This innovative film-based program is designed to motivate and inspire beginning French students. Based on the French film Le Chemin du retour, Débuts is a completely integrated program for the first -year French course. Le Chemin du retour is an engaging story about a young French journalist, Camille Leclair, and her pursuit of the truth about her grandfather’s past. Through Camille’s quest, students are introduced to many facets of today’s French and Francophone cultures as well as to important historical events in France. They learn language in the functional context provided by the film, and concepts are reinforced by the on-screen activities that help students verify their comprehension. The two-hour feature-length film is divided into twenty-two episodes and an Epilogue, and each episode includes on-screen pre- and post-viewing activities that make the film accessible to students. Episodes are approximately fifteen minutes in length and correspond to the chapters in the textbook. Over eight hours of viewing bring the richness of French language and culture to beginning students, while at the same time exposing them to clear and natural French that they can understand.
Each chapter of Débuts, the textbook, is correlated to an episode of the film. The textbook prepares students for the film-viewing experience through the chapter vocabulary presentations and activities and through additional pre-and post-viewing activities. The vocabulary and grammar presentations and activities recycle and expand on the dialogue and structures presented in the film. Pair and small-group activities enable students to talk about the characters in the story and their own lives. The cultural content of the film is further explored in cultural notes and readings in each chapter.
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