacher has even noted that she has learned grammer points from the book that she didn't know before. She teaches many American students, both as a tutor and as a teacher at a major US university. She considers it an excellent teaching resource. I am often excited at the end of my weekly class as I learn from this book. If you are really into learning French, and have some years of study behind you, this could be a great study resource for you.

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I really like this book

As a serious French grammar book, this is nice, concise, and mostly all in French. There is very little English except where it is absolutely needed.

Everything is explained clearly and with one or more with example sentences. The samples are easy to follow and understand. Each chapter covers a important area of grammar, presents the principles involved, goes over construtions and then presents a few verbs and ends up with some interactive excercises.

We're using it as a text book in a Alliance Française class.

I like it because it has helped me understand hard parts of the grammar which other books tend to gloss over, or don't explain as fully.

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Excellent book for review

I used this book for my Intermediate French class in college after taking four years of French in high school. The book is entirely in French, forcing you to think in the language you are trying to learn. Also, it presents the material in a very organized manner, providing information about each grammar concepts along with common exceptions to the rules. The book would be difficult to use to learn the language for the first time, but for someone who has had some exposure to French grammar, it serves to reinforce and review grammar concepts.

The newest edition of this book comes with the Quia online activities, which I have found to be absolutely useless and are the only reason I did not give this book 5 stars.

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Great information, not so great layout

I'm not currently taking a class, so I purchased this book in an earlier edition to study grammar on my own. I like the way subjects are arranged in the book, and the examples provided are long enough to give good context.

My main complaint is visual- the book is organized into two columns with text packed in and items in tables are centered rather than left justified. I found this made it a little difficult to look at, and would definitely be problematic for visual learners. I guess I miss the good ol' days of high school French where there was plenty of free space on the page and colorful cartoons that we always mocked for being corny.

Overall, I still find the text very useful, and can see myself using it as a reference once I'm done going through it.

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This classic review of French grammar is written all in French, from the point of view of English-speaking learners and now includes access to QUIA online activities.